The rains have come, the mountains are green and there is a bit of wind for kite flying!
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Easter
We had a special Easter.
Two of the mission families with Lay Mission Helpers came to Njinikom to spend Easter with us. We had a wonderful time together and special fellowship as we shared these most holy days together.
Two of the mission families with Lay Mission Helpers came to Njinikom to spend Easter with us. We had a wonderful time together and special fellowship as we shared these most holy days together.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Achain is one of our outreach clinics. We go there once a month during the dry season. During the height of the rainy season, the roads are impassable except by motorcycles. It takes 2-4 hours to get there by truck depending on the condition of the roads. We work the day and then travel about one hour back toward Njinikom and stay the night in Ilung. The next day we work in Ilung and then head back to Njinikom.
There is no electricity and no cell phone reception. Light is only by "bush lamp" which is a kerosene lantern. We have a portable ultrasound that we use for patients with various complaints and for those who are pregnant. We are able to use the ultrasound battery, but this limits us to about 7 ultrasounds before the battery runs out. Many of the patients travel from even more remote villages for our once a month visit. Achain was able to connect the US to a generator and run it during one of our visits so that everyone who needed an ultrasound could have one. The connection was a bit precarious!
Recently, a very special Dutch friend of St. Martin De Porres, Peter van Leerdam, provided solar lighting for Achain. This provides a much more reliable, safe power source.
There is no electricity and no cell phone reception. Light is only by "bush lamp" which is a kerosene lantern. We have a portable ultrasound that we use for patients with various complaints and for those who are pregnant. We are able to use the ultrasound battery, but this limits us to about 7 ultrasounds before the battery runs out. Many of the patients travel from even more remote villages for our once a month visit. Achain was able to connect the US to a generator and run it during one of our visits so that everyone who needed an ultrasound could have one. The connection was a bit precarious!
Recently, a very special Dutch friend of St. Martin De Porres, Peter van Leerdam, provided solar lighting for Achain. This provides a much more reliable, safe power source.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
The hospital continues to be very busy.
We were blessed to have Drs. Greg Shay and Juliane Intek here this last month to help out. Dr. Greg is a newly retired pediatric pulmonologist from the Bay Area. Dr. Juliane is an almost finished pediatric resident from Germany. We kept them busy with the pediatric patients, sick newborns and prematures and learned a lot from them. When they weren’t busy with children, they stretched the age limits of pediatrics and helped out on the adult wards. Their oldest patient was just 104!
They also helped with our outreach clinics, continuing medical education talks (here and at the neighboring Baptist Hospital at Mbingo), and with screening exams at the children’s HIV clinic, the vaccine clinic, and at the orphanage.
Greg also taught the staff how to put in an intraosseous line. This life saving device and technique can allow us to give medications, blood and fluids when we are not able to obtain intravascular access.
Thank you Drs. Greg and Juliane.
We were blessed to have Drs. Greg Shay and Juliane Intek here this last month to help out. Dr. Greg is a newly retired pediatric pulmonologist from the Bay Area. Dr. Juliane is an almost finished pediatric resident from Germany. We kept them busy with the pediatric patients, sick newborns and prematures and learned a lot from them. When they weren’t busy with children, they stretched the age limits of pediatrics and helped out on the adult wards. Their oldest patient was just 104!
They also helped with our outreach clinics, continuing medical education talks (here and at the neighboring Baptist Hospital at Mbingo), and with screening exams at the children’s HIV clinic, the vaccine clinic, and at the orphanage.
Greg also taught the staff how to put in an intraosseous line. This life saving device and technique can allow us to give medications, blood and fluids when we are not able to obtain intravascular access.
Thank you Drs. Greg and Juliane.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
The last month has been busy. We have been going to the hospital's 6 out reach clinics and saw about 100 patients at our last village.
The hospital is busy, as well, with call every night for the last month. There is a predominance of females and again we see so many times it is the women who suffer disproportionally in the developing world.
During our time in the states, one of our favorite patients, Dublaise died. He had suffered so much with AIDS, Tuberculosis and the various complications associated with his illnesses, may he rest in peace. We feel blessed to have been part of this boy's life. We pray that we may be able to help prevent these illnesses in the future and to have the fortitude and grace to be able to continue to care for the others who have similar illnesses.
This photo is school children waiting to be seen at Ilung, one of our outreach clinics.
The hospital is busy, as well, with call every night for the last month. There is a predominance of females and again we see so many times it is the women who suffer disproportionally in the developing world.
During our time in the states, one of our favorite patients, Dublaise died. He had suffered so much with AIDS, Tuberculosis and the various complications associated with his illnesses, may he rest in peace. We feel blessed to have been part of this boy's life. We pray that we may be able to help prevent these illnesses in the future and to have the fortitude and grace to be able to continue to care for the others who have similar illnesses.
This photo is school children waiting to be seen at Ilung, one of our outreach clinics.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Friday, January 30, 2015
This is Africa
This video has many of the other volunteers from our sister organization, LMH. We are so blessed to have been able to come to know these incredible families.
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