5 Cent Mission: Thanksgiving Sunday

These are some flowers. They're nice.

These ones haven't bloomed yet. Not quite as nice.
I'll show that picture in another post

More flowers... They're for our moms for Mother's Day.

No Monks Here

We drove up the mountain behind the hospital on Saturday. It is a narrow, tight winding road all the way to the summit. In spots there is barely enough room for oncoming vehicles to squeeze past each other. You have to honk before each corner to signal to possible oncoming traffic that you are coming around the corner. The drivers of the motos coast down the mountain with their engines off to conserve fuel for the couple of minutes it takes to get to the bottom which is where the main gate of the hospital is.

This is what happens when you - or other drivers - don't
pay attention on the mountain road

While driving up, the big Land Cruiser showed its weight and lack of power. The diesel engine struggled if I tried to shift above third gear, even second gear in some spots! The Land Cruiser is big and solid and pretty safe compared to most other vehicles on the road, however. We enjoyed the great views as we drove up, looking back down on the hospital and the rolling terrain below.

The view from one of the lower switchbacks to the hospital
grounds (just below the small cloud of smoke at the foot of the
mountain) and the runway. The freshly mowed runway!

Once up on the top we made our way to the little town of Digbe' Danyi. There's not much to see there but a little roundabout with some village directions written on some sign posts. There are lots of little farm fields carved out of the rugged hillside, most no bigger than an average yard in North America. Maize, manioc, and all types of tropical fruit trees are farmed by these people – by hand!

A maize or corn field. That's all of it, the whole thing is in the picture.
No need for a tractor or harvester since they could
barely turn around in the field.

Drying manioc on the side of the road.

Women carrying harvested leaves on the way into town.
I don't know how they could see where they are walking.

The view down main street, as we drive through another little village.

Saturday is 'funeral day'. We passed at least three funerals in the little villages. It was hard to tell the difference between a funeral and a party, though. Usually there were lots of people in bright clothing, laughing, singing and dancing in the yard of the person hosting the event. Occasionally loud music could be heard through our open windows as we drove by. Definitely a different view of death here. Or, maybe any excuse for a party will do...

Our destination was a monastery that we had been told about. We found it, but the place was pretty dead. There was some construction going on at some of the buildings but they were behind a gate we didn't bother to cross. It wasn't even very monastery-like in appearance. Maybe Togolese monks are different? We won't know, we never saw one! We left after twenty minutes and thought we'd go to see the nunnery a bit further away, since this first stop was a bust.

Massive fruit on a tree. Someone said it was dragon-fruit.
Any experts care to shed some light on this??

The only view we had of the chapel

The daily reading list?

For our boys, this guy was the most exciting thing about this stop!

The sisters were home. They had a very nice chapel. The main doors were really cool. Beautifully carved double sized doors that pivoted in the middle on an axis. The chapel had a very high bamboo roof. The sister who showed us into the chapel went across the room and out the other door and rang a big bell. We were waved back into the chapel instead of out into the courtyard she was ringing the bell from. We went back into the chapel, but nothing really happened there for a couple of minutes. Hopefully they didn't ring the bell to call people out for our benefit! Disappointed with the monks and the nuns, we loaded up and drove back toward the mountain descent.

I loved this door!

The trip back to the hospital compound was uneventful, but not without great views of the valley, the village of Tsiko and the small farm plots, bush and jungle below. It was fun to get out for the afternoon and explore a little bit more of the countryside the people that the hospital serves live in.

Check out this road going through the town. You don't want to
go off the edge... Unless you have a good 4-wheel-drive.
Then it would be fun!

Thanksgiving In May

On Sunday we went to the Eglise Baptiste Biblique in Tsiko. It is only a twenty minute walk from our house and many of the hospital staff attend this church. We arrived on time at 9:30 in the morning, but found the church packed! They pulled extra plastic chairs from a storage room and stuck them right at the very front of the church. We were stuck between the brass band and drums on one side and the bass guitar, keyboards and more drums on the other side! It was... perfect!!

A picture of the church from the road, with the little Sunday School
building at the rear.

