God has been so faithful in not only showing me what medical missions is like every day at the clinic, but through many conversations I have been having with Felix and Nema. Each time I walk away with my mouth gaping and my mind spinning; it is not an easy or comfortable life by any stretch of the imagination. They have had so many struggles with workers who steal, workers who abuse patients, workers who say one thing and do another. In Africa nurses go to school for three years and then are required to work for at least a year wherever the government puts them. Many times this is in a village where they are the only health care professional (no doctors.) They are looked at as gods because in African society you don’t ask questions, you just let the person who knows fix everything. So many of these new nurses will be practicing skills wrong, prescribing incorrectly, or harming patients without anyone to check up on them, rebuke them, or teach them correctly, all the while having patients think everything is fine. Then when they finish their time they come and get a job with this mindset of being all-knowing, and continue to treat patients in the same way. Nema says she wishes she could grab those nurses before they are a year in and teach them how to care on the patient’s level. Nema shows me a servants heart. I am learning how to love people more like Jesus does by watching her work.
This week a team of Navigators came to Burkina Faso for three weeks to run a camp. I went with Felix to the airport to meet them and really enjoyed greeting the newcomers and filling them in on tips of life in Burkina (proper greetings, typical meals, never wearing tennis shoes, etc) They came over to Felix and Nema’s home for a meal and for the first time I felt like I wasn’t the guest in their home, but a friend making others feel welcome. I helped squeeze lemons with the girls to make fresh lemonade and drove with Felix around town at 1030 pm to find fresh French bread! They will come to the clinic later in their trip to help out, so it will be a blessing to get to spend more time with them.
It has continued to rain at least three or more times a week. This past Saturday my friend Egier and I went out again on his motorbike to see more things in Ouaga. On our way back we drove right under an enormous dark cloud which drastically changed the temperature and pelted our skin with forceful drops of rain. Before hand, we saw one of the three dams in the city and also road out to a town, Loumbila, where there amidst huts, vendors, and donkey carts of the rural terrain is a resort-type area with a pool, playground, and beachfront. It was a perplexing site. Egier let me try to drive the motorbike, and well, I’m not too good. The changing of the gears is difficult for me, and I really wish I had learned to drive a manual car better previously. A highlight of the day was getting to drink mango juice with ICE!!
The clinic has been busy this past week, and I have never felt so many burning babies before. My knowledge of pediatrics is limited, but its not hard to tell when a child comes in with this dim look in his eye and hardly responds to your touch that something is really wrong. 40 degree C temperatures (104F) are all too common, and many of these children are hospitalized and receive treatment for malaria. Three more babies have been born, and unfortunately I haven’t been there to see the births. I really enjoy getting to hold the newborns (they are actually little here unlike so many chunky American babies!) and pray for them while looking into their deep dark eyes (also hoping this helps them to learn not to be afraid of white people!) I do wound care on two or three patients a day typically - seeing many motorbike accident wounds, dog bites, and burns. One elderly woman has an enormous wound on her ankle and comes in almost every day to have it cleaned and wrapped. I really enjoy the 10 minutes we spend together shooing the flies away and working the betadine into the crevices of her leg.
I realized this week that I am getting used to African nursing in some aspect. Setting drip rates with my watch instead of a machine, filling out patient’s little blue books that hold their medical information instead of having hospital records, sterilizing equipment to get it ready for the next use, etc. Call lights, hospital food, bedrails…what are those?
I would ask for continual prayer in interacting with patients and workers. I have written many verses out in English for the workers, and enjoy slowly repeating proper pronunciation with them. I pray to be bold with patients in my limited French and try to interact with them even better. I am asking God to make me be a nurse for Him, the ultimate Doctor, who gives the true healing. I just want to be the person how helps people follow the Doctor’s orders.