For Such A Time As This

Last Friday my evening shift started off like most and actually was pretty calm. Around dinner time one of our translators called me into the kitchen to which I found Edith, our housekeeper, crawled up in ball on the floor in lots of pain. Edith is one of my favorite day workers whose wedding I had written about earlier. To make a long story short, we had her checked out and it was quite probable that she had an ectopic pregnancy which is very painful and would call for an emergency surgery back home. We do not do ob/gyn surgeries on the ship so we had to arrange to take her to a local hospital that evening. It was a total God thing that she was working for us to see her and get her to help immediately. She is a very strong woman and had been living with the pain for a while because her and her husband did not have money to go to a doctor.
I was not very busy and since she is so near and dear to me I was able to lay with her while she was getting tests done on the ship before leaving for a hospital. Ali was doing charge nurse with me and gracious enough to let me go to the hospital with Edith.

It was such a blessing to both her and I for me to be with her Friday and most of the day Sat. Edith was in so much pain and so scared. I was able to sit with her as we waited for the doctor and pray with her and sing. Several times when it got quiet she would turn to me and say, "Liz, you know what I am thinking?", and proceed to share with me her feelings about losing her baby, how her husband will deal with this, and questions she has about what is going on. She could not stop saying thanks to me for being there and at one point told me I was like her mom as I let her rest her head on my lap and stroked it. We are the same age and at that point I felt like I was her sister. Although our lives are so different they seemed so close. I could not imagine going through what she did without having another close female beside her for comfort and a good hand squeeze when the pain was at its worst. I waited with her until midnight just sitting in silence at times, and at others hearing her awesome testimony and about her family...1st husband who died, her one child, and her remarriage.

Finally we were told they were going to postone the surgery until early Sat. morning. I decided to go to the ship for sleep since her church friend was staying and come back at 6am. We were told she would have surgery at 5 or 6am. When I got there, there were no doctors in sight. She was fed up with the pain and wait so she marched down the hall to where the doctor was sleeping and knocked on the door to wake him up! Only in Africa do you wake your surgeon up to tell him to get a move on!

One of my dear friends and fellow nurse from the ship, Suey, came with Sat. which was so nice! We waited with Edith's husband and church family as they did surgery. Since I had worn my scrubs they actually called me in to watch the laparoscopic surgery. It was quite a clean and sterile environment...I was impressed with it compared to other places I have seen. The nurse would come out occassionally with a slip of paper with writing on it, upon which we would take to the pharmacy there to get what it was and bring it back to her (since you have to buy all your supplies in advance for medical treatment in Africa). About 30 minutes after they took her in we took the first slip to the pharmacy and brought back an ET tube. Suey and I couldn't stop laughing. We were like, well, "guess they havent intubated her yet since we are bringing her ET tube!" Later we were sent at times for IV fluids, antibiotics, pain meds, tubing, etc. We decided we could see what stage of the surgery they were at by what supplies they were sending us to get!

It was quite the experience to be with a friend through a surgery in an African hospital, but I believe God had brought us together earlier in the outreach and had me working the night she was here for a reason. God is always in control and I believe it was He who had her in so much pain here Friday night so we could get her help and I and some others could help financially since they would not have asked for it yet truly needed it! I was so grateful to be able to be with her through this difficult time.
"And we know in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." -Rom. 8:28

Please continue to pray for Edith and her family..that she may be free of infection and pain as she is still recovering in the hospital.



Some other interesting tidbits from those days for those of you who are not tired of reading...;)

-Sat. morning they had hung another IV after the 1st finished. The nurse left the room and I didnt think they would prime the tubing and would let the air flow into Edith that was left in the tubing since Suey has seen this done. So while the nurse was gone we disconnected the IV and primed it. Turns out the nurse came back to prime it and was probably confused to see no more air in the tubing...Suey and I just looked at each other and snickered.
-Recovery room consisted of a few nurses who were rarely in the room and checked Edith's blood pressure every 30 minutes for about an hour until the next pt came in and needed the vital machine.
-The whole surgery, medicine, hospital fees, etc. totalled approx. 200-250USD! A steal when you compare the same procedure to the cost of that in the states...yet a fortune for people here!
-We were not allowed in the recovery room unless we had scrubs...which I at the last minute decided to wear Sat. Suey did not so they finally gave her a sterile gown to wear. We laughed that to us it was more for our protection than the patient's as they left soiled beds just sitting there after the patients were long gone.
-The patients had to use their own buckets from home for bed pans and of course had to have someone go out and buy them food when they wanted to eat.
-Edith had to wait 6hrs post op before they would allow her to have even a sip of water.

I know there are more things, but it is 530am on night shift so if I think of more I will add them later:)

"Africa: 1 Yovos:0" -Suzanne Zickell circa Aug.2, 2009

I know...2 blogs in 1 day...I am really outdoing myself:) However, this is just a short funny story I had to share.

So tonight 4 of us who play tennis regularly went to the place we usually go for a little Sunday evening tennis. We went at 8pm which is a little later than usual, but not much. This is a fairly nice "club" by African standards. Well, we get there and the lights are off and it looks like no one is there. We are a bit confused but thinking since it was a Benin national holiday yesterday maybe it is closed for the weekend. We ask the guard why it is closed. He proceeds to tell us that all the workers decided they didn't want to work any more today and went home...there was no real reason they were closed, just that. LOL...TIA. We found this quite amusing, yet for some reason not a bit suprising. We pulled ourselves together after a good laugh and drove back to the ship. Right when we got back someone who had seen us leave asked us how tennis was and why we were back so early... in which Suey responds...well, lets just say, Africa-1, Yovos-0. For those of you who do not know, yovo is what all the African people call white folk. Anyhoo...pretty funny. I laughed so hard.

Im going to have to try that one when I get a job someday back in the states. "Ya know boss, Im just not feelin like workin right now..think Im gonna head home for the rest of the day."

"Excuse me, can I get a pair of briefs with my drink?"

By now I have figured out that the moment you think you don't need a camera is when you will regret not having it. Last week a group of us went for a walk after dinner to get some passport pictures for a Togo visa. On the way back we decided to stop at O'Grille...a local favorite...for a drink before heading back to the ship.

We sat down and proceeded to order while looking at the table next to us and noticed a group of 3 African men getting a drink and a man selling them boxer briefs. The briefs were layed out all over the table as the men rummaged through them. We all found this quite amusing when Richard, one of the guys with us, mentions that he actually needs some. Well, of course we couldn't let this slide and helped wave down the brief salesman to come to our table. We insisted that he buy some from this guy...seriously, how convenient! We helped him pick out 3 pair of the non sketchy looking ones.

This is where the bardering comes in. None of us can speak much french and we were trying to get him down on the price. The concensus was to try and get the 3 pair for 1,000 cfa each. It was quite amusing watching us all try to do this each our own way when finally I yell out, "trois (3) for trois". He understood this, but everyone was dying laughing at me and my amazing french/english combo. I don't think I'll hear the end of that for awhile. All in all it was quite the successful outing...passport photos, drinks, and briefs for Richard. Ya just never know what goodies you'll end up finding on a trip out:)