Friday, May 27, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Babies and more babies
Once again, a busy week has past at Kalene. The hospital is suffering for a shortage of both Zambian staff and missionaries as many are away on meetings, language training or furlough. This has meant that we've done some shuffling around the hospital. I spent Saturday helpng out on the Paediatric ward...it was utter chaos. There are nearly 50 admitted children and there was only one nurse scheduled. Thankfully, the parents are expected to take care of the cleaning, toileting and feeding, however, doing observations or medications and a nursing round on 50 patients takes hours! It didn't help that the day began with a mama rushing in with an unconscious toddler in arms. The little girl, Annie, had begun to seize an hour before and was still in status epilepticus (constant seizures) when they arrived. Her blood sugar was 1.3 (norm is 4-6) and even with glucose and anti-epilepsy infusions she did not wake up, though her seizures less frequent. She is negative for malaria (which can often go cerebral) so we're still working on a diagnosis. It could just be that this is her first presentation of epilepsy. Please pray for her and the healthcare team involved!
Well, enough about medicine. Lots has been happening around the mission, too. A few new arrivals have meant that there are more people to drag up Kalene Hill with me (I got lost again on the way down, and ended up in one of the maternity staff's backyards! oops) With so many short-term workers and visitors, 2 couples and 6 singles, we've started Bible studies on Friday evenings and pizza/movie nights on Saturdays. Its been great to have a place to unwind and hang out, outside of the OR!
I'm still struggling with the length of time I am to stay here, please pray that I will get direction of whether to stay until August as originally planned, or to stay to cover other missionaries' furloughs.
I only know that Psalm 16:11 says" You make known to me the path of life and in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore" I am trusting the Lord to guide me in the decision, but please pray!
Well, it's 6 days now until I fly out for my Safari, will have to post photos of the trip once I get back!
Thanks for reading and Thanks for praying! Keep in touch, R
Well, enough about medicine. Lots has been happening around the mission, too. A few new arrivals have meant that there are more people to drag up Kalene Hill with me (I got lost again on the way down, and ended up in one of the maternity staff's backyards! oops) With so many short-term workers and visitors, 2 couples and 6 singles, we've started Bible studies on Friday evenings and pizza/movie nights on Saturdays. Its been great to have a place to unwind and hang out, outside of the OR!
I'm still struggling with the length of time I am to stay here, please pray that I will get direction of whether to stay until August as originally planned, or to stay to cover other missionaries' furloughs.
I only know that Psalm 16:11 says" You make known to me the path of life and in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore" I am trusting the Lord to guide me in the decision, but please pray!
Well, it's 6 days now until I fly out for my Safari, will have to post photos of the trip once I get back!
Thanks for reading and Thanks for praying! Keep in touch, R
Saturday, April 30, 2011
DKA
This week has past in a blur of chaos. The first year nursing students arrived on the wards on Tuesday. Although this is there second hospital placement, they are still only allowed to do day rotations on Men's and Women's ward, instead of spreading throughout the wards including Peds, Outpatients and Maternity. Although this makes sense, considering they have not covered the speciality areas in theory, it causes quite the congestion on the wards. We have 30-35 patients, 3 staff + 2 missionary RNs and 6 students. This ratio may not be strange in the hospitals back home, but considering the size of the nursing office and the limited resources, we're having trouble not tripping over ourselves.
Amid the staff chaos, we have had to deal with some difficult medical conditions. On Wednesday, the transfer vehicle from the outpost clinic dropped off a lady. She was unresponsive on the trolley as they ran past my office to Women's ward. I chased them into the room and grabbed the transfer letter. The words "diabetic with no insulin" jump off the page. The patient is a young mother, whose previous admissions have been complicated by seriously unstable diabetes. I tell the staff member in the office to get the doctor and the RN who are in the ward...the patient had died prior to arriving at the hospital. Our blood sugar machine was "HI", which means a recording higher than 33!
The news was given to the young husband and the patient's mother. The reaction was not what I expected. The mother started to wail and scream. She began to flail and colapsed to the ground. Thankfully, I was able to grab the 3 month old baby off her back just before she landed on him.
I stood in the middle of the large crowd that gathered, holding a baby whose mother just died, whose father was running away screaming and whose grandmother was sprawled out on the ground screaming.
In utter shock, I realized that we'd have a baby to take care off again. So for the next 48h baby Stanley was shuffled around the maternity unit until I took pity on the only nurse there and took him home for the afternoon.
Its hard to wrap your head around a death of this nature. At home, her high blood sugar levels would have been better controled through accurate monitoring with home glucoscans and sliding scales of insulin. But here, in resource poor Africa, the clinics don't even have glucoscans let alone the individual patient as the sticks required for blood sampling are so expensive. There is also a shortage of insulin and no one has fridges in the village to store it, anyway. The only reason Kalene Hospital has supplies is that the people from the home countries of the missionaries donate it.
It was a rough one to absorb, but thankfully, baby Stanley is doing okay, aside from having a slight cold which he's now passed on to me!
The week was not all bad, however. There are quite a few Brits here at the moment and we were able to organize a "Tea and Scones" party (complete with clotted cream). Gathered around the only satelite TV in the area, we watched the Royal Wedding!
Only 15 days until Amy and Julianne arrive...I'm looking forward to a short time away from the mission to catch up on sleep and news from home!
