One month down and two to go!

Sannu family, friends and church family,

We hope this update finds you well and that you all had a joyful Easter. We have been gone now from Canada over a month now and are enjoying our ministry here. It has been over two weeks since our last blog, due to a combo of infrequent electricity, terrible internet access and a busy schedule. So we will give you a couple of highlights.

1) We attended the three day SUM-CRC Annual Conference and were blessed with an excellent time of spiritual growth and teaching. There were about 50 missionaries/mission personnel there and it was nice to meet them all and fellowship with them. Rachel and I were in charge of planning a big Jeopardy like trivia game full of Nigerian history, culture, archaeology, statistics and geography. It was a tone of fun and we were even able to stump several of the seasoned missionaries.

2) Before Easter we rotated through the surgical division of the hospital. We attended surgical rounds, scrubbed in on several surgeries, shadowed nurses in the 4 bed recovery room/ICU and sat in on surgical clinic. There were several difficult situations we saw, many related to people going to traditional healers first with sicknesses or broken limbs. Then when the treatment fails and they are much worse, they finally come to the hospital. This of course increases the demand on the hospital and surgical team who are already maxed out on resources. The other hard case we saw was a victim of domestic violence. After seeing the patient, one of the Nigerian doctors explained to us the cultural issues involved in the case and how the hospital manages the situation and tries to help the couple. It was very informative though at times hard to hear. He also talked with us about medicine, political corruption, social issues and change in Nigeria. One cannot not help but feel humbled by how often we take things for granted at home…like consistent electricity, getting your pay check on time or at all, running clean water etc. He told us that one month the government decided not to pay him for his work at the hospital. He lost an entire month’s salary and there was nothing he could do about it but go home and pray that God would provide and that he would get paid next month.

3) On Good Friday Stephanie asked us to help her and Spring of Life do HIV testing. Not sure of what it entailed but eager to participate, we agreed. We ended up going to a facility… (well more of a wide open field in the middle of nowhere with several canopy tents up and zero bathroom facilities) where the Evangelical Church of West Africa’s National Women’s Conference was being held. There were around 10,000 women there all wearing beautiful bold and different colored clothing representing their tribes. Due to the lack of facilities, the groups of women all brought their own sleeping mattresses and cooking supplies and were sleeping and cooking wherever they could find room. Eight of us worked registering and testing women while one provided education and follow up resources for the women who tested positive. Out of the 6 hours of straight testing with only one 15 minute break, we were able to test 620 women. It was hectic but incredibly rewarding. To see all the women laughing, cooking and worshipping together was an incredible experience. One of the women we were working with captured the feeling perfectly when she said that “Women are the heart of Africa. It is through their resilience, love and efforts that life flourishes. They cook the food, work the fields, clean the houses, raise the children, often financially support the husbands, entertain the guests and keep the families together.” It truly was a blessing to have been there.

4) Last Saturday, we ran a sexual education day for young people ranging in age from 13 to 27. We put quite a bit of work into planning the day and organizing a lesson plan that would encourage the youth to participate in the discussions, get our information across and deal with the topics in a culturally sensitive manner. Overall the day went well, but the highlight was at the end when we had finished and told the youth that they could either take time to write their reflections on the day/write a letter to themselves, God or a friend, or they could go outside and play volleyball. To our great surprise and delight all of the youth took our offered paper and pens and began to write down all the things they had learned from us during the day.

5) This past week we rotated through the VVF ward which is a complication of prolonged childbirth and results in incontinence. There are many women who are affected by this issue here and thus the ward is always full and the doctors busy. We had the opportunity to sit in clinic, assess the women and view several surgeries. There is also a visiting doctor from Madagascar who is currently at Evangel learning about VVF. He is the only surgeon in his small rural hospital in Madagascar and thus responsible for every area of surgery. He is up here in Jos for 6 weeks to learn about how to perform and manage VVF patients so he can take back this knowledge to his hospital and staff. It was fascinating talking to him about his work in Madagascar and he graciously invited us to come visit his hospital and volunteer/work there if we are interested. Lol relax mom and dad, we still coming home…but there is a twinkle of interest in Rachel’s eyes every time Madagascar comes up…hehe.

6) For the past two Wednesdays we have attended women’s clinic at Gidan Bege (which means House of Hope in Hausa). During clinic we worked with the Nigerian translators to assess women, take their blood pressures and listen to their health concerns. Then they are prescribed appropriate medication and given a week’s worth supply. Rachel worked the assessment side of the clinic, using her finely tuned assessment skills while I worked pharmacy, dispensing meds. It was a bit of a zoo trying to assess the women in broken Hausa (Rachel ended up using lots of hand motions, facial expressions and pointing) and then trying to find all the different types of meds in the tiny closet that doubles as a pharmacy and somehow give instructions for use in Hausa.

Well that’s about it for now. Apologies for the length but again internet is scarce, lol as is regular electricity, so this is 2.5 weeks in one blog. We love you all and God bless.

Rachel and Lisa