Tears Dried on My Cheeks

I can still feel the tightness where my tears have dried on my cheeks. My eyes sting when I close them. It’s been one of those nights. Liz and I worked another night shift. We slept, or I should say I slept on the examining table in the temporary ER while Liz worked with the patients all night. When the evening started, Sara came over to tell us the little generator could be turned on for an hour to charge things, Hallelujah! So when I got the chance I dashed over to check my email which was the first in a while. The emails I got were good, but some make me quite emotional so when I got back to the ER and the new admit was finished and sent to their new bed I cried to Liz. Nothing terrible I just needed to let my emotions out. As the night wore on we realized sleep would not be as plentiful as before. We had several admits as well as patients who needed extra attention. The one patient who Liz worked with was a young 22 year old with heart problems. When she came 4 days before, she was a referral from another hospital, she was pregnant. The baby was born healthy a few days after the mother came in to our hospital. But now 3 days of no sleep and having to sit up so she can breathe the mother is fighting for her life.

That night Liz wasn’t able to find a blood pressure for her and yet we could see her jugular vein pumping at a furious pace. The new father had already paid all the money he had with him to take care of the birth and other meds the mother needed. He had no more cash on him. I awoke that night to hear Liz talking with him as he put his only sleeping mat he had with him on garage, that’s where you give your item to count as money. The father and husband had already given his bike on garage. He was out of options. Liz told him he could just take in his mat in the morning, she trusted him she said. I then drifted back off to sleep. During the night Liz had gone over to James to find out what else she could do for the woman who was so obviously fighting for life. It was close to two in the morning when Liz came over to where I was asleep on the examining table to ask me to go with her as she gave a med to the woman. Liz told me that this drug that James prescribed would either help her to live, or it would help her to die. Liz was afraid to do it alone, and I can’t blame her. I got up and went with her, the drug was to be given every 15 minutes and we gave it two her twice before she died.

It was awful. All that new mother wanted to do was to live and watch her baby grow, she wanted to have more babies for her husband, she wanted to fight and she fought as best as she could. There was absolutely nothing more we could have done for her; she was going to die eventually because of lack of other things to give her. As I stood there in the middle of that room while the family was finishing cleaning the body I saw the woman who was taking care of the newborn, she was strapped to the back as the woman worked. I felt like the grim reaper standing there with the gurney to move her out with. That morning after the sun had come up a bit Liz and I sat in the ER and looked out our window and saw the new father and new widower sitting on the bench in the cold just huddled up. He sat their for a long time. He came in to try and finish paying for everything and bring back the drugs that weren’t used. Liz told him to not worry about it, everything was paid for. He came asking also what to do about his baby, how was he to feed it? There wasn’t anyone in his family who could nurse the baby. He just had a look of helplessness about him; his eyes were red and sad. It just broke our hearts. How in this place where men beat their wives, have more than one and simply divorce because they don’t care could this one man who DID CARE loose his wife and be left with only a very newborn in his care. It was a very sad shift. When they took the body out both Liz and I went outside to stand in respect of the woman. And the tears came and dried on my cheeks.

Delivering Babies

Worked the night shift again with Liz. My role here is very much a backseat position. It’s good for me to learn to follow. I have to because I am not trained in this sort of field. There were two babies born last night. The first time I’ve ever seen a vaginal delivery. God is quite amazing. These women are so strong. The 1st woman was on her 10th child! So of course she knows the drill. In fact she felt the pains and new it was time. So by herself she gathers her cloths for the baby and herself and walks who knows how far to the hospital. When she gets here she sits on the maternity bed and her water breaks. We knew then that it wouldn’t be long for her. Sure enough within the hour the babies head is appearing and in no time we’ve got him out and tube clamped and cut. A lovely little girl. The most noise the 2nd woman made was when Liz gave her a shot IM (in the muscle of her thigh) of oxytocen – that helps the bleeding stop and firm up the uterus after the placenta has come out. And it was her second child at 22. The first one required a synfisiotomy so the baby would have enough room to come out, so this one we weren’t to sure how it would go and at one point we thought there might be a problem with the shoulders coming out, but nope all is well. The second baby was as Liz predicted a little boy; her theory was because the baby was causing so much trouble and difficulty.

It made me think of this:
For unto us a child is born. For unto us a child is given and He shall take away the sins of the world. A baby was born in the bush many years ago, the mother also didn’t have any modern painkillers, she might have felt very alone without her mother and without a proper midwife.

Never fear I am alive and well!

This is a letter that has been sent to you from the faraway land of Denmark, but do not fear I am safe and sound tucked away in my little hut of Béré. Here’s the deal. There were some rebels that attacked our capital, N’djamena, on Feb 1st –a Saturday, so to stop the rebels from communicating with each other the president turned off all cell phone towers for a week or so, then celtel (a phone company) got turned back on the following Friday. Tigo, the provider Liz and I use got turned on shortly there after. The only thing that has yet to return to normal is INTERNET!!!! That’s why you have thought I forgot about you, or why you think I no longer want to write you or why you cry yourself to sleep at night because you think that I forgot how to talk English! Don’t worry I have yet to do any of those things. As of today, Monday Feb 18, 2008, I haven’t been able to receive emails since the 1st of Feb and that is a LONG time for me!

Don’t worry about things with the rebels, they are okay now, Air France has started flying into the capital again and the rebels are back towards Sudan again. All of the missionaries from Béré were safe. Praise God it happened the week it did because the following week I, Gary, and any number of other visitors could have been up there in the capital. But as it was they didn’t happen that way because God had other plans for us.

I figure I could tell you a bunch of stories now, but I want to get this written to you so that I can give it to Camilla who is going home to Denmark tomorrow morning and will email it from her home in Denmark. I hope it gets to you!

In case you are wanting to communicate with me and the evil email isn’t working, please feel free to call me at my Tigo number or try Esther’s Celtel number here’s the info again:

My number is: (011-235) 964-3799
Esther is: (011-235) 681-0567

Remember there is a 6 or 7 hour time difference so that will need to be taken into account! There aren’t any area codes because there aren’t that many phones. And I am not sure on the country code, but you can look it up online. Hope this helps all of you who are just dying to talk to me :o) [I just added them in for you. --AK :)]

Here’s some calling card info:
*net2phone.com
Phone cards for .36 cents a min.
*voipbuster.com
This uses the internet to talk on the phone and its .13 cents a min
*Skype
This is the same as voipbusters.

Communication Update

Just called Sonya today to check on her since we haven't heard anything through email for quite awhile. They are all still doing fine, and their phone works, but internet is still down. She said she will be sending some email with someone who is leaving soon so they can send them for her. So hopefully we'll get some more blogs soon. :)

--Blog Manager (Andrea)

Communication Down in Chad at the Moment

This is not from Sonya, but from her blog manager, Andrea. Just an update on the situation in Chad right now...

Still no word from Sonya, but there is some improvement in the situation in Chad. Apparently they've been able to stop the fighting in the city of N'Djamena (about 200 miles or so north of where Sonya is), but things are still a bit unstable, which includes communication, according to this quote from The New York Times:

"Government television and radio remained off the air, and mobile telephone networks that were taken offline to hamper rebel communication were still off Tuesday."

This would account for the lack of communication since the weekend.

For further reading on the current situation:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/06/world/africa/06chad.html

Thanks for continuing to keep Sonya and the other SMs in your prayers during this time.