Amid the staff chaos, we have had to deal with some difficult medical conditions. On Wednesday, the transfer vehicle from the outpost clinic dropped off a lady. She was unresponsive on the trolley as they ran past my office to Women's ward. I chased them into the room and grabbed the transfer letter. The words "diabetic with no insulin" jump off the page. The patient is a young mother, whose previous admissions have been complicated by seriously unstable diabetes. I tell the staff member in the office to get the doctor and the RN who are in the ward...the patient had died prior to arriving at the hospital. Our blood sugar machine was "HI", which means a recording higher than 33!
The news was given to the young husband and the patient's mother. The reaction was not what I expected. The mother started to wail and scream. She began to flail and colapsed to the ground. Thankfully, I was able to grab the 3 month old baby off her back just before she landed on him.
I stood in the middle of the large crowd that gathered, holding a baby whose mother just died, whose father was running away screaming and whose grandmother was sprawled out on the ground screaming.
In utter shock, I realized that we'd have a baby to take care off again. So for the next 48h baby Stanley was shuffled around the maternity unit until I took pity on the only nurse there and took him home for the afternoon.
Its hard to wrap your head around a death of this nature. At home, her high blood sugar levels would have been better controled through accurate monitoring with home glucoscans and sliding scales of insulin. But here, in resource poor Africa, the clinics don't even have glucoscans let alone the individual patient as the sticks required for blood sampling are so expensive. There is also a shortage of insulin and no one has fridges in the village to store it, anyway. The only reason Kalene Hospital has supplies is that the people from the home countries of the missionaries donate it.
It was a rough one to absorb, but thankfully, baby Stanley is doing okay, aside from having a slight cold which he's now passed on to me!
The week was not all bad, however. There are quite a few Brits here at the moment and we were able to organize a "Tea and Scones" party (complete with clotted cream). Gathered around the only satelite TV in the area, we watched the Royal Wedding!
Only 15 days until Amy and Julianne arrive...I'm looking forward to a short time away from the mission to catch up on sleep and news from home!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Orthopedics, the carpentry of medicine!
It has been a busy couple of weeks at Kalene as an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Gill, arrived (we now have 7 doctors!) and with him came an onslought of patients with various fractures and osteomyelitis. At the same time, we had a 48 hour blitz from an ortho team in Lusaka that flew in to deal with the obscure ortho cases. This team, headed up by Prof. Jellis, visits Kalene several times a year. Each visit last less than 48 hours and involves a clinic on the first day, weeding through all of the referals of ortho patients that we've saved for him over the past few months, seeing who is appropriate for surgery. The second day was spent in the OR, going though an intense list of patients with operations from setting fractures, grafting old compound fractures and even correcting a fused ankle from septic arthritis! Needless to say, the wards are busy too, as these patients need to be prep-ed for the OR, then monitored as they return to ward, semi-conscious on Ketamine anasthetic.
Along side the ortho patients are 5 babies with measles....in 4 beds. We have very few semi-private rooms (6 in total, only 2 on Men's ward). This has created a problem, as the first case of the the recent outbreak of measles was on the pediatric mal-nutrition ward. As you can imagine, these babies and toddlers have very little reserve and are therefore quite sick with measles. We've been isolating them as fast as we can once the symptoms appear, but seeing as the incubation period for the virus is 2 weeks...we're looking ahead to an outbreak every 2 weeks for a while. Thankfully, I have been vaccinated against measles, because one day last week, I walked into the isolation room to see a 1 year old baby, completely naked sitting by himself on the bed bawling his little eyes out. I turned to the man in the room, and he indicated that it wasn't his child and was he absolutely unprepared to care for him as he was watching the other child in the room. The baby's name is Gift. I sat down beside Gift and when he didn't cry any harder, I picked him up in my arms. The poor baby was freezing! All he needed was a blanket and a cuddle! He went right to sleep. It's amazing how easy some nursing is and how much suffering can be cured by a simple hug!
While all of this is going on on Men's Ward...chaos ensues elsewhere in the hospital. Last Monday, I was walking by Women's ward an noticed a commotion. Commotions tend to happen during visiting hours, so I didn't think much of it as I went to investigate. In the bed, lay a 14 year old girl in a full-blown seizure. This was the first seizure I'd ever seen. Emma was already there, so I ran to get the doctors and the diazepam. At this point, we believe that the diagnosis is neurosyphilis. The girl seized for nearly half an hour, even with diazepam and phenylbarital infusion. She de-saturated and basically stoped breathing on her own. As we are fairly ill-equiped when it comes to ventilatiors and ICU...we manually ventilated her for 6 hours. My shift went from 1800h-1900h....it was uneventful, until she seized again, 45 minutes into my shift, at the same time as an unconscious, hemorraging admission arrived an needed to be taken directly to the OR. It made for a crazy evening with doctors, nurses and monitoring equipment flying in all directions, but there's nothing like an emergency to pull everyone together.
I'm looking forward to a busy month ahead. Becs comes back to run Men's ward at the end of April and I am leaving then for Lunda lessons for a week or two, after which I head to Lusaka for the Safari and then the dreaded Zambian RN exam...
Well, it's a short note, but I'll try to write more later!
