First visit is Winifred. She's a thirty-something grumpy and sarcastic women with breast cancer. I like her - I'm pretty sarcastic myself sometimes. We go through the comedy routine of trying to figure out if the pain medicine is working and how often she takes it. She says we are acting like journalists with all the questions. She asks about her swollen right arm and we say 'we don't know' for the first of many times today. We can speculate a thousand reasons but we have no diagnostic equipment. She doesn't like our answer. We pray for her before we leave. As we are leaving, we are approached by neighbor George Brown (they always introduce themselves using their full names including middle initials). His right arm is numb and he has trouble breathing and wants us to help him. We explain in great detail why we can't help him because we don't have the diagnostic equipment or the right kinds of doctors and then I pray for him.
Second visit is Jenna's family (Jenna passed away). We meet with Jenna's daughter Massa and find out the whole family is sick with malaria and this has kept her from finishing her college computer classes. Massa is determined to finish and get a good job - this is the first time I've heard this from any Liberian female. We pray for her before we leave. As we are leaving, we are approached by neighbor Solomon who is being led by his niece. Solomon went blind 10 years ago and is asking us to help him. We explain that the sickness that caused his blindness is not something we can fix and then I pray for him.
Third visit is Yatta's family (Yatta passed away). No one is home. As we are getting in the car, Yatta's daugher Miatta appears so we ask how she is doing (fine), talk a few minutes and head out.
Fourth visit is Nush's family (the little boy who passed away last week). We spent 30 minutes crying with Aretha, his mother and praying for her. Junior, Nush's father shows up and we also pray for him. Junior asks if we can take their daughter Jessica home with us. Huh? We say no, of course. Then Junior asks us if we can help pay for the headstone for Nush's grave (we think this is what he was asking - our translator had already headed to the car). Aretha is mad that he asked. We said we'd pray about it.
We head to the ship for lunch. It's the usual peanut butter sandwich.
Fifth visit is Gracie's house. We stopped by to make sure she is taking her TB medicine as directed. Her growths are getting smaller and everyone is happy. She asks if she can come to the ship. We brought Gracie and Candy to the ship last Thursday and watched Beauty and the Beast. She'd never seen a movie before. We'll probably do it again next week but we'll have to take her out of school for a day. Instead of us praying, Granny prays for us in Kpelle (a local dialect). I didn't understand a word but it was a very energetic prayer and I'm sure God understands Kpelle:)
Sixth visit is to Martha's house, one of our new patients. We start the comedy routine again trying to find out if the pain medicine is working and how often she takes it. It takes us 30 minutes to figure it out. Someone sits a baby on my lap and he promptly pees all over me. Good thing I'm laid back - it doesn't phase me, we just continue the conversation. Martha asks if we can , in addition to giving her the pain meds and wound care supplies, start providing her with food. Again, sorry we can't do that. Before we leave, we pray for Martha. As we are leaving, we are approached by Mary (Martha's sister) and she explains she has pain in her side and can't have babies because her tube is blocked. Once again we explain we don't do that kind of work on the ship and we're not sure what is causing her problem. We've said this a lot today.
We take the long way home so we can drop off our translator and we run across this funny sign. I'm not sure they had to be so graphic!We spend the car ride home talking about the day - what was good, what was hard. And then we pray the remainder of the car ride home. By the time we get home, dinnertime is almost passed but we're in time...and they are having really good baked chicken tonight (bonus). I sit down at a table with Judith to eat dinner and find out I'm getting a new patient in the morning, a 14 year old boy with Burkitts lymphoma. He doesn't know he has cancer -we get to tell him in the morning - I can hardly wait (that's my sarcasm coming out). Jean and I now need to rework our whole day's plan for tomorrow.
After dinner, I walked for an hour with 2 friends and had a great conversation about what God has done for us in the past and what we think the future looks like. After my two minute shower (a ship rule), I'm blogging and going to bed. It's only 9:00 pm here but I only got 2 hours of sleep last night and I'm tired. My six year bout with insomnia had ended last January but it returned in July.
Tomorrow, I start again. I really love my job!
Peace,
Michele
2 comments:
Wow, thats draining...I sometimes loved not knowing the language real good (or at all) in some of the other countries because then I didn't have to say no, or we don't do that.
No, not in food service...but I tried to get out with the projects.
Glad you got the bonus baked chicken.
Sometimes you don't need to understand the language because often someone is removing their clothing as they are walking up to you...that's how you know they are going to ask for help with a medical issue. Just today, a guy walked up to us as he was removing his shirt to show us a problem. A few weeks ago, a guy started to drop his pants to show us his problem! Fortunately, I stopped him in time. I know we don't have doctors for that part of the body:) When you get here, Tyrone, you can keep on with the baked chicken - it's great!
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