Sunday 29th November
Wow don’t the weeks fly past?
This week we were busy getting police clearances, certifying all our important paperwork for the adoption. We are hoping to get a court date this week. Still a lot to do before we can take our new daughter to America, passports, wavers, all bureaucratic #~@’:;/.,
The sun is shining and we have 210 university kids in town, to paint, to help out wherever and to give them a life changing experience! It happened last year and there were twice as many. I have the job of making waffle batter every morning for two weeks before going to work – that should be fun.
We have a new midwife starting at the clinic this week, at last, we can restart antenatal care, PMTCT which will be a great help in our little town.....
This is going to be short today, I am recovering from a stomach bug – was really sick yesterday, threw up and had the shivers and temperature so I am not feeling 100%. Hopefully more news to report next week.......................
Sunday, 29 November 2009
Saturday, 21 November 2009
Visit to ER and personal update.
Friday 20th November 2009
We got a call at 12.20pm, an accident in the forest, send the ambulance. Julia our ER nurse went with Bert our ambulance driver. Deep deep into the forest on the outskirts of Bulembu. Whilst workers were felling trees, a branch had fallen on a 25yr old guys head, a freak accident, he was bleeding profusely from several puncture wounds on his head and out of his left ear. He was barely conscious, Julia bandaged the head and ears up, she cannulised and started an Intravenous infusion. On their way back through they pick me up and I sorted out the IV as there was air in the tube so on the bumpy road to Piggs peak I changed the tubing and pushed fluids. Julia held his head as we thought the neck may have been injured too. It was touch and go, he was having trouble breathing, and we used the ambi bag at one point. We were praying all the way that he would make it to the hospital! The journey to Piggs peak usually takes about 30 minutes – we made it in just over 15 by Berts expert driving skills.
We called ahead of time to the hospital to tell them we were bringing in a serious head Injury from Bulembu.
On arrival at the hospital there are no doctors in sight. A nurse comes and shows us into the mini theatre where there is at least a trolley with essential equipment to intubate a patient. The nurse administers dexamethazone and then the doctor arrives, the patient vomits and again nearly stops breathing. He vomits a lot of blood, suction and Oxygen is brought in – he is suctioned out and finally intubated by another doctor. This is Africa and Piggs peak Hospital is so badly equipped it’s horrifying! At least they have intubated to stabilise him, He is put into their ambulance and transported into Mbabane (the capital) another hour’s drive away, to be admitted into the Government hospital. He is sent to ICU and the next day we hear he is still alive barely, we continue to pray for the young man from the forest............
Hubby has been asked to step down from being Principal of the school at the end of this year. The NGO Ministry feel he is not the right one to take it forward to cater for the ever increasing numbers and conflict has been growing as we see ourselves as missionaries and BMS want to see us as employees. They want to employ people who have the right career motivation, experience and qualifications. They agree he has done a wonderful job of building the school up to where it is now and the new job description for ‘Director of Education’ looks like the exact job Hubby is doing right now but they say he has to apply if he wants the job!!!
Probably too complicated for me to explain here and I’m pretty confused about the whole deal anyway so not sure I can write it down. But we would appreciate your prayers as to the next step we should take regarding the whole thing. God is faithful and I believe He engineers circumstances. He’ll lead the way and knows what’s best for us.
We got a call at 12.20pm, an accident in the forest, send the ambulance. Julia our ER nurse went with Bert our ambulance driver. Deep deep into the forest on the outskirts of Bulembu. Whilst workers were felling trees, a branch had fallen on a 25yr old guys head, a freak accident, he was bleeding profusely from several puncture wounds on his head and out of his left ear. He was barely conscious, Julia bandaged the head and ears up, she cannulised and started an Intravenous infusion. On their way back through they pick me up and I sorted out the IV as there was air in the tube so on the bumpy road to Piggs peak I changed the tubing and pushed fluids. Julia held his head as we thought the neck may have been injured too. It was touch and go, he was having trouble breathing, and we used the ambi bag at one point. We were praying all the way that he would make it to the hospital! The journey to Piggs peak usually takes about 30 minutes – we made it in just over 15 by Berts expert driving skills.