Along side the ortho patients are 5 babies with measles....in 4 beds. We have very few semi-private rooms (6 in total, only 2 on Men's ward). This has created a problem, as the first case of the the recent outbreak of measles was on the pediatric mal-nutrition ward. As you can imagine, these babies and toddlers have very little reserve and are therefore quite sick with measles. We've been isolating them as fast as we can once the symptoms appear, but seeing as the incubation period for the virus is 2 weeks...we're looking ahead to an outbreak every 2 weeks for a while. Thankfully, I have been vaccinated against measles, because one day last week, I walked into the isolation room to see a 1 year old baby, completely naked sitting by himself on the bed bawling his little eyes out. I turned to the man in the room, and he indicated that it wasn't his child and was he absolutely unprepared to care for him as he was watching the other child in the room. The baby's name is Gift. I sat down beside Gift and when he didn't cry any harder, I picked him up in my arms. The poor baby was freezing! All he needed was a blanket and a cuddle! He went right to sleep. It's amazing how easy some nursing is and how much suffering can be cured by a simple hug!
While all of this is going on on Men's Ward...chaos ensues elsewhere in the hospital. Last Monday, I was walking by Women's ward an noticed a commotion. Commotions tend to happen during visiting hours, so I didn't think much of it as I went to investigate. In the bed, lay a 14 year old girl in a full-blown seizure. This was the first seizure I'd ever seen. Emma was already there, so I ran to get the doctors and the diazepam. At this point, we believe that the diagnosis is neurosyphilis. The girl seized for nearly half an hour, even with diazepam and phenylbarital infusion. She de-saturated and basically stoped breathing on her own. As we are fairly ill-equiped when it comes to ventilatiors and ICU...we manually ventilated her for 6 hours. My shift went from 1800h-1900h....it was uneventful, until she seized again, 45 minutes into my shift, at the same time as an unconscious, hemorraging admission arrived an needed to be taken directly to the OR. It made for a crazy evening with doctors, nurses and monitoring equipment flying in all directions, but there's nothing like an emergency to pull everyone together.
I'm looking forward to a busy month ahead. Becs comes back to run Men's ward at the end of April and I am leaving then for Lunda lessons for a week or two, after which I head to Lusaka for the Safari and then the dreaded Zambian RN exam...
Well, it's a short note, but I'll try to write more later!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
A little bit of Lunda and whole bunch of French!
I see that it has been way to long since I updated my blog. It has been a very busy time since the last post! I'm currently the only RN working on Men's Ward and so have been working hard, attempting to make clinical judgement calls that remain within my scope of practice while acknowledging that doctors are tied up in surgery and will not be into assess new admissions for several hours.
This week we have had a few very acute admissions including a motorcycle accident with suspected head injuries (he turned out to be alright). On Thursday, a young boy walked into the office with a large cloth drapped over his head. His brother handed me his ticket (chart) and before I could read much of the notes the boy, Paul, removed the material and an odour overpowered the office. Paul has third degree burns covering his half face, scalp and left shoulder. I could tell that the wounds had started to heal and that a significant infection had already set it. I motioned to the boy to sit up on the examination table and looked round for someone to translate for me....of course no one was around. I saw that their address was a village in Congo (DRC), so taking a huge chance, I greeted the brother in French...amazingly he is fluent!
As it turns out, Paul is a non-verbal epileptic who fell into a cooking fire 7 days ago during a seizure. He and his family then walked 2 days to Kalene Hospital as there are basically no hospitals in DRC.
Although, Paul has a huge road ahead involving 5 or 6 debridement operations followed by multiple skin grafts, its nice to know that I can communicate with the family fairly freely as they will probably be here for 4-6 months.
For the last few months there have been a few young boys in traction on our ward because of femur fractures. They have been so fun to have around, especially as they begin to walk. Grivan, 9, took longer than expected to walk after the traction was stopped because of numbness in the instep on his foot. He gingerly took step after step toward me, until one day he decided to do my morning round at my side! He is such a trooper and over a game of checkers, he gave me Lunda lessons! He would giggle the entire time at my accent, but at least he wasn't too critical! He went home on Saturday...so I'll have to look for another patient to teach me.
Two of our head nurses on away on holiday and sick leave, so there hasn't been enough RNs around to do night on-call rotation, but God is good! For possibly the first time in Kalene history, we have 6 doctors! This has allowed for a doctor on-call system to be implemented as well as a specific doctor responsible for each ward. I'm so grateful that I've had brains to pick over the last few weeks as I familiarize myself with treatment protocols for tropical medicine...as long as I figure this out in time for the RN exam!
I found out this week that I will be writing the exam on June 2 in Lusaka. This is such an answer to prayer! Both I and Emma need to write this in order to practice for 6 months on more in Zambia. The timing looked like it was going to be an issue as Emma needs to go to the UK in mid June and I am going on a safari at the end of May. The timing could not be more perfect, allowing for the least amount of flights and expense as I can just stay in Lusaka for a week.
I'm really looking forward to a visit from 2 great friends from Canada to go on the Safari ...the next couple of weeks will be filled with planning...and maybe some studying!
