Finally got online!

Our group. You now JB and me. In the front row is a friend, Comfort, and Dr. Chris & Dr. Mercy's daughter Emily. The main row includes their son Prince, Ajit, Kelsey, Dr. Chris, Tara, Mercy, and their youngest son Joseph.
As we left one of Faith Alive's satellite clinic, these school children chased the van. They don't get many visitors, especially not white ones. The satellite clinic just lost their male nurse to liver cancer. They are currently without a physician. When we came in, the man who is volunteering to help run it asked us what he should do with the patients who were waiting. Dr. Chris, Dr. Aquiris, Ajit, Tara, and JB split up and conquered the small crowd in only a few minutes. There were some disturbing scenes at this clinic, but I'll leave those for Tara, the medical gal's blog.

This is at the government school. I wish I had a better picture of the inside of the school. It is basically one room with wood benches and a front desk. I hardly see how it qualifies a school. They had us sign the guest book. We had been the 10th guests in about six months. They were thrilled to have us visit. I slapped hands until I was exhausted.

Ajit with his "man purse". We did not approve of this apparel. (I would not allow my husband to wear one -- ever.) I think we talked Ajit out of using it.

This is a very typical scene from the view of our vehicle. I asked about these goats. They belong to people and will return home when done "grazing" for the day. Their grazing is basically on garbage.

Here is the view from the rural clinic we visited. Nigerians LOVE to get their picctures taken. If they see you have a camera, they immediately say, "Please ... snap me" despite the fact that they will never see the photo. This is true in the "city" of Jos as well. The digital camera is also VERY popular. People love to see their photos.

The three gals in our new attire. Poor little Tara dwarfed by her tall, very white Oyibus.

JB and me after church on Sunday outside of Faith Alive.

This is is in the rural clinic. You can't tell that their are five doctor stations in this tiny room. You also can't tell how hot it is. This mother was concerned about her five month old's legs. However, after an exam by JB, he determined that his legs wre fine -- he was just not interested in using them yet.

This little girl will forever stay with me. Her name was Blessing. You can see the extreme "conjunctivitis" in her eyes. She never smiled but just kept looking at me, as if begging me to help make her life better. Her grandmother brought her in but then couldn't remember her name! This little girl can be easily treated, however the rural clinic does not have medicine. They will have to get her some in Jos.

Well, it took a bit of effort and trying (and Tara and I collectively brainstorming to no avail) but I finally figured out (with some encouragement from Ajit), how to post photos onto the blog! This means that I have now shared this knowledge with my fellow-blogger Tara, and she now knows how to load photos to her blog. This means that both our blogs should soon carry photos. It isn’t a manner of simply “loading” them as I do in the States. I think, due to the slow connection, that the files are too large and they never actually “attach”. So instead, I am loading them into PowerPoint, making them smaller and compressing them … well … you all probably don’t care what I am doing just that I can do it. So can I will. Hopefully from this point out, I will be able to share a picture or two with my faithful readers now and then. Ajit tells me people would be much more interested in pictures than words. However, over dinner, Tara and I argued that this was not the case. We spoke of my Aunt Janet and our mothers and other friends who do want all the details. You can take or leave them if you want, but they are here for you to peruse.

Thank you to those of you who posted comments. While I am not really checking email, the comments allow me to click only one time and read! That doesn’t take too long for the computer to process. However, just because I come downstairs to post a blog, doesn’t mean it will post. We are never sure when the Internet will be up or down.

As of today (Monday when I am writing this. Who knows when I will actually get to post this) we started our “normal” routine. This includes work in Faith Alive Clinic. Before leaving for Nigeria, one of the things I specifically asked for prayer for was my ability to be flexible. If you have prayed this, thank you. I am totally going with the flow and am very relaxed – just allowing the day to develop as it will.

One of the major differences in our adventure is that prior to coming, we thought we would be working at Faith Alive some but also at the local hospitals, clinics, orphanages, and schools in the area. However, this is not really the case. Instead, Dr. Chris’ “vision” was for us to spend most all of our time at Faith Alive – sharing information in both directions.)

