….the other day….

June 26, 2008

…was a very interesting day. It was Thursday, and there were a lot of very little things to do. The clinic was going to be closed, so we can take a woman from the village to the hospital so she can have surgery the next day, one of the girls here broke her arm and needed to get her permanent cast put on, and Lance was leaving for the US and needed to get to the airport. Also, the day before, Coach and our driver, Johnson, left for Uganda to get supplies. That means, once Lance was gone there would only be 4 missionaries on site and just 2 trucks. Our little list was to begin around 9 AM.

It has rained most of the night before, and the morning was very cool and a gentle rain continuing to fall. At 8 AM, I get a knock at my door….a woman is at the front gate about to give birth, we need to go now. It was my job to get Ayinga (the girl with the temporary cast) who is, at best guess, 9 years old. I literally run to the girls dorm, and with a very rushed attitude, attempt to calmly ask her to get ready NOW.

As I imagine most girls her age do, she puts on a gentle smile and begins to go about her routine of getting herself together. I “calmly” mention, that we do need to hurry there is a woman that need to go to the hospital with us. So, with the smile firmly attached she begins to skip towards one dresser to look for a pair of socks. I know that I must have seen a few pair, but apparently those were not either her socks or adequate. So, Ayinga gently skips back to the other side of the dorm to look in the original dresser. hmmmmm…..still no socks.

Well, I offered a compromise……if you go without socks, I’ll carry you the whole way to the front gate. Which really means, this took too long, and if I am carrying you I can run; but she did agree…off we go…

We arrive at the front gate, and our Pastor, Pooshani is wondering where the woman who is about to give birth is. As it turns out, the grandmother to be had delivered the message but somewhere in the translation it never came out or was simply lost, that we needed to drive to her tukel to pick her up.

In the interim, the airline had called and was wondering where Lance was. Well, he was right here, about 5 miles away, or in terms of Sudanese driving conditions, 30 – 45 minutes away. If you recall, I missed my original flight into Yei because I went with the posted departure time on the airlines web site, and did not call like I was supposed to. On that day, the plane was about 2 hours earlier than the typical departure time and the next flight out was not until Saturday.

Also, 1 of the 2 trucks would not start. So, the grandmother to be was given some instructions……to sum it up….we’ll meet you and your daughter at the hospital…off we go…

All is well, we get to the hospital, schedule the surgery, get the mama checked into a bed, Ayinga’s arm is still too swollen for a permanent cast, and Lance did make his flight……now……

The final solution for the mother to be was for her to show up at the orphanage, since a boda, or motorcycle taxi, was…not…..really…an option. Emily takes her own boda back, just in case she delivers before we get her to the hospital. Pooshani comes back to the hospital to pick up Ayinga, at this point the mama was not 100% finished and I stayed there with her.

After another 15 minutes or so, I found myself sitting at the, I guess front gate, building, entrance, or you get the picture, of the hospital and the cell phone rings. On the way back to the hospital with a woman about to deliver, Pooshani gets a flat tire. Emily had flagged down another passing truck of NGOs and they agreed to take her, the woman, and our very large “baby delivery bag”. I hop on a boda and meet Pooshani to change the tire. When I get there, ah…..we are missing tools. Coincidentally enough, this happened right in front of a “tire repair shop”, which consists of 4, 5 foot long branches as corner posts supporting a grass roof, and various tools to change a tire. Unfortunately they wanted the equivalent of $50 to change the tire. So we waited for Lawrence, another worker, to arrive from the orphanage in the Lowry. Once he did, he pointed out the little cubbyhole that we did not look in where the rest of the tools were located. At that point I was informed that I should feel lucky that I did not speak the local language, because the now 20 or so guys that accumulated across the road had some very colorful things to say.

The tire is now fixed, Lowry, and only working truck are back at the orphanage; but now there is no way to get in touch with Emily since I had her cell phone. We could not drive to the hospital in the Lowry, and we were not going to take the only working truck out without a spare tire, it’s just not something you do around here. In fact, most have 2 spare tires. About an hour later Emily does arrive, remember that very large bag that was mentioned. Well, apparently it was not fun waiting around holding it, let alone riding on the back of a motorcycle with it either. By that time, it was a little after 1 pm, and on with the day we all went.

I hope you enjoyed reading about that day. It actually was a very good day. A lot was accomplished, and the woman delivered the baby and both are doing well. The great thing about allowing God to be in control, each of these events are frustrating by themselves, and stacked on top of one another normally would only make things worse. Yet each one happened in sequence, and did not interfere with the next. Everything that we wanted to, and did not expect to, accomplish that day was accomplished. All by releasing control of the day to God, not losing our tempers, and trusting that this is what He wants us to get through. I pray that each time I have another day as topsy turvy like this; I will remember to trust in Him again.

...the loud whistle of the law….

June 20, 2008

So…..I really don’t know how to preface this…..so here was today.

It was a good day. After events from last Sunday, and an EXTREMELY busy day yesterday….to the point we had to tell the guard to simply not let any more people come to the clinic….20 minutes before it closed since we still had about ten out there waiting…..especially crying babies. There were quite a few of those yesterday too.

Today the clinic was closed so we could take Nunace to the hospital for physical therapy. She broke her leg about 3 ½ weeks ago and the cast came off a few days ago.

Now…..when you think of physical therapy at home….images of plush offices might come to mind, with autographed pictures of sports stars, nice artwork, perhaps pleasant receptionist answering phones, and Michael Bolton playing over the intercom. Don’t worry, Michael Bolton will come back around for this story…..but not during physical therapy, and especially not in the office that represents the complete opposite of what you might have in your head.