Well, that's about it,
Rachel
This week we have had a few very acute admissions including a motorcycle accident with suspected head injuries (he turned out to be alright). On Thursday, a young boy walked into the office with a large cloth drapped over his head. His brother handed me his ticket (chart) and before I could read much of the notes the boy, Paul, removed the material and an odour overpowered the office. Paul has third degree burns covering his half face, scalp and left shoulder. I could tell that the wounds had started to heal and that a significant infection had already set it. I motioned to the boy to sit up on the examination table and looked round for someone to translate for me....of course no one was around. I saw that their address was a village in Congo (DRC), so taking a huge chance, I greeted the brother in French...amazingly he is fluent!
As it turns out, Paul is a non-verbal epileptic who fell into a cooking fire 7 days ago during a seizure. He and his family then walked 2 days to Kalene Hospital as there are basically no hospitals in DRC.
Although, Paul has a huge road ahead involving 5 or 6 debridement operations followed by multiple skin grafts, its nice to know that I can communicate with the family fairly freely as they will probably be here for 4-6 months.
For the last few months there have been a few young boys in traction on our ward because of femur fractures. They have been so fun to have around, especially as they begin to walk. Grivan, 9, took longer than expected to walk after the traction was stopped because of numbness in the instep on his foot. He gingerly took step after step toward me, until one day he decided to do my morning round at my side! He is such a trooper and over a game of checkers, he gave me Lunda lessons! He would giggle the entire time at my accent, but at least he wasn't too critical! He went home on Saturday...so I'll have to look for another patient to teach me.
Two of our head nurses on away on holiday and sick leave, so there hasn't been enough RNs around to do night on-call rotation, but God is good! For possibly the first time in Kalene history, we have 6 doctors! This has allowed for a doctor on-call system to be implemented as well as a specific doctor responsible for each ward. I'm so grateful that I've had brains to pick over the last few weeks as I familiarize myself with treatment protocols for tropical medicine...as long as I figure this out in time for the RN exam!
I found out this week that I will be writing the exam on June 2 in Lusaka. This is such an answer to prayer! Both I and Emma need to write this in order to practice for 6 months on more in Zambia. The timing looked like it was going to be an issue as Emma needs to go to the UK in mid June and I am going on a safari at the end of May. The timing could not be more perfect, allowing for the least amount of flights and expense as I can just stay in Lusaka for a week.
I'm really looking forward to a visit from 2 great friends from Canada to go on the Safari ...the next couple of weeks will be filled with planning...and maybe some studying!
Well, that's about it,
Rachel
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Goat Tastes Like Beef
It's been an interesting and eventful week at Kalene. Last Saturday, some of the girls from Sakeji School came for the weekend to have a break from the chaos of teaching children...we didn't give them much of a break!
We spent the afternoon climbing Kalene Hill, a fairly steep climb that ends with a stunning view! The descent was only slightly hazardous...we each spent the time trying to stay up right as the patches of slick mud seemed to come out of no where. Thankfully, no one go hurt, but we all got dirty!
Saturday evening was spent playing "Articulate", one of my favourite board games involving teams and guessing words...not unlike Taboo or catch phrase. Because of this game, I now know where Munich is...we might have one the game had I known this during the game!
I wrote about Tuesdays events already, Internation Women's Day...because of the enthusiasm, some of the young women at the mission have begun a Bible Study of Women of Faith. We had our first session on Thursday night in our home. I've mentioned Mamisa and Maria before. Mamisa, 19, is still in High School and Maria, 20, has just graduated. They both have huge hearts for God. It was really encouraging to have them at the study, along with Emma and Rachel Reed, midwives and Dr. Chris, Becs and myself. The time of prayer following the study was awesome. It's amazing how quickly random people sitting in a room can become close friends just for simply taking time to pray for each other! Please pray that others whom we've invited will come this week.
Yesterday was yet another stat. holiday. We celebrated International Youth Day at Musangala Community School. Nearly 200 children were in attendance and 50 adults for a day of sports and gospel outreach. Although, I managed to get a pretty decent sunburn, every moment of blistering heat was worth it. We had spent the previous day baking cupcakes for the children's snack. This was the first time any of them had seen one! Ruth, the leader, had to demonstrate how to remove the cupcake's paper and eat one to prove that them were edible!
What an amazing feeling to be able to introduce new things and ideas to children and adults! At the end of the day, James was able to take time to share the gospel through the story of the Good Samaritan. Each of the audience members really took James rendition to heart. The Harvesters, a group of Zambian young people striving to share the gospel through sports, lead by James and Ruth, acted out the story as James spoke.
The day ended with The Harvesters singing selection of farewell songs for James and Ruth, as they are returning to the UK, having working with the Harvesters and the founders of Musangala School for the last 2 years. It was lovely to see and hear how much they will be missed, but that their work here will continue as the Harvester Group is now prepared to stand on their own, sharing the gospel with communities near and far away. (They don't have vehicles, and very few have bicycles, so some of the young men walk up to 17 km to meet the group for Saturday outreach!)
Children at Youth Day, eagerly awaiting their lunch of rice with sugar, nshima with goat and cupcakes! You should've heard them sing! 
The Blood Lab at Kalene...We have a patient in Female Ward who presented with a Hemoglobbin of 2.8...or roughly 30 in Canadian :). Since the norm is between 11-16 or 120-160, this was an obvious cause for concern. Also, our blood bank is currently void of O +. We screened the two family members with her, only one was x-match compatible. We transfused his unit of blood, but her Hb only increased to 4.4. We wanted to give her another transfusion, but without blood, it wasn't possible. I volunteered my blood as I'm O+. In the end, I only was able to give 1/2 a unit as my veins colapsed, but she made it through to the next day when her brother came to donate blood. Thankfully she is looking much better now, but as we don't know who she is so anemic, she likely will continue to have these issues.