Today, I shadowed JB as he saw HIV positive patients for their monthly checkup. Dr. Chris thought that me spending time with JB was a great idea. He said that if we do choose to go into medical missions, people won’t care that the “doctor isn’t in”. They will expect me to have an answer. I have often thought that getting a nursing degree or some other bit of healthcare background would be helpful (something I have ZERO interest in doing – I am a horrible science/math person). I realize now that, while it would be helpful, it is probably not necessary. If we end up in the mission field, it won’t matter what degree I have written on a piece of paper. It will matter whether or not I have the knowledge to help. Obviously a degree would help with that knowledge, but most likely, my help would be limited to key areas of which JB could easily educate me.

Okay, back to me shadowing JB. When a person has HIV, it attacks their immune system. The higher the CD-4 count, the healthier a person is. (I know, I know – can’t you just feel how much I am learning?!) Ideally, Dr. Chris would like to check a person’s CD-4 count often. However, it is expensive by Nigerian standards. (I think it is about $10 USD per test which is what the average Nigerian makes a month.) So instead, they use weight. As long as a person is not losing weight, they assume the CD-4 count is remaining relatively high. If they start to lose weight, then they test the CD-4 count. So JB would meet with these patients. If their weight was good and they had no complaints, he simply refilled their medications. If their weight was down or they had complaints, he learned different treatment options to pursue, examined their complaints, and wrote new prescriptions.

While this was interesting, I quickly realized that doing this with JB eight hours a day could be quite monotonous. (We actually work 8-12 and then 4-8’ish, taking a long break midday). The rooms are very small and there are so many people coming in and going out. The doctor and JB were sitting at one table, each seeing a patient. There was a nurse and an “appointment lady” (I’m not sure what else to call her) as well. And then there were just all kinds of people walking in and out and various times doing who knows what. One girl wanted to charge her cell phone so she started playing with wires to attempt to get her phone to charge. (Everyone here has a phone! This is one luxury item no one does without. And apparently, the average person also knows a lot about electrical work. I’d never start messing with wires!) When it was time for a new patient, they would just shout the name and in would come the respective person. The only exception is for the 10% of patients who want their status to remain secretive. Secretive patients are indicated on their files. Patients have an appointment but their appointment is simply for the day. From that point on, it is simply first-come, first-serve. You know what day to come but what time you come is up to you. How long you wait is up to how fast things move.

I quickly realized that anytime I grow bored shadowing JB, the people in medical records had plenty for me to do. There is no Internet in the building. While there are a few computers, getting them networked is still some time (and $20,000) away. So in the meantime, records are manual, filed in little cubbies according to the last two numbers. There is always filing to be done. Since I am an organization nut, this is definitely something I can always help with. They have told me that there would never be a shortage of work for me to do in this regard.

The other item (and the much cooler one) is Faith Alive’s magazine. It currently has only been printed one time. However, it is their hope to have it become a quarterly publication. The first night I was here, Dr. Chris said that he thought this was something I could work with Naomi (one of the “veterans” of Faith Alive) on. So today Naomi found me and we discussed this. I am so excited about this opportunity as it appears this will be something I can continue doing while in the States to help the organization! Who would have thought that the mission field could use a writer! The designer of the magazine lives in the states, and Naomi, who is a local Nigerian, just graduated with a degree in communications. However, she is not a writer, and they do not have any writers. How amazing is this opportunity?! I am absolutely thrilled about this. So, between (1) shadowing or helping JB, (2) helping in medical records, and (3) working on the magazine, I think I will be kept very busy in tasks that I feel like I can really help with. I would have loved to have gone to the orphanage/s more often, however, these are quite a drive and therefore require a lot more planning and organization. I am equally glad to stay close at Faith Alive which is just a short walk from our guesthouse. This allows me to go home for lunch and also to get some things done while it is light out.