We called ahead of time to the hospital to tell them we were bringing in a serious head Injury from Bulembu.
On arrival at the hospital there are no doctors in sight. A nurse comes and shows us into the mini theatre where there is at least a trolley with essential equipment to intubate a patient. The nurse administers dexamethazone and then the doctor arrives, the patient vomits and again nearly stops breathing. He vomits a lot of blood, suction and Oxygen is brought in – he is suctioned out and finally intubated by another doctor. This is Africa and Piggs peak Hospital is so badly equipped it’s horrifying! At least they have intubated to stabilise him, He is put into their ambulance and transported into Mbabane (the capital) another hour’s drive away, to be admitted into the Government hospital. He is sent to ICU and the next day we hear he is still alive barely, we continue to pray for the young man from the forest............
Hubby has been asked to step down from being Principal of the school at the end of this year. The NGO Ministry feel he is not the right one to take it forward to cater for the ever increasing numbers and conflict has been growing as we see ourselves as missionaries and BMS want to see us as employees. They want to employ people who have the right career motivation, experience and qualifications. They agree he has done a wonderful job of building the school up to where it is now and the new job description for ‘Director of Education’ looks like the exact job Hubby is doing right now but they say he has to apply if he wants the job!!!
Probably too complicated for me to explain here and I’m pretty confused about the whole deal anyway so not sure I can write it down. But we would appreciate your prayers as to the next step we should take regarding the whole thing. God is faithful and I believe He engineers circumstances. He’ll lead the way and knows what’s best for us.
Saturday, 14 November 2009
Weather changable.
Friday 13th November
The weather is getting warmer, every morning the sun comes up and then it shines all morning, the usual pattern for the afternoon is rain, followed by thunder and lightning. That’s pretty regular, the roads suffer terribly this time of year, because every time we have a storm, it takes another bit of road away again. Getting to Piggs Peak is a pain as you never know what to expect, fortunately we have a 4 x 4 car so we can usually manage. The weather this evening is deteriorating and the power is dipping on and off, that mean no internet either so I won’t get to post this until tomorrow!
It’s been another busy week! It looks like we should get a date next week with the Magistrate in either Piggs peak or Mbabane to do the adoption. Our foster daughter is looking forward to being part of our family; and the family are looking forward to her joining us as our new daughter and sister.
Bulembu continues to be a challenge, healthcare is essential and yet there seems little interest in people wanting to donate and support this. There is a lot of promised money for orphan care, for businesses like the bakery, the honey and the dairy but no funds available for healthcare and the school. These two essential services are obviously dear to hubby and my heart as we are involved in them, so there seems to be a lot of hardship right now and a lot of choices we have to make trying to manage both the clinic and the school with little funding.
We are being stretched way beyond our comfort zones at the clinic, emergencies come in and working in a rural setting with no doctor is way beyond my abilities so I am learning a lot from my Canadian colleague being ER trained and very competent in this area, I am also learning how to manage the other 3 staff and becoming an expert at ordering medicines, diagnose many different conditions and communicate with the locals through translators as I still have absolutely no siSwati in my vocabulary. A real learning curve totally. What the future holds I have no idea, I have to take one day at a time.
The weather is getting warmer, every morning the sun comes up and then it shines all morning, the usual pattern for the afternoon is rain, followed by thunder and lightning. That’s pretty regular, the roads suffer terribly this time of year, because every time we have a storm, it takes another bit of road away again. Getting to Piggs Peak is a pain as you never know what to expect, fortunately we have a 4 x 4 car so we can usually manage. The weather this evening is deteriorating and the power is dipping on and off, that mean no internet either so I won’t get to post this until tomorrow!
It’s been another busy week! It looks like we should get a date next week with the Magistrate in either Piggs peak or Mbabane to do the adoption. Our foster daughter is looking forward to being part of our family; and the family are looking forward to her joining us as our new daughter and sister.
Bulembu continues to be a challenge, healthcare is essential and yet there seems little interest in people wanting to donate and support this. There is a lot of promised money for orphan care, for businesses like the bakery, the honey and the dairy but no funds available for healthcare and the school. These two essential services are obviously dear to hubby and my heart as we are involved in them, so there seems to be a lot of hardship right now and a lot of choices we have to make trying to manage both the clinic and the school with little funding.