We spent the afternoon climbing Kalene Hill, a fairly steep climb that ends with a stunning view! The descent was only slightly hazardous...we each spent the time trying to stay up right as the patches of slick mud seemed to come out of no where. Thankfully, no one go hurt, but we all got dirty!
Saturday evening was spent playing "Articulate", one of my favourite board games involving teams and guessing words...not unlike Taboo or catch phrase. Because of this game, I now know where Munich is...we might have one the game had I known this during the game!
I wrote about Tuesdays events already, Internation Women's Day...because of the enthusiasm, some of the young women at the mission have begun a Bible Study of Women of Faith. We had our first session on Thursday night in our home. I've mentioned Mamisa and Maria before. Mamisa, 19, is still in High School and Maria, 20, has just graduated. They both have huge hearts for God. It was really encouraging to have them at the study, along with Emma and Rachel Reed, midwives and Dr. Chris, Becs and myself. The time of prayer following the study was awesome. It's amazing how quickly random people sitting in a room can become close friends just for simply taking time to pray for each other! Please pray that others whom we've invited will come this week.
Yesterday was yet another stat. holiday. We celebrated International Youth Day at Musangala Community School. Nearly 200 children were in attendance and 50 adults for a day of sports and gospel outreach. Although, I managed to get a pretty decent sunburn, every moment of blistering heat was worth it. We had spent the previous day baking cupcakes for the children's snack. This was the first time any of them had seen one! Ruth, the leader, had to demonstrate how to remove the cupcake's paper and eat one to prove that them were edible!
What an amazing feeling to be able to introduce new things and ideas to children and adults! At the end of the day, James was able to take time to share the gospel through the story of the Good Samaritan. Each of the audience members really took James rendition to heart. The Harvesters, a group of Zambian young people striving to share the gospel through sports, lead by James and Ruth, acted out the story as James spoke.
The day ended with The Harvesters singing selection of farewell songs for James and Ruth, as they are returning to the UK, having working with the Harvesters and the founders of Musangala School for the last 2 years. It was lovely to see and hear how much they will be missed, but that their work here will continue as the Harvester Group is now prepared to stand on their own, sharing the gospel with communities near and far away. (They don't have vehicles, and very few have bicycles, so some of the young men walk up to 17 km to meet the group for Saturday outreach!)
The commitment of these young people puts me to shame!
Maria and Mamisa resting after the steep climb up Kalene Hill. Emma and Chris taking in the view.
Rachel (Canada) and Rachel (Scotland)
Women marching in celebration of women's day
James and the Harvester's sharing the gospel at Youth Day
Well, that's all for now...
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
International Women's Day
March 8th is International Women's Day. The school's are cancelled, workers get the day off. The School of Nursing held a parade and government officials, the Chief and the community were invited to spend the day celebrating women's advancement in education, specifically in science and technology.
I worked this morning at the hospital, preparing patients for the operating theater as scheduled operations happen Tuesdays and Thursdays. I managed to sneak away early to go watch the parade and eat nshima. I discovered that nshima is delicious when prepared with mais meal as opposed to cassava...this is handy to know as I expect to be heading to a nearby village to live for a few weeks to learn Lunda. And as nshima is served twice a day, its good to know that I have some sort of option and a hope of surviving!
Well, the celebrations went very well, it was really encouraging to see women of all socio-economic states joining together to promote women's equality while maintaining a Christian perspective. The banners carried had references to Galatians 3:28. "There is neither Jew now Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
It was so touching to see these women rally together. They have every right to give up hope, the tragedy they've seen, the injustice of the education system toward girls. The cultural tradition that allows men to marry multiple wives, premits adultery for the man, but criminally punishes the women.
This paradox was spoken of by Mrs. Chilambe, the organizer of the day. She directed her speach to the women in the audience, knowing full well that the Chief, sitting next to her has recently taken on a third wife.
I couldn't help but to be thankful for the society in which I was raised. Not only were these battles fought and won, but they happened over 100 years ago! The fact that I have to right to a post-secondary education, or that I can expect to go through my day without being assaulted or mistreated by the males around me. Though I am not ignorant of the crimes against and struggles of western women, I can only be thankful for the life that the Lord place me in.
I hope that with the enthusiasm the women showed today, they will continue to rally together to increase the education system in this rural area, so that these women can learn even the basics like math for running a small business, or obtain credits prerequisit for entering post-secondary.
At the moment there are only 4 girls out of 60 students in the highschool, because the other girls have dropped out to raise their families. The Nursing School provides a post-secondary education, but the entry requirements don't allow for a rural education. The necessary biology and math for nursing is not being taught in the rural highschool here.
In talking with the other missionaries, we'd love to just scrap everything and start new. Unfortunately, that wouldn't solve the systemic problem. The solution needs to come from the Zambians, from the grassroots. There are funds and government initiatives to boost rural education, although we have yet to see much of it put into place.
All in all it was an encouraging day!
