This morning we spent our last moments in Impfondo. 

The morning was spent at the Harvey's house taking pictures, recieving certificates for serving, eating yummy treats, doing nails, saying goodbyes and realizing that we were actually leaving such an incredible place filled with amazing people! (pictures bellow) 

I cannot even begin to explain how unbelievable an experience this has been the past month. God gave me the adventure of a lifetime and I will forever cherish this blessing. God has provided me with so many supporters and new friends this past month, I wouldn't have made it without you all! 

Thank you Harvey Family, Wegner Family, Tenpenny Family, Lunsford Family, Samoutou Family, Mama Sarah, Priscilla, Millie, Sarah K., Sarah Beth, Spencer, Robin, Miles, Katie, and Hannelore for welcoming me and loving me while in Impfondo, I will never forget the fun we have all had together! 

Thank you supporters, blog readers, friends, family, and people I don't know at all for being so excited and encouraging of my trip! 

But most of all, praise God. This trip wouldn't have been possible without God's work and His beautiful people of Impfondo. 

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)

Today’s day at the hospital began a little later than usual. There was a confusion when it came to who was leaving to drive into the hospital when, so Priscilla and I ended up waiting till 9am to go into 666[;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;[[[[[g00\06g88gll8;8;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;  by;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;8/8llb [ßthat line of random things is from the Harvey’s cat laying on my computer, I decided to leave it in, she really wanted to say that] the hospital, it wasn’t the end of the world…sleeping in was nice!

Once at the hospital we jumped right into helping Dr. Henri Samoutou again with inventory and preparation of the Eye Clinic. We actually spent most of the time in the Bloc in a specific operating room only for eye surgeries. It was pretty cool and the instruments were different from those I had seen in our previous week in the Bloc. There seemed to be a lot more medications on hand and stored in the operating room too. I swear I have come across 70 different kinds of eye drops after working with Dr. Henri all week.

We worked with Dr. Henri until around 11am, that is when we headed over to the ER to help out, the usual. When we got there, there was a girl in need of a NG tube (feeding tube), so I volunteered to do it! The girl who needed it was in a coma, and had a ton of fluids in her lungs. The nurses had been routinely using a suction machine to remove as much of the fluids as they could, but the girl was still in pretty bad shape. The assumption was that the girl had aspirated (the inhaling of vomit), causing an infection in her lungs, resulting in a coma and other problems. So since she could not consciously feed herself, she needed assistance—thus the NG tube! One positive of putting an NG tube into an unconscious person is that they don’t have to go through the uncomfortable placing of the tube. When you put in the tube you put some lubricant on the end and then insert it in one of the nostrils. Before you actually put it in though you make a general estimation to how much you will push the tube in. You do this by starting at the nose and then wrapping it back behind the ear and then down to the xiphoid process. What is the xiphoid process you ask? The xiphoid process is the bottom tip of the sternum, and the sternum is the middle bone where your ribs meet (or for those who just need a picture, it’s the red thing on the picture, ya’ll).   When you have measured this distance, you mark it on the tube with tape and then you can start putting the tube in. You push it down through the nostril and down through the esophagus until the tape mark is at the nostril. You then need to make sure the tube is actually in the stomach, so you push air into the tube using a syringe WHILE using your stethoscope to listen over the person’s stomach. You should hear a forced bubbling sound as the air stirs up stomach fluids. Wahlah, you’ve done it!

After working in the ER for a while we headed to lunch and THEN we prepared ourselves for an afternoon adventure! THIS adventure was mudding! Here in Congo, people do actually live in mud huts like most people stereotypically imagine when they think of African housing. Making these mud houses takes quite a bit of time and labor, it literally takes a village to make one! So because it takes many people, and because it is just plain fun, we decided we wanted to help! Mama Sarah took Priscilla, Miles, and I to help for the afternoon in the Aka village. We were mudding the village’s recently dugout community toilet. It is a 6-meter deep hole that you squat over, and we were going to mud the “outline” of walls that had just been made. To mud, you first need to make the mud mixture. It is similar to squishing grapes to make wine...kind of. You pour water on dug up dirt/clay, then you squish it together with your feet. And then you fill in the mud outline with the mushy mixture! Pretty straightforward, but it takes a really long time and a TON of mud. Pictures bellow! The bottom picture shows an Aka man named Papa Simon, you can definitely tell that the Aka people are indeed very small in this picture because I am only 5'3'' (they are called pigmies).  

After mudding we all headed back to shower and make dinner and then crash. We were pooped after mudding for hours in the sun! I made it till 8pm and then fell asleep.

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.

Today I woke up and was exhausted, every part of my body hurt from the previous day. My bones and joints seemed to rebel against walking, but my stomach felt ok, so I headed to the hospital.