The actual therapist is a man named Benjamin, who is a very nice person. He does….what I feel….is a very good job. Every now and then he likes to give us some grief, but I also imagine he, like others, grows weary of kawaja’s coming in and telling him what to do. So, we do our best not to do this, but at times when he wants some of the kids to come in for physical therapy during school hours for a week, we do object. Remember that image you might have of the office? Did it have fancy equipment? Well, please keep in mind we had to purchase the supplies for the cast from an outside store before they would make the cast, and that goes for everyone. The physical therapy is basic flexion and extension with the only resistance to build strength being gravity. So we are able to do this at the orphanage and keep our kids in school.

We then walk around with one of the mama’s from the village for a good period of time trying to schedule surgery for her, since we were told that Friday is the day to do that. We find the surgeon, again a very nice man, but unless we can supply with some sutures, they are unable to perform the surgery, and we must come back either Monday or Thursday to schedule surgeries, not on Fridays. So, we are looking for extra sutures here, and if we do I get to watch the surgery too….and I’m pretty excited about that.

As a treat for myself, Emily, Nunace, and the mama we go to the only coffee shop in town; and our timing is perfect since it is only 10:45. At 11 am power is shut off in town until 2 pm, something with the electrical grid, I really don’t know. The mama, who looks to be in her 60’s enjoys her VERY FIRST COKE, and likes it. Nunace a Fanta, and Emily and I enjoy Sudanese macchiato…..weak regular coffee with steamed milk.

Now, if you have been anticipating the Michael Bolton portion of this story…..you may now relax, because Sudan does have some version of music video channel, and it is on in the coffee shop. First up….you guessed it….Michael Bolton with “How Am I Supposed to Live without You”. It was like karaoke, without the bar, because Emily joined right in. I just sat back and enjoyed…them...both...and my coffee. Following that was “We are the World” and a debate about the reason behind this song and “Don’t They Even Know It’s Christmas”….as it turned out, Emily won that one…..while Nunace and the mama really didn’t contribute much. Once Mariah Carey came on, it was our cue to leave.

Our intention was to drop off Nunace, drive the mama to her tukel, and turn right back around to get some stool sample results from the lab at the hospital. There are two traffic circles in town, and they are quite small, yet quite confusing. I had never approached this one from the direction we were going, and it showed. I remember asking Emily…..”turn left, or go around the circle”, because we were already left of the circle. Well, we both didn’t know and my choice of turning left was the wrong one. An advantage of all dirt roads is, it’s obvious where people drove earlier and I didn’t see any tracks when I turned left.

The noise of a police man’s whistle was an obvious one. I pulled over to him, twice since the first time I did not pull over adequately. I get out of the car and just say “I’m sorry, I didn’t know, but I see now that I did that wrong”, but then was given grief about wearing flip flops while driving…..hmmmm…..this might take a while. I leave my driver’s license and Emily to watch over the license (her call not mine), drive Nunace and the mama back to the compound, get all of my money, change into my running shoes, and let Nancy know why I’m leaving again and Emily is not with me.

When I get back the few officers that were there start to talk all about how much money this is going to cost me…..hundreds of US dollars, and is not even including the cost of the ticket for driving with flip flops. I explain about observing other drivers, and apologize for not understanding that law; but they continue on and on about how much money this will cost. Since Emily was there for about 15 minutes while I left, she had already been through a little of this and mentioned smelling alcohol on those not in uniform but hanging around also getting in on what this will cost me. Good call on her part, if we have to pay the fine then we do it at the police station. Off we go, the supervising officer on the back of a boda (motorcycle taxi) and the original officer in the back of the land cruiser.

Once there we run into a young man who used to be in the orphanage many years ago. He tries to help out since he does speak the language but does not manage to do so. Funny thing….the officer did not bring up the “flip flop offense” at the police station. So, 120 Sudanese Pounds, or $60, later I have a receipt and a new experience to write about, and yes I am much the wiser to the driving laws in Yei.

Well, by now it is lunch time and we decide to dine out. Well, there are many spots to choose from, but only a few that foreigners go to. Of all the things we do back home…..guess which one hit the restaurant scene here……..BUFFETT. I’m still not too sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but today at 1:00 PM GMT+3, it was a good thing. Rice and oddly enough no beans, pasta, plantains, wasaka (or something that sounds like that), “greens” (which is like spinach, but not, and looks like lawn clippings, but isn’t), and various meat products in curry.

…I know that I write most things with a great deal of sarcasm with a dash of pessimism, but please believe me when I comment that it really was good…

Ah, so we chat with a fellow from….I have no idea where, about the billions that have been donated to pave 3 of the main roads in Southern Sudan that lead into Juba (the capital of Southern Sudan, and yes there is still only 1 Sudan so…..feel free to read between the lines of that peace agreement).

A few more malaria tests to do once back at the compound, it’s Friday and that means it is “D…V…D” or “vi-d-eee-oh” night according to the kids.

So, it was a long day, but a really good one. Best of all, it was topped off with another favorite activity. As most of the really young kids fall asleep on the floor of the cafeteria during the movie, I do enjoy carrying them off to their dorms two by two, one on each arm and one head resting on each shoulder. Usually six or more trips will do it.

Thank you all so much for the many e-mails of encouragement. This last week has been taxing, but God is AMAZING and it is showing in each and every one of you.