Rachel
I worked this morning at the hospital, preparing patients for the operating theater as scheduled operations happen Tuesdays and Thursdays. I managed to sneak away early to go watch the parade and eat nshima. I discovered that nshima is delicious when prepared with mais meal as opposed to cassava...this is handy to know as I expect to be heading to a nearby village to live for a few weeks to learn Lunda. And as nshima is served twice a day, its good to know that I have some sort of option and a hope of surviving!
Well, the celebrations went very well, it was really encouraging to see women of all socio-economic states joining together to promote women's equality while maintaining a Christian perspective. The banners carried had references to Galatians 3:28. "There is neither Jew now Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
It was so touching to see these women rally together. They have every right to give up hope, the tragedy they've seen, the injustice of the education system toward girls. The cultural tradition that allows men to marry multiple wives, premits adultery for the man, but criminally punishes the women.
This paradox was spoken of by Mrs. Chilambe, the organizer of the day. She directed her speach to the women in the audience, knowing full well that the Chief, sitting next to her has recently taken on a third wife.
I couldn't help but to be thankful for the society in which I was raised. Not only were these battles fought and won, but they happened over 100 years ago! The fact that I have to right to a post-secondary education, or that I can expect to go through my day without being assaulted or mistreated by the males around me. Though I am not ignorant of the crimes against and struggles of western women, I can only be thankful for the life that the Lord place me in.
I hope that with the enthusiasm the women showed today, they will continue to rally together to increase the education system in this rural area, so that these women can learn even the basics like math for running a small business, or obtain credits prerequisit for entering post-secondary.
At the moment there are only 4 girls out of 60 students in the highschool, because the other girls have dropped out to raise their families. The Nursing School provides a post-secondary education, but the entry requirements don't allow for a rural education. The necessary biology and math for nursing is not being taught in the rural highschool here.
In talking with the other missionaries, we'd love to just scrap everything and start new. Unfortunately, that wouldn't solve the systemic problem. The solution needs to come from the Zambians, from the grassroots. There are funds and government initiatives to boost rural education, although we have yet to see much of it put into place.
All in all it was an encouraging day!
Rachel
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Week 1...no Malaria yet!
It's hard to believe that I've been at Kalene for nearly a week. It's been a busy week, at that. I began work a the hospital last Thursday, orientating on the Female ward. It's been more of an adjustment than I imagined as I came here from spending the last 7 months on a rediculously heavy unit in Ottawa. Though the patients are very sick here, we are so limited in resources that patients don't make it to the point of needing the invasive nursing care provided back home. It's so hard to watch them go through pain of even a dressing change, knowing that at home we would be using conscious sedation or that even the multiple blood sample draws would be eliminated with a PICC line insertion.
This week started off badly with two patients passing away...as if its not hard enough to see a patient die...the grieving families wailing that follows for the next 24h is excrutiating to hear.
We had a pretty intense case, a patient whose bowel had twisted on itself. He underwent a 3 hour surgery then returned to the ward. Emma and I set up a mini "PACU", complete with a heart monitor circa 1985 and a curtain rod for an IV pole. The patient came around from the anasthetic just in time to see a nurse standing one foot on a chair, one foot on the head of his bed, hanging a new bag of normal saline! It's times like these that I truly wish I knew how to speak Lunda!
There have been some very good times so far, as well. I spent Friday night/Saturday morning with Mamisa, an 18 year old girl from the village. Her family welcomed me into their home, teaching me to cook nshima, a paste-like dough from the cassava plant, the staple food here. Though, they spoke next to no English, we spent the evening at her uncle's house watching a cheesey Spanish soap-opera, dubbed into English. I doubt that they had any idea of the plot, but they really enjoyed the luxury of watching TV. Much to my horror, Mamisa insisted that I sit in the only household chair, and sleep in her bed, while all the sisters shared the other. I felt bad, but knew it would be embarrasing for them if I refused. I slept in her bed...in the village, and no malaria yet! (It takes at least 10 days to hit....but this is no place for the hypercondriac, lol!)
I spent yesterday afternoon at the Girl's Club, singing and listening to Becs's Bible Lesson. There was a good attendance of nearly 30 girls. There is so much potential in these young girls! I'm really excited to see them grow in the Lord!
This afternoon we played a game of ultimate frizbee with 15 local children...I was pleasantly surprised at how well they could throw...clearly Becs' lessons have done good!
Well, it's been busy, but good, or Chachiwahi, as they say in Lunda!
R
This week started off badly with two patients passing away...as if its not hard enough to see a patient die...the grieving families wailing that follows for the next 24h is excrutiating to hear.
We had a pretty intense case, a patient whose bowel had twisted on itself. He underwent a 3 hour surgery then returned to the ward. Emma and I set up a mini "PACU", complete with a heart monitor circa 1985 and a curtain rod for an IV pole. The patient came around from the anasthetic just in time to see a nurse standing one foot on a chair, one foot on the head of his bed, hanging a new bag of normal saline! It's times like these that I truly wish I knew how to speak Lunda!