We are being stretched way beyond our comfort zones at the clinic, emergencies come in and working in a rural setting with no doctor is way beyond my abilities so I am learning a lot from my Canadian colleague being ER trained and very competent in this area, I am also learning how to manage the other 3 staff and becoming an expert at ordering medicines, diagnose many different conditions and communicate with the locals through translators as I still have absolutely no siSwati in my vocabulary. A real learning curve totally. What the future holds I have no idea, I have to take one day at a time.
Friday, 6 November 2009
Don't give up!
Friday 6th November
What a week! It started with another resignation from the clinic. The male RN gave me his resignation with immediate effect. Why, was the question we were all asking? Clinic conditions – small wage and not enough staff, well it is only going to get worse! It leaves me and my Canadian counterpart. Thankfully she is still here until February. We both speak really good English but no siSwati ! My next task was to go and see the decision maker and find out there is no money for healthcare so no one else will be employed.... what about the ‘on call service’? I have decided to stop that from Monday next week. It is too much for two of us to manage with working 7 – 4.30 Mon – Friday. We are in a battle in this place, fortunately I think that means we are making an impact here in Bulembu. But it’s been a tough week in all areas, so much so that I have no idea what the future holds. In the village a local swazi woman is spreading rumours around that I have not cared for her properly because of an incident that happened concerning her. But this is Swaziland and unfortunately she knows of no other way to behave, she is an individual that has no care for her children and is keen to make trouble for others. All I can do is turn to Jesus and give all these troubles to him!! 1 Peter 3:8-9 " Finally all of you should be of one mind, full of sympathy toward each other,
loving one another with tender hearts and humble minds. Don't repay evil for evil.
Don't retaliate when people say unkind things about you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing.
This is what God wants you to do, and He will bless you for it " (NLT)
All I can do is look forward and take one day at a time .On a very positive note, we went in to see if we could get the international passport for our foster daughter, the passport office in Swaziland said they need the adoption papers before they will issue an passport for her. As we are ready for this to happen, we are hoping this will speed up the process and get sorted before the end of the year…we are really excited about taking her out of Swaziland and into other interesting countries. We have seen a big change in her since she has been with us full time, she is relaxed and even catching some of that skinner humour! Being adopted will give her a British passport and a world of opportunity awaits her.
What a week! It started with another resignation from the clinic. The male RN gave me his resignation with immediate effect. Why, was the question we were all asking? Clinic conditions – small wage and not enough staff, well it is only going to get worse! It leaves me and my Canadian counterpart. Thankfully she is still here until February. We both speak really good English but no siSwati ! My next task was to go and see the decision maker and find out there is no money for healthcare so no one else will be employed.... what about the ‘on call service’? I have decided to stop that from Monday next week. It is too much for two of us to manage with working 7 – 4.30 Mon – Friday. We are in a battle in this place, fortunately I think that means we are making an impact here in Bulembu. But it’s been a tough week in all areas, so much so that I have no idea what the future holds. In the village a local swazi woman is spreading rumours around that I have not cared for her properly because of an incident that happened concerning her. But this is Swaziland and unfortunately she knows of no other way to behave, she is an individual that has no care for her children and is keen to make trouble for others. All I can do is turn to Jesus and give all these troubles to him!! 1 Peter 3:8-9 " Finally all of you should be of one mind, full of sympathy toward each other,
loving one another with tender hearts and humble minds. Don't repay evil for evil.
Don't retaliate when people say unkind things about you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing.
This is what God wants you to do, and He will bless you for it " (NLT)
All I can do is look forward and take one day at a time .On a very positive note, we went in to see if we could get the international passport for our foster daughter, the passport office in Swaziland said they need the adoption papers before they will issue an passport for her. As we are ready for this to happen, we are hoping this will speed up the process and get sorted before the end of the year…we are really excited about taking her out of Swaziland and into other interesting countries. We have seen a big change in her since she has been with us full time, she is relaxed and even catching some of that skinner humour! Being adopted will give her a British passport and a world of opportunity awaits her.
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