Today was also a rainy day, and not just a small drizzle. In Chicago we often have these hurricane-like storms that take out power and take down trees everywhere! Everyone’s basement floods, and the streets become rivers. Those storms are intense and powerful, but they usually only last for a half-hour to an hour before the sun comes out and everyone runs outside to see the damage.

In Congo, they have these storms too, but they last alllllllll day. From 6am till 1pm it rained like God was bringing another flood. If you took one step outside—you were instantly soaked. Also, the cars/trucks here are well worn out. They go through so much just trying to drive down the roads here, and they carry so many people, so basically their water-proof-ness is limited or nonexistent.

So this morning Priscilla and I ran out of our house to our ride, trying to avoid the rain, and then got into the car and realized it was leaking water from everywhere. It was hilarious. We were riding to the hospital with the Tenpennys, and the whole time we just laughed at how wet we were getting!

Once at the hospital, everything seemed to be at a standstill. Everything and everyone was soaking wet. There were no morning devotions or morning reports; it was pretty much just a morning of sitting-until-the-rain-lets-up.

Once it did let up, I was exhausted and slightly dizzy because I was super dehydrated and hadn’t eaten for over a day due to my diarrhea and upchucking fiasco. So I went to one of the guesthouses to lie down for a little and eat some bread. When I started feeling better, Priscilla and I headed to the Eye Clinic that just opened today at the hospital. Dr. Samoutou is an optomologist, and he started the Eye Clinic. So now that the Samoutous are back in Congo, the Clinic is open again! So we went there and learned a little bit about the equipment, helped take inventory, and just hung with Dr. Samoutou for the morning.

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around the hospital, helping out here and there by taking vitals.

After the hospital we headed back to the Mission for dinner and just some good old hanging out with the Harvey fam (here is a picture of their house).

Goodnight!

If you want to become a missionary, or serve at all in Congo, there is a

Right-Of-Passage

This right of passage is a required day(s) devoted to diarrhea and throwing up.

Everyone must experience it, endure it, or become destroyed by it.

Cause: usually food or worms.

Priscilla conquered her right-of-passage our second week here.

I was conquered and destroyed today.

Battle began at 9am.

I spent the entire day at the Wegner’s house rotating from bed to bathroom.

I had lots of people taking care of me.

Everyone here is a doctor or nurse, so that was helpful.

And that was my day.

Please pray for strength and recovery.

Yesterday we went to an Aka village that was about 6 miles south of the Mission to do the clinic, and today we went to an Aka village around 8 miles north of the Mission. Driving in Congo is always an adventure; it is almost like a video game. There are enormous potholes all along the road, they are more like craters than holes and they are often filled with thick mud or water. If you get carsick easily, driving in Congo is not your cup of soup. And if the potholes weren’t enough to avoid, there are also tons of crazy motorcycle drivers, goats, and often herds of cows (pictured below)!

Today we were headed to an Aka village on the opposite side of town so that we could visit their church and go on a hike through the jungle.

Oh, also, when you drive somewhere, you never have less than 10 people in the car! So while we were headed to the Aka village we picked up about 20 Aka children to come to church with us; so there were about 27 people packed into Mama Sarah’s truck! It was such a blast because we taught all the children how to sing “In the Jungle” as we were driving down the bumpy road! Well…we actually just taught them the “wee-ma-wet-a-wee-ma-wet” part of the song and us mundeli sang the harder lyrics, but hey, they got it down!

Today we were headed to an Aka village on the opposite side of town so that we could visit their church and go on a hike through the jungle.

The church was small, had a dirt floor, and benches were made of plywood balanced on large stones (pictures below). People dressed in the best apparel they had, which was sometimes very close to nothing. Most of the younger children had a large shirt but no pants or underwear. The service was so joyful and so real. People worship God all over the world, but I’ve never seen such a passionate and real form. These people have absolutely nothing, but they still sing the loudest praise to God; one song often continues for 10-15 minutes!

After the church service, we all changed into pants and gym shoes, ate some small snacks, and then headed out on a hike through the jungle behind the village’s “medicine man” and a bunch of Aka children. I say “medicine man” because the Aka like to use a lot of natural plant-medicines to bring down fevers, soothe aches, draw out poisons, and much more! So on our hike this man pointed out those plants and what they are used for (they use the bark of this “bleeding tree”—pictured below—to soothe eye pain; I took this picture though because like WOAH the tree is bleeding!). There is also another picture of some leaves…but it’s not just leaves, can you find the surprise?

The hike took us about 2 hours because we stopped so many times to learn about the plants and also to try different fruits growing along the way. One of them is called coco, (not chocolate) that feels like you are eating a nut that was stuck inside a slug, but it was delicious!

After a long day of hiking and singing we headed back to the mission, showered, and then had Sunday Night Live. For this week’s Sunday Night Live, Priscilla and I shared our testimonies. It was kind of crazy telling my testimony to mostly strangers, but as a Jesus-lover I do believe that there is no better place to start when getting to know someone.

Goodnight!