There have been some very good times so far, as well. I spent Friday night/Saturday morning with Mamisa, an 18 year old girl from the village. Her family welcomed me into their home, teaching me to cook nshima, a paste-like dough from the cassava plant, the staple food here. Though, they spoke next to no English, we spent the evening at her uncle's house watching a cheesey Spanish soap-opera, dubbed into English. I doubt that they had any idea of the plot, but they really enjoyed the luxury of watching TV. Much to my horror, Mamisa insisted that I sit in the only household chair, and sleep in her bed, while all the sisters shared the other. I felt bad, but knew it would be embarrasing for them if I refused. I slept in her bed...in the village, and no malaria yet! (It takes at least 10 days to hit....but this is no place for the hypercondriac, lol!)
I spent yesterday afternoon at the Girl's Club, singing and listening to Becs's Bible Lesson. There was a good attendance of nearly 30 girls. There is so much potential in these young girls! I'm really excited to see them grow in the Lord!
This afternoon we played a game of ultimate frizbee with 15 local children...I was pleasantly surprised at how well they could throw...clearly Becs' lessons have done good!
Well, it's been busy, but good, or Chachiwahi, as they say in Lunda!
R
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Kalene at last
I arrived at Kalene Mission Hospital yesterday afternoon following a rather jam-packed morning in Lusaka. We were told by Immigration that our missionary work permits would be ready Wednesday morning at the earliest. But being familiar with the way these offices are run, we expected that we would either have to spend a couple more days in Lusaka, or fly up to Kalene, returning at a later date to pick up the permits. We prayed a lot for these permits to be completed on time, as the cost and time of flying down to Lusaka would not be desireable. The Lord came through, as we knew He would. Our permits were completed less than an hour before we were scheduled to fly! After running through Immigration, we stopped at a grocery store for our last opportunity to by cheese and yogurt then went straight to the airport.
The flight took over 3 hours from Lusaka to Kalene. It rained, allowing for a smoother ride than the previous one I arrived on 3 years ago. No one was sick on the flight, although the sick bags were readily available!
I was taken on a tour of the mission station and hospital...so much has changed in the past 3 years! Most of the staff at the hospital were recognisable, but the school of nursing has had 2 new intakes of students since I left. The hospital itself has had several renovations, including a new theater block and several new staff houses.
We also were taken to visit the Chief today, the meeting went well, and in closing he invited us to come back anytime, provided that we would preach God's word. This is very encouraging, as there have been times here, recently, where this wasn't the case. One of the missionaries offered to close in pray, praying for the Chief and his family.
All in all, it's been a great week since I left the Great White North.
Rachel
All in all, it feels like I'm home. The settling in process has begun and the work will start bright and early tomorrow morning.
The flight took over 3 hours from Lusaka to Kalene. It rained, allowing for a smoother ride than the previous one I arrived on 3 years ago. No one was sick on the flight, although the sick bags were readily available!
I was taken on a tour of the mission station and hospital...so much has changed in the past 3 years! Most of the staff at the hospital were recognisable, but the school of nursing has had 2 new intakes of students since I left. The hospital itself has had several renovations, including a new theater block and several new staff houses.
We also were taken to visit the Chief today, the meeting went well, and in closing he invited us to come back anytime, provided that we would preach God's word. This is very encouraging, as there have been times here, recently, where this wasn't the case. One of the missionaries offered to close in pray, praying for the Chief and his family.
All in all, it's been a great week since I left the Great White North.
Rachel
All in all, it feels like I'm home. The settling in process has begun and the work will start bright and early tomorrow morning.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Lusaka...still
We just returned from our third visit to the local immigration office. The good news is that they've found my file. The bad news is that it won't be my last visit there! My permit will be ready, at the earliest on Wednesday morning. This is cutting it very close, as our flight to Kalene leaves early Wednesday afternoon, and Immigration closes for 2 hours at lunch! The worst case senario involves taking an 18h return trip to Solwezi in a mini-bus. I had the privilege of taking this drive three years ago. It was memorable for all the wrong reasons! We are currently praying that this trip will be avoided...feel free to join us in prayer!
On another note, we spent the morning at the local market... the typical, non-tourist, real market! I managed to get a great deal on some fabric because I spoke French with the Congolese refugee shop owner, and because I was single. I prefer to think that it was because I spoke French, lol! The married, English nurse with me was giving the "Musengu" (white person) price :)
Along with acquiring fabric, I got my first sun-burn of the season, courtesy of doxycycline (anti-malaria with sun-sensitivity effects)...I'm looking forward to not being the pasty Canadian for much longer.
Dr. John and Rachel Woodfield arrived with there family last night from NZ and will be heading up to the hospital a day or two after us...its a relief that the "real" doctor and pharmacist will be there...and that we won't be completely thrown into diagnosistic medicine!
Well, I should go an enjoy the 39 degree weather, as I see on the weather network that Canada is experiencing -29 degree windchills...no complaining from me, whatsoever!
Luv ya,
Rachel
On another note, we spent the morning at the local market... the typical, non-tourist, real market! I managed to get a great deal on some fabric because I spoke French with the Congolese refugee shop owner, and because I was single. I prefer to think that it was because I spoke French, lol! The married, English nurse with me was giving the "Musengu" (white person) price :)
Along with acquiring fabric, I got my first sun-burn of the season, courtesy of doxycycline (anti-malaria with sun-sensitivity effects)...I'm looking forward to not being the pasty Canadian for much longer.
Dr. John and Rachel Woodfield arrived with there family last night from NZ and will be heading up to the hospital a day or two after us...its a relief that the "real" doctor and pharmacist will be there...and that we won't be completely thrown into diagnosistic medicine!