In the meantime, there are many other things going on around the clinic. This is a free clinic. (Any money paid is simply a donation.) Most of the people are therefore very poor. There is an outpatient center and a TB area (where Tara worked this morning). I think they see pregnant women on Wednesdays and are soon hoping to be able to allow women to deliver in their facilities. Faith Alive had a fire a few years back (the result of a power surge), and they are still working their way back from this. This “work” includes a new surgery center which they hope to have up and running very soon as well. Kelsey spent her morning working with the counselors who counsel people pre- and post-HIV test. These people are often HIV positive themselves or counselors by trade.

Speaking of Kelsey, she will probably spend her time working on an Annual Report, possibly helping me with articles, working in medical records, or spending more time in the counseling area.

Aside from all the details of what we are doing everyday, I am still learning so much about this culture and part of the world. Weeknights are better as far as noise is concerned, however, as Tunde and Deola told us before we left, their really is no “quiet escape” as there is in the US. Once we go in our homes in the US, we shut out the outside world. Here, the outside world is an extension of homes. If you knock on someone’s door, you are ushered in. They often use the phrase “you are welcome” which initially confused us. (Did we say “thank you”?) But instead, this phrase encourages you to understand that you are wanted and that they are happy you are here. We printed some pictures before we left and stapled them together. This has been very helpful so we can show people where we live and how much snow is on the ground! They thought the pictures of our family were interesting because I was not shy around JB’s mother and he was not shy around mine. This conflicts with their culture where mothers-in-law require “shy” behavior. (I am still trying to determine what exactly this means.)

Our king sized bed has a mosquito net, however, it is not large enough for JB and I to sleep under. Instead we have been half sleeping under it and coating ourselves with repellent before bed. This was not working so well. We were waking up with many bites. I am not sure if they are mosquitoes or not, but nonetheless, JB found an extra net in Ajit’s room and rigged it so we both have one now. When I woke up this morning and climbed out from under my net, I grabbed my journal and used our cell phone for some extra light (a big “second use” of phones). The town of Jos was coming to life, and I was amazed at all the sounds that accompanied the morning. A broom (brooms here do not have sticks on them) wiping the floor, flip-flops clattering on semi-paved roads, motorbikes, honking, roosters, a preacher on speaker (yet again), ducks, jingling keys, water buckets sloshing as people walked, someone fixing a car, cars driving by, stores opening for the first time, conversations ensuing in Housa and English, men pushing carts of water … these are all things my ears recognized even though it was too dark to yet see anything.

Speaking of water, it is amazing how my perspective on this commodity has been altered. Very few places have running waters or toilets that flush. Instead, water is stored in barrels in bathrooms. If you want to wash your hands, you scoop the water into a small bowl, wash your hands, and then pour out the dirty water into the toilet (to help flush it) or down the drain. If you want to do laundry, you fill up two buckets with the minimum amount of water for the amount of things you want to wash. One is used for washing and the other for rinsing. (Although by the time you are done the “rinse” bucket is pretty cruddy as well. Does this mean I am doing something wrong?) If you want to flush the toilet, you scoop water into a bucket and throw it down the toilet. If you want to brush your teeth, you use bottled water. There are sinks and faucets, but the water rarely works. If you want to take a shower, you fill a bucket with water and take a smaller bucket to dump water on yourself.in the shower. I am amazed by the fact that no matter how hot it is, pouring cold water on yourself is still very, very cold!

Yesterday we were sitting outside and a spicket started spitting water. A man jumped up and yelled “Jesus is here!” Everyone then scattered for buckets to fill to use. If there is no water running (and I have yet to see it run in the house) you have to get it out of a well – something that is a lot more work. I find myself saving every drop of water I can. I never leave a glass of water “undrunk”. I try my best to save every bit of water as best I can. We also have bottles of water by our beds. It is so hot and you sweat so much during the night, that you often wake up unbelievably parched. I take a few sips and slip right back to sleep.

Speaking of commodities, it is nearly 9:00 p.m. on Monday evening. We have lights because of the generator. They will soon turn it off. I am therefore going to get in the shower before we opt to let our power go.

Good night all. I hope my novels aren’t too monotonous. I figure those of you who want to read can and the rest (like Ajit) can wait for pictures.

On second thought, maybe it is good morning. I have lost all sense of time.