My Guinea West African Trip and More!

On April 18th I flew to Libreville then on April 22 I flew to Conakry, Guinea via ASKY Airlines. I was met by Arnie Solvig who drove me to their home. Cheryl had dinner waiting. Saturday I spent with Arnie, Cheryl, Stephanie and Katie. Nicole was away at boarding school in Senegal. The Solvigs had spent `3=`4 years in Gabon and Katie and I have a special bond. I was the "Midwife" when she was born.

 Sunday was Easter and we attended an 8 am Easter service on the tennis court on their mission compound. There must have been 40+ people present. After the service we had a potluck breakfast together before some of us headed off  on a 4-5 hour van ride to the town of Mamou.

April 25-30 Cheryl and I attended a SYIS Workshop in Mamou, Guinea. SYIS stands for "Sharpening your Interpersonal Skills". It was excellent!

This past Monday I flew back to the equator. Went from Conakry to Abidjan to Accra to Lome and changed planes. Then flew from Lome to Lagos and then my final flight to Libreville. I had no problems with flights and was glad to get to Libreville even earlier than my e-ticket said I would.

Tuesday I worked on budget items for the hospital. Also rested up from my 12 hours of flights on Monday.

Wednesday I had a 12 hour bus/car ride down to where I work at a hospital. I carefully reserved place on an air conditioned bus BUT.... the air conditioning was never turned on and everyone had their windows down. It was a bus with a high top and high windows and I was sitting where I got the morning East sun. I got a blue top out of my carry on so I could protect myself from sun burn as we rode along. Here is me riding along on the bus, listing to a podcast.



Thursday afternoon my neighbor and I hopped in my car to go grocery shopping in town, a couple of miles from here. We had not even gotten to the stores yet when my car made aloud noise and then the CLUTCH went out!. I called a colleague who came over with his car and towed us back home. A National car repairman followed us and worked on my car that afternoon for a couple of hours. He returned yesterday and worked on the car for about four hours. I was glad that he was able to fix the clutch so the car is back up and running, I hope permanently. At least I know which piece to buy if it breaks down again.

Yesterday morning I also had Dan Lewan and Olivier install my new stove. Unfortunately the top works but electric system will not spark the oven to start.  Our American maintenance man, Paul Davis, is on vacation and will not be back for about ten days so it looks like I either not be using my oven or I'll need to use the neighbor's oven. Then I hope that it can be repaired.



Today's Positives:
1. I had such a nice trip to Guinea, with no complications in my travels.
2. It so nice seeing and being with the Solvig family again.
3. The SYIS Workshop was very good and taught many Interpersonal Skills.
4. My car got fixed without buying any parts.
5. My stove got installed and works at least partially.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Resistance!

I'm in the capital city Libreville and some of us went out to eat supper. I had a very good chicken fahita pita sandwich and bottled water. Next to the cash register there was a long counter of pastries.

What I resisted:



Then on the way home we stopped and some of us bought (deluxe) Magnum Ice cream bars.

What I did NOT resist:



Nuf said!

Today's Positives:

1. I bought a new stove this morning. My other one had a gas leak and then had the thermostat fried with a lightening strike.
2. I wrote a news letter today.
3. I'm in Libreville and got to go out to eat supper this evening.

Have a great day!

Queen Esther!

Yesterday was a good day. I worked at the hospital this morning, visiting the students on their wards and then working on Hospital bookkeeping. In the afternoon I and my Midwifery students attended a lecture by a visiting doctor.

Last evening I attended our weekly women's Bible Study. We are using a Beth Moore Bible study on Queen Esther in the Old Testament. Here is a photo that we took at one of our Monday studies.


After Bible Study last evening I walked a mile with a Leslie Sansone DVD.

Yesterday's Positives:
1. Our rain did not have too much lightening!
2. I used a Walking DVD!
3. I heard that my Visa for the country of Guinea was obtained. I will be traveling to Guinea Conakry next week so that I can attend a seminar. I'm glad that I now have my visa.

Thanks to all to follow my blog. I sure appreciate you.

Update!

March 24, 2011 UPDATE from Carolyn!