Well, I should go an enjoy the 39 degree weather, as I see on the weather network that Canada is experiencing -29 degree windchills...no complaining from me, whatsoever!
Luv ya,
Rachel
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Lusaka at last!
My journey began Tuesday evening in Ottawa, as I borded my first flight at 1800 to Toronto. It ended 29 hours later, at the Guest house in Lusaka. Technically the trip is not over yet, as I am not flying up to Kalene Hospital until after I get my papers in order for my nursing licence and work permit. I slept 45 min on my flight to Heathrow, followed by a 2 hour nap on a bench in Heathrow and 15 min sleep on the following flight....to say that I was exhausted, would be a cruel understatement. How I got through immigration and customs without forgetting my name is a mystery!
I began today with crashing for a nice 5 hour sleep at the guest house, then it was off to the races...or slow meanderings that take place in Zambian goverment offices. Alongside a seasoned nurse from Kalene, and a couple of other short-termers, we headed to the Zambian Nursing Council on public transit to begin the process of becoming registered nurses in Zambia. We have been promised an interview with the nursing council tomorrow, necessary for acquiring the licence, but most likely it won't happen until next week. I'll be in Lusaka until I get this licence.., and then off to Kalene!
Meanwhile, I have begun to enjoy the modern city of Lusaka. We had a lovely lunch at a cafe and supper at an Indian restaurant...embracing the culture, one butter chicken at a time!
That's all for now...
I began today with crashing for a nice 5 hour sleep at the guest house, then it was off to the races...or slow meanderings that take place in Zambian goverment offices. Alongside a seasoned nurse from Kalene, and a couple of other short-termers, we headed to the Zambian Nursing Council on public transit to begin the process of becoming registered nurses in Zambia. We have been promised an interview with the nursing council tomorrow, necessary for acquiring the licence, but most likely it won't happen until next week. I'll be in Lusaka until I get this licence.., and then off to Kalene!
Meanwhile, I have begun to enjoy the modern city of Lusaka. We had a lovely lunch at a cafe and supper at an Indian restaurant...embracing the culture, one butter chicken at a time!
That's all for now...
Monday, January 3, 2011
God's Promises
It is so hard to believe that I'm heading for Zambia in 42 days, which is less than 6 weeks! It hardly seems that over 2.5 years have passed since I came home from my first encounter with medical missions. (The previous posting mentioned that I was in Zambia in 2007...in reality it was May-Aug 2008)
I've already begun the process of gathering items into boxes that will need to be sorted in to suitcases closer to the departure date. I'm still waiting for the medical supplies from notyettourists.org to arrive, but the piles of donated medical items, toys and Bible resources continue to grow. I'm totally amazed by the generosity of the Christians in my life. God is so good, He provides me with more than I could ever ask for and He knew that planning a Mission trip for after Christmas was a great idea...my stocking on Christmas eve was overflowing with useful items like a mosquito net, a flashlight, multi-pack batteries, travel organizers etc.
I spent this past weekend, New Years, at a retreat for Christian young people, studying the Bible and hoping for snow to play in. While the wish for snow wasn't granted, the Bible was certainly studied. I am constantly amazed by my God as I continue to grow closer to Him through studying His word. As we learned about the amazing riches of His grace, and the promises which He has given us. Many of the promises touched home. God promises to go with us and never leave us or forsake us. (Deut 31:6) He promises to be the True Rewarder of them that deligently seek Him (Hebrews 11)
I was encouraged to pray with ambition. Ambition is something that our society places such emphasis on, yet I have ignored when it came to prayer. Perhaps, in humility, I don't think that I will be used to create great change. I feel now that I need to pray for the Lord to do a great work in me, a work that will truly impact the souls of the patients for whom I care and the staff with whom I work.
James 1:27 Religion that is true and undefiled before God, the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, ans to keep oneself unstained from the world.
I've already begun the process of gathering items into boxes that will need to be sorted in to suitcases closer to the departure date. I'm still waiting for the medical supplies from notyettourists.org to arrive, but the piles of donated medical items, toys and Bible resources continue to grow. I'm totally amazed by the generosity of the Christians in my life. God is so good, He provides me with more than I could ever ask for and He knew that planning a Mission trip for after Christmas was a great idea...my stocking on Christmas eve was overflowing with useful items like a mosquito net, a flashlight, multi-pack batteries, travel organizers etc.
I spent this past weekend, New Years, at a retreat for Christian young people, studying the Bible and hoping for snow to play in. While the wish for snow wasn't granted, the Bible was certainly studied. I am constantly amazed by my God as I continue to grow closer to Him through studying His word. As we learned about the amazing riches of His grace, and the promises which He has given us. Many of the promises touched home. God promises to go with us and never leave us or forsake us. (Deut 31:6) He promises to be the True Rewarder of them that deligently seek Him (Hebrews 11)
I was encouraged to pray with ambition. Ambition is something that our society places such emphasis on, yet I have ignored when it came to prayer. Perhaps, in humility, I don't think that I will be used to create great change. I feel now that I need to pray for the Lord to do a great work in me, a work that will truly impact the souls of the patients for whom I care and the staff with whom I work.
James 1:27 Religion that is true and undefiled before God, the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, ans to keep oneself unstained from the world.
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