Lost in The Work

We continue to stay, for the most part, happily busy for which I am grateful. Sometimes I even find myself lost somewhat in the work—missing home less these days. Occasionally I still get those twinges of homesickness. Funny though, I miss my office back home—treating patients and actually having control to some extent over what happens.

We are here as ‘advisors’ and that can bring many frustrations. We do our best to give good advice and to find the best care, but ultimately we can’t please everyone, even though we would like to. What is even more frustrating is that we are totally dependent on the health care system here. Once we check a patient in to the hospital or have them seen in a clinic, we have to trust someone else’s judgment and decisions. Again not everybody is happy. Some doc’s will listen to our suggestions (as long as we are subtle and ask nicely), and some get outright defensive about having their decisions questioned. What is even harder is doing this from a distance.

In Nigeria, we have had lots of problems. Lately the country is having a bit of unrests—riots, kidnappings, and strikes. In a couple of our missions, our missionaries were on lockdown for the first part of January as it just wasn’t safe to be out and about. To complicate things we had a few frantic calls. We had missionaries who really needed to been seen at the hospital and the hospitals in the Lagos and Enugu areas were ALL closed. This went on for about 2 weeks. We would get a call from the mission president asking us to call one of his missionaries…they are at the hospital and having very bad chest pain, stomach pain, or breathing problems—but the hospital was closed and no one is able or willing to see him. We had a few of these calls but all turned out to be things we could handle over the phone. I would send them to the pharmacist and get them to put the chemist on the phone, then I would go down a list of meds until we found something appropriate, then I would tell them what to do, how to take it and to call me back after a few hours.

We were very worried about a serious problem that we wouldn’t be able to handle. No help at the hospitals, no flights out on the airlines. Needless to say, we asked for help (you know…from above) and then we didn’t really worry about it. Finally we got a call from an Elder with suspected appendicitis—and thankfully that was the first time that I had heard the hospitals were actually back up and running. We felt this to be a great blessing.

Now, it wasn’t all that easy as he had seen a doctor who refused to talk to me, ‘diagnosed appendicitis’, and was going to send him home for the night with antibiotics and have him return the next day for surgery. (I am not sure, but sometimes common sense seems to be hard to find.) Things just didn’t add up and we couldn’t get any answers. Finally, I just had him and his companion leave, catch a taxi and head into Enugu (by the mission home). There we have a good hospital (also open) and a good doctor who was willing to talk. Anyway, he was admitted, taken to surgery shortly thereafter and today is doing great.



Anum-Apapam Presby Primary School



We have big plans to complete before we finish with our mission. Some goals are easy, while others seem to continually elude us. We get our heads in a project and often forget why we are really here. While most of our work does not deal face-to-face with missionaries, occasionally it does, and this is when we again get little ‘celestial glimpses’ of the big picture. We all have our little part, and by doing it, the work gets done and the Kingdom rolls forth. Our job simply is to keep the missionaries doing theirs. The work here is inspirational.

"Each and every one of us is born with the light of Christ; as missionaries, it is our job to ignite the celestial spark."…Elder Moyo (Sierra Leone Mission)

We keep the missionaries healthy so they can continue lighting those sparks.

We have been travelling around the eastern part of Ghana this month and have had the opportunity again and again to meet missionaries, meet members and to see hospitals. I made a list today and I think we have been in close to 30 hospitals and clinics in the last 3 weeks. At times it can be really fun, but a lot of time is spent on the road, or waiting for this doctor or that administrator to come visit with us.

Brother Larbi--school teacher in Anum-Apapam

SOS Clinic in Monrovia--Liberia; I love this hospital!

We finally made it to Liberia this last week. We worry the most about these missionaries. They are living in perhaps one of the toughest missions (in my opinion) in the world. All of the missionaries live without electricity, they pump their water by hand, they get to use a generator at night for 3 hours, there are no refrigerators, half of the time there is no propane for the stove—they use charcoal, no fans, and they dump water from buckets to flush toilets. Now living under these conditions makes it hard to stay healthy, but wouldn’t you know it, this is by far our healthiest mission. It is hard to get nutrition. Out of 42 missionaries that we saw, there were only two that have not lost at least 10-15 pounds.

Missionary Health Screeningin Monrovia

The most awesome peole in Liberia--the Krumms and the Kirkhams

This little clinic is out a ways, but our missionaries in the area can use it for malaria/typhoid testing

Of course, not a single missionary is unhappy, and yes we did feel that charge!

We feel guilty coming home to Acrra in our air-conditioned apartment, with running water, lights, and a back-up generator that kicks in within seconds when the power is out. Plus we swim in the pool every day for exercise (and relief from the heat).

We have a new MTC president. They are settling in fine—off and running the first day. They have a huge group (the biggest one ever here at the MTC).

Banana Market in Anum-Apapum

New library and computer room and Presby Primary School

We spent a morning in Anum-Apapum at an elementary school. We were there seeing a member about his hearing loss and need for new hearing aids. The town was delightful. We just pulled in and the councilman flagged us down and straight away jumped in to the care and took us on right to the school we were looking for. I tried to give him a couple cedi’s, but he refused! We had a great visit, we met the member, his headmaster, lots and lots of children and they showed us the new library and computer room they were working on. We are going to put them in touch with the humanitarian/welfare missionaries to see if they can help out. The best part was the market—it was a big banana market—pretty cool.

So when we have a sick missionary in the hospital that does not improve instantly, we want to blame the system, blame the doctors, or blame the country. We want to scream, to shout, and to holler until ‘something’ is done--when the prudent thing to do is just be patient and trust the decisions being made by those people trained to make them.

Elder Bland is one of the best!

 

We have an ongoing service project at Deseret Hospital--mother and midwife who had just given birth

...and healthy baby just minutes old

  We had two Elders from Sierra Leone this month released for medical reasons, (we sent them both home for joint problems). One had his hip replaced within a week, and the other bilateral knee replacements. No, they were not senior missionaries, just young missionaries with old joints. Another missionary was transferred out of Africa last week from Accra because of recurrent stomach infections. He was one of the best. I feel bad we didn’t try harder to keep him here, it is easy to second guess these types of decisions.

There are a few other odds and ends from the last couple of weeks as well. Sister Wood who recently celebrated her 82^nd birthday fell and broke her shoulder. She is one stubborn woman! There is no way in the world she will even consider going home. I put her In a sling and we will see if we can get this healed up. She is an inspiration. I took her to get the X-ray on Saturday morning and told her it was broken and that we should get her home to find a sling, rest, etc. I was going to drop Sister Fife off at the MTC so she could get us ready for our immunization session as we were close by. Sister Wood was more concerned about all the French Elders at the MTC who had arrived late and needed their paperwork done for the temple on Tuesday. Needless to say, we spent the day at the MTC and she worked all morning with the missionaries until they were all ready and only then was she satisfied to leave. If only we could infuse a little of her into some of our younger missionaries... 


I took a picture of Sister Woods X-ray to send it to Salt Lake--turned out Pretty good
I loved this game in med school: whats wrong with this picture?



…staying well, and at times sane in Africa
Elder and Sister Fife