Today was my last day in Congo. I can’t believe a month has already gone by!

We started out our last day but heading to the hospital with the Harveys. Devotions were so sweet because it was a time for everyone to say goodbye to us. Dr. Harvey brought us up to the front to talk about where we would be going and what we would be doing once returning home! Then everyone prayed for us. Praying in Congo is cool and passionate because everyone prays out loud and all at once.

After devotions we headed to morning report and then onto the day’s work! Today Priscilla and I were working with Claire Harvey. Like I’ve mentioned before, Claire is an art major at Cedarville University, but she also plans to go to PT (physical therapy) school after graduating from Cedarville. So for the past few summers she has been shadowing physical therapists and other doctors that have come to work at the hospital. So today was our day to learn a little bit about that!

Unfortunately, Priscilla unexpectedly had to go to battle today. She became sick just like I had been all week and had to go lie down and stay close to a toilet all day. Poor girl, please pray she starts feeling better soon so that she doesn’t have to travel sick.

So while Priscilla worked to get better, I went with Claire to work with recovery patients around the hospital. We worked with a bunch of adults that had had amputations or serious surgeries. The main point of PT is to help someone regain strength and control of their body. Here are a few people we worked with (pictures bellow): 

 1) A little boy who had experienced 3rd degree burns on his leg and hand due to the spilling of boiling water. We played with him and made him stretch his hand and leg by sitting like he is in the picture, and using his bad hand to put together a puzzle.

2) Working with a girl named Diana; she was from the Democratic Republic of Congo (which is across the river from the hospital) and had broken her back during the civil war. About 10 years ago Diana was riding in a truck when a group of rebels jumped on the truck carrying guns. Diana jumped from this moving truck in hopes of saving her life, but instead she broke her back. Afterwards she was confined to a bed for 7 years, during which she developed pressure ulcers and bed sores because she was neglected, these open sores were  holes down to her bones. She came to the hospital for reconstructive surgery and is now working on her arm and core strength so that she can move and start to take care of herself. 

3) This is a boy who had his leg amputated and now has a prosthetic leg (which I did not witness him wearing) but he was at the hospital to work on his strength. 

After working with Claire I headed back to the Mission around 12 to have my hair braided. I had my hair braided by Marilyn, she is the Harvey's "maid" and is really good and fast at doing hair. She weaved in lots of fake hair (that is basically plastic), braided it all, and then wrapped the ends in little ringlets which she later dipped in boiling water to make curly. The whole process took about 5 hours and HURT SO MUCH. During the 5 hour time period I took about 5 Advils. It took so much effort not to cry or give up and I definitely did not sleep that night because it hurt to touch my head to anything haha. My goodness those African's are tough.  (pictures bellow)