March 24, 2011

Thanks for your prayers for the Bongolo Hospital Nursing School. This past quarter I taught the Pharmacology course. The students just finished their second full quarter of classes and I am happy to report that all eleven students passed and will be admitted into the third quarter of classes. They are now on a one week vacation before classes resume again on Monday, March 28th. I will not be teaching a class to students nurses during the third quarter.

I had been teaching two new Nurses (Annushka and Martine) a one year course in Midwifery but this third quarter of classes we now have an additional student, Dina. Dina's husband was just transferred to the Bongolo Hospital Surgery Residency program from one that closed down in the Cameroon. Dina was already a nurse with experience in Maternity but she had had no additional classes in Midwifery. Annushka, Martine and Dina are doing well with their classes. They will finish third trimester theory on April 14th except for a term paper "care study" that will be due before the end of May. I will teach Dina the first two quarters of material this summer. Pray that the three nurses get good learning experiences in during their clinical work.

A month ago I became the Bongolo Hospital Bookkeeper again, after a break of two years. Until this week I did not have time to actually work in that office but my African helper, Christine, and I have worked every day this week and it's going smoothly.

I continue to attend church at Nzoundou Chapel, the next small village out the back road from Lebamba where the Bongolo Hospital is located. From our high of 94 people who attended for the Christmas service with following meal, the chapel is back down to having about 40+ each Sunday morning. An African couple, Felix and Adele, go with me each Sunday. Between Felix, Adele and the village nurse, Parfait, we four take turns giving the Sunday message.

Thanks for your prayers.

Blessings,
Carolyn

Visiting Hope House!

I drove up to Libreville on Friday to do some bookkeeping this next week.  There is an Alliance Orphanage here called Hope House. Most of my colleagues have visited there but yesterday was my first visit. The 30 kids live in this temporary home, awaiting construction of their new home.



I went with others. Upon arrival, some of the kids were finishing their spaghetti lunch. We got lots of hugs as the kids were so excited to see us.



I did not get to meet their "house parents" as they were out for the day but I did get to meet a young man who lives in the house and helps out with the kids.

A few of the kids tried to teach me a game with my hands, I'll call it "patty cake" but I had really no ideas who's hand to "slap" and when. I guess I won the game though because they told me so!



I gave an impromptu English class to about a half dozen kids, mostly teens.

We were at the orphanage about two hours. It was fun.These kids are getting a solid Christian upbringing.
I'm glad I got to go and I would go back if given the chance.

33+ Years without DRINKABLE TAP WATER!

For over 33 years I have lived in Africa and worked as a nurse at Bongolo Hospital. The water that comes into our houses and into the hospital wards has been pumped directly from the Louetsi river into a reservoir and then it has come into our houses by gravity.

At first I had a BUCKET FILTER SYSTEM. With a bucket of tap water (from the river) on the top.... and a filter in that bucket. The water would enter the filter and then go by plastic tube down to a lower bucket that received the filtered water. I would drink the water in the bottom bucket.

In recent years I have had an inline filter connected directly to the tap so that I could drink water that came through that filter. I fill up bottles so that I already have filtered water when I need it.

In the past ten days a team of four men have been on our hospital compound to install a PROFESSIONAL FILTERING SYSTEM that has started to filter all of the water that comes out of our taps! It also chlorinates the water.



This afternoon some of us had a tour of the facilities, so we could be convinced that the water was potable, pure. After all, I have been filtering my water for over 33 years! That means that I haven't even brushed my teeth using the tap water. Some of us needed to be convinced!  Here are some photos from the tour.


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After a few weeks of this purified water going through our old pipes to clean them out, the chlorine level coming out of the taps in our homes will be checked to make sure that they have the correct amount of chlorination. At that point our water will be DRINKABLE!
______________________

Today's Positives:
1. We will soon be able to drink the water coming out of our home taps without first filtering it!
2. The patients at the hospital will now have drinkable water instead of having to buy it from other sources.
3. The water is not only pure, it is clear. The water in our house has had so much dirty sediment that sometimes washing our clothes changed them to a dingy color instead of whitening them!

Now..... if I only liked to DRINK WATER!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!