The battle continued this morning. I woke up feeling well rested and my stomach even felt fine; but once I started moving around a lot I started to feel uncomfortable and had to force-feed myself a small piece of bread, I knew the fight was not over. So once arriving at the hospital I gritted my teeth (and clenched many areas of my body) through morning devotions before deciding that I should not attempt to sit through morning report. Morning report is where the nurses from the previous shift tell the new shift of nurses, as well as the doctors what has happened in the past 24 hours. They tell about the medicines given, the vitals, the patients medical history, and I’m sure a lot more but that is all that the doctors write on the large whiteboard during report. The doctors write down these things on the board in English—well mostly—and then they explain what it all means to us interns afterwards. They go over tons of stuff, teach us, and answer questions; it is seriously so awesome of them to take the time to explain concepts that are so elementary to them but unheard of to us. This time of morning report usually lasts from 7:30 till 8:30, so yes even though I love it and was sad to sit out, I realized I would have been a real disturbance because I would have had to scat to the bathroom a bajillion times! Woopieee!

So after morning report, everyone went their different directions, most to morning rounds. When my pipes were squeaky clean (that is a metaphor), Priscilla and I headed to the Eye Clinic to help out Dr. Henri (pronounced “on-ree”) Samoutou! When we got there, there were dozens of boxes to go through, the whole clinic was stuffed with boxes that had not been there the day before. They had all come from the Container, bum bum bummmmm! I put the “Container” in italics, because for the first two weeks here Priscilla and I had no idea what this was when people would say “I’m going to the container to get ______.” We literally thought this mysterious and magical Container was some sort of large Tupperware or large plastic bin that just held a never-ending supply of anything and everything—medically speaking. However after bashfully asking Millie where this “bin” was, she laughed and told us/showed us the Container. The Container is literally a large boxcar that you would see carried on a train or barge; and a barge is exactly where it came from! The Container holds tons and tons of stuff that has been requested (and then often donated) by and for the hospital, and then it is sent via boat. It usually takes many months or more to get one Container to Impfondo; travel/transportation is one of the more stressful aspects of being a missionary in Congo. Here are some examples:

1)    Millie has been in Impfondo since March, when she left Brazzaville to come to Impfondo in March she had to leave stuff behind at Bravo (the guesthouse for missionaries) because there is a 20 kg bag limit for the small planes to Impfondo. When Millie left Bravo they told her she would receive her stuff on the next flight, probably the following week…it is 5 months later and she has not seen any of it. This is the same for all the people here. When you leave something in Brazzaville, you won’t see it again until you return there on your way back. Sam Lunsford thought he would receive his clothes the following week so he only brought 2 pairs of pants, it has been over 2 months and Sam still only has two pairs of pants.

2)    This Saturday I may or may not actually get on the plane out of Impfondo. The plane might not even show up, that has happened too many times to count. Two weeks ago the Harveys spent 6 hours at the airport trying to convince the pilot to let 4 interns on the plane, THAT THEY HAD TICKETS FOR. Traveling is crazy and corrupt and nothing happens when it is supposed to. Dr. Harvey even said today that the flight schedule changes every single day even though planes only come to Impfondo around twice a week. 

So if there were anything concrete that the missionaries here in Congo needed prayer for it would be travel and transportation stability. Please pray.

On to more about my day. So once at the Eye Clinic we started going through the boxes, taking inventory, and learning about the equipment. Here is a picture bellow of some fake eyes Dr. Henri opened up to show us! So neat! Throughout the morning he explained different procedures he does, different medications he uses, and some anatomy of the eye. About halfway through the boxes Joyce Samoutou walked in and snapped a picture of us! She is wonderful and such a joy to be around! The first thing she said to me was “Ah YAY James’s girl!!” and gave me a big hug (James is my boyfriend who came here last summer so Joyce knew him, Joyce and I had not yet been introduced). The Samoutou family is super cool, Joyce is from China and Henri is from Ghana, so they have three beautiful mixed children! Their children are very smart too, they speak English, French, Lingala, and Manderin AND they are all younger than 12!

The unpacking and inventory took us right up until lunchtime to finish, I was writing it all down while Priscilla counted. When lunchtime rolled around I was exhausted and nauseous so I headed to the guesthouse where we eat lunch to take a quick nap. After my nap I was actually able to eat some rice and keep it down too, so that is a victory for Faith!

After a successful lunch I headed to the ER to see what was going on. It was time for vitals! The ER was also in the middle of an art project courtesy of Claire Harvey! Claire is a junior art major at Cedarville College; so this summer she has been painting murals in all of the wards, they are beautiful! Claire had drawn all the murals out already and was now starting to paint with the help of Lauren Lunsford. It was kind of like paint-by number!

After spending the afternoon in the ER I headed back to the guesthouse for our big weekly missionary meeting that is always on Wednesdays. During this time news, prayer requests, and goals are shared. It is a great time to catch up and refocus…and it is nice to have a lot of English speakers in one spot haha.

I have a praise! A few days ago, the hospital received an X-Ray machine!!! It was like a parade watching as the custodial men rolled it into the used-to-be-empty-but-now-actually-has-a-purpose Radiology Room (pictured below!)!

Well that was pretty much my day.

Please continue to pray for my health, especially as I am approaching this long weekend of traveling home. Also, please pray that my traveling goes smoothly and according to plan. I know my plans are not the end-all-say-all, God is in-charge, so if things do not go according to plan, please pray for good and patient attitudes during the process.