The sermon was spoken in Ewé (pronounced EV-ay, a local tribal language) and translated at the same time into French. The preacher was an enthusiastic fellow. He was all over the platform, up and down the stairs, pumping his arms and just being very expressive. His translator was much more placid, a funny counterpoint to the preacher.

It turns out that once a quarter, the church has a Thanksgiving Sunday where they raise funds to complete the construction of the Sunday School building located just behind the main church building. They collect a special offering during the service and they even had people guessing the amount donated. They were short of CFA 200,000 (that's approximately $400 US) by just a few francs, so they had a few people offer to give more to get them over the hump! They were excited by the results.

It was also the day that the kids were to be given the Samaritan's Purse Christmas shoe boxes. Our home church, and many individuals and families, have packed these very same types of shoe boxes to be delivered to underprivileged and third world kids around the globe. It was so cool to be in a location where the kids were receiving them! I know, Christmas shoe boxes - five months late??? These kids didn't care! There were 100 boxes to be handed out, but there were more kids than boxes. They actually took names and registered the kids who didn't receive a box in case more are delivered to the church.

Kids with the Samaritan's Purse boxes

Another Baby Is Born

I know that there have been lots of C-section stories, mostly because they are the most fun to tell, compared to improving infection control, sorting through inventory of resuscitation equipment or similar. But this one is a bit different. I got in on the action this time, as well!

Christine received a call around 9:30pm that there was an emergency C-section at 10pm. She asked if I wanted to come along. That's a no-brainer for me. I almost beat her out the door (my sandals took longer to get on).

Ready to go...

So, Dr. Gail, Dr. Samantha, Nurse Jonathan, Bertrand (the anesthetist) and scrub nurse Komi, Christine and I were in with the mama-to-be. Dr. Gail prayed with her before she was put to sleep (the epidural didn't take so they went with general). The section was okay, but the hole was a bit smaller than the baby so they had to make the incision a bit larger. The baby came out limp. No scream or cry. They handed the baby to Christine and she got started with clearing the lungs and airway of the baby. Still limp, not breathing on her own. Christine started bagging the baby to get air into her lungs. About 14 minutes later Bertrand and Christine intubated her and continued bagging. I helped by passing the suction tube and making sure the oxygen saturation monitor – a little clip-on thing that would fit over my finger – didn't fall off the baby's foot, and staying out of the way! Then she began to move her arms and legs. Still not breathing on her own. Christine continued bagging and listening to the lungs for any sign of air getting into them. This went on for over an hour and then – boom – the little fighter decided to breathe on her own! A sigh of relief from all in the OR and then Christine took the baby off to the Maternity Ward to introduce her to a proud first-time father! A happy ending to a intensive and intense hour of work.

Christine is ready for the hand-off...

Dr. Samantha holding the brand new baby

Isn't she sweet looking...

And the proud papa!

It was great for me to see the team work well together. It also made me proud to see how well Christine worked in a situation that was building in stress. She was great, calm and professional and thorough in her work, able to work well and interact with the other staff who were attending as well.

And here is the reason for us being here, doing the different jobs we do...

One of the Togolese chaplains explaining the need for a relationship with Christ to a couple of families. He uses a cube with different steps on each side.

As for my work, today five of the maintenance staff (including me) were sent to the local Christian Junior High School, just across a field from the elementary school in Tsiko, to help them with lights. The had two single CFL bulbs in each of the four classrooms. And the wiring was pretty sketchy looking, to boot. We pulled that out and ran nice new wires properly, and installed four 3-foot fluorescent lights in their place. It was a hot day today, and more so up in the rafters near the steel roof. The kids will be able to see better, that's for sure.

This is before...

This is after.

More Pictures

These are just pictures we've taken of life in Tsiko and around the area.

Mangoes are in season, and falling on our house, on the road, everywhere.
One mechanic replaced 3 windshields this week from mango strikes!

This young girl and her brother stopped by to sell carrots.
Funny, no expression for the picture, but smiles all the rest
of the time.

Family members sleeping outside the hospital
while their loved one is inside getting care.

A 5' + long snake skin the boys found. That's the skin it shed,
which means there's a bigger snake out there still!

I have to show off our carpenters. Kossi (#1), Togbe' and Kossi (#2)
do a great job building all of our doors, cupboards, window frames
and so much more. Plus, they're funny guys