So I realized that I have not really given a good description of whom I am working with and what I am actually doing in the Republic of Congo. So here it is, I am serving at Pioneer Christian Hospital in Impfondo, Republic of Congo. There are actually two Congo’s, the Republic of Congo (farther west) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (more east). The Harvey family (Dr. Joseph Harvey, Rebecca Harvey, Olivia, Claire, Isabelle and Noah) opened the hospital over ten years ago. Now there are 3 full time missionary doctors that work at the hospital and many local and foreign missionary nurses. Usually during the summer a good handful of pre-med and pre-nursing students travel to the hospital the serve and learn for a month or more. I learned about this hospital through James Waterman, my boyfriend, who spent two and a half months here in Congo last summer. So now onto today…

Monday night  (last night) Priscilla and I (Priscilla and I are staying in the same house together) were instructed to sleep in as late as we could in an effort to conquer jet lag and recover from all the traveling we had done in the past 48 hours. So as instructed, I slept till 11am. However, I can’t say that I slept the entire night soundly. At 4 am I was woken by the sound of a men’s church choir that practices across the street at the local church. I woke up so confused and completely unaware of where I was. AND thanks to the malaria medication I am on, I have had to pretty odd dreams (like animals attacking me but then turning into candy that I could eat as they attempted to claw at me). So as you can imagine, waking up at 4am to the sound of men singing loudly in a foreign language only helped to increase my confusion.

When I finally woke up at 11am, Pricilla and I walked to the Harvey’s house (which is like 20 ft away) and ate lunch with them. After lunch we drove to the hospital and were given a brief tour before heading to the hospital’s administration building to charge our phones, contact family, Skype boyfriends, and update blogs (this is the only place that has 24/7 power and Wi-Fi in pretty much the entire village). After the hospital our night was filled with makeshift sandwiches, story telling, and planning for tomorrow. Claire Harvey told us about her pet otter that she bought and nurtured her senior year of high school (she is homeschooled)! A pet otter, how cool is that?!

Tomorrow is our first day working in the hospital; we are scheduled to work in the emergency room, whoa!

Please pray for confidence but also a servant’s heart that is teachable.