28 Aug from Ndola
Hey, friends! It's Friday night, and trying to catch up a bit on the Blog.
This week here has been really a roller-coaster for me. Alot of really good things have happened, and some tough ones.
First, the good stuff:
<> well, the Zambian gov't officials renewed my Visa for another 30 days. Took 3 trips to the office, but pretty smooth otherwise.
<> A great deal of head-way has been made in the launching of the HIV/AIDS education and prevention initiative. The hygiene-sanitation team and I are looking hard at the 'what to build and then take out' curriculum, lessons, handouts, visual aids... gathering alot of what is 'already been developed' (which has been no small task) for Zambia or similar settings. We have a big pow-wow working meeting this coming Monday (the crew said they love my meetings, because we start out with tea and buscuits... but they let me know that this meeting, the milk MUST be warmed for the tea: cold milk for tea makes for a bad cup...)
<>Monday, I had a great meeting with the Dean of the private Nursing School here in Ndola, the Copperbelt Nursing Polytechnic. They have 100 registered nurse students, and just had their first class write the national exams (did well!). The Dean is a very wonderful women of faith, and belongs to many of the Christian nursing groups I am a part of. We talked 'nursing shop' for awhile, especially related to student nurses and their development. I felt my visit was quite an encouragement to her. My heart is deeply moved to be an advocate of this school into the future. I've been invited to 'guest lecture' at the school in the future, and I will be visiting again B4 I leave Zambia in a few weeks.
<>Wednesday, I spent the better part of the day at the 'Arthur Davidson Childrens Hospital' in Ndola. It is one of two such hospitals in Zambia, focusing on children. Initially, it was supposed to be a short meeting with a coordinator of the HIV/AIDS programs for infants and children here. Well... after I was asked to meet with the 'head sister' (also called the Matron of the hospital), she and I became fast friends. She just finished her Masters in Nursing in Zambia, and is beginning some vital work in maternal-child health, also for a PhD... and I was asked to play a role in her area of study, since it will be part of the HIV/AIDS work being set up. Then, the room filled with some major nurse-leaders of child health in Ndola, including the Chief Nurse for the HIV/AIDS family clinic, the Dean of the Ndola School of Nursing, and a nurse from UNICEF. We were instantly friends, and began talking 'nursing'... and was that stellar! You see, Nursing is my Tribe, and everyone in the room were all deeply committed to our Lord, our patients/clients, our up-and-coming students and our Profession. For me, it was a Holy Moment to exchange and share with such committed and passionate leaders of child health here in Ndola! Needless to say, email addresses were exchanged, and it looks like "I'm in" as a prt of this wonderful community for some time to come... I was also able to share at length with the Matron, and once again share great encouragement to a weary colleague.
<>Well, that fellowship led to an unprecidented tour of the entire hospital, even rounding on some patients there. I saw the Children's Hospital like few people would ever see it. May I say that, with such strapped resources and few bits of equipment, my healthcare colleagues are doing a super-human (well, since the Presence of God was so evident there to me, a super-natural ) work of compassion and care!
So now the hard part...
<>What I saw in the hospital are children in the most heart-breaking health conditions I have ever seen. Words cannot express the sheer number of malnourished, bodies-broken conditions. I prayed furiously as we went from ward to ward. I did not take my camera out of my sachel, because I did not want to seem like some kind of photo-journalist voyeur. Rather, touching them and praying for them and talking to their mothers was the order of the day, and Jesus was in the Hospital!
<>Once again, the sheer heroism of the nurses and care staff in that setting is something I will never forget.
<>In the Family clinic (out-patient), as my new friend was showing me the clinic, she was taken aside by a woman who was obviously 8-10 weeks pregnant. The woman remembered my nurse-friend as her caregiver last week, and wanted her to tell her what the paper said about her HIV test. So my friend, the woman and her 4-year old son and I went into a private counseling room, and she found out she is HIV positive. The stoic look on her face told me this is no surprise. My friend began to tell her about the next step, and the 'Prevent Mother-To-Child-Transmission' treatments she would need to begin, to reduce the chance of HIV transmission to her baby-in-the-womb. As for my part, this was a first in Zambia (informing a client of HIV positivity), and it hit me like a brick. This is part of the trian wreck God is sending me into. This is human pain at the most fundamental level. The words of Bishop Desmond Tutu stood out to me right there, "These are the faces of children and families living in a world of HIV AIDS... we are one world, and these children are our children... let us wage this holy war together, and for the sake of our children, we will win." Amen!
<>This week, I got hit with a gastro-intestinal 'bug'... travelers "D" is pretty famous here for hitting people like a truck on the Interstate... I was only down for a day, and I thank God for Cipro and Oral Rehydration salts... as of this writing, I am on the mend.
OK, that's been the week. Spare time in the evenings has been working out a 'Ndoal HIV Resource Guide' from our survey, surfing the Internet for resources, and pulling together the Grant proposal for the HIV program.
Prayer requests:
<>for the nurses and doctors caring for the children of the Ndola hospital, and for the children there... and their moms...
<>for clarity and guidance in the next bit for the HIV/AIDS programs for the Seeds of Hope work here
<>for God to continue to build positive relationships with the nursing structures here
<>for physical healing of the 'GI bug', and protection from re-lapse, and continued grace to keep up on the 'malaria prevention' stuff that is so time-consuming...
A side note: so many of you have been praying for Halleigh, the 4-yr old daughter of the leadership family here... well, her malaria seems to be cleared up (her blood test was negative today for parasites), and she is improving... God is good!
As noted above, there really were not any pictures from this past week... stay tuned for next week!
your brother
Chris
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