First Blog Post

I have no idea how to start a blog.

I wish I had a great opening life changing tear jerker but I'm seriously coming up blank.  

There is so much I would like to say but I wish I could sit down with each and every one of you and just have a real conversation, telling you about the last few months that I have been in Africa.  Telling you some great stories that I know you would love.  Letting you know how I thought of you, how you helped me with your encouragement, how you impacted me, how you made me laugh, how blessed I am to have met you or how much I miss you.  We could talk about the amazing moments I have had where I find myself overwhelmed with love for these amazing people and their incredible strength and endurance, appreciation, and just pure happiness to be me and be where I am right now on this wild adventure.  I could also tell you about all frustrating moments experiencing "african time" and how that means anything but time, learning that there is never an appliance, vehicle, battery, bike tire, phone, computer, camera, plane, stove, or road that doesn't seems to break or cease to function at every pivotal moment when you need it.... seriously....everyday, every situation.  I have forgotten about the existence of a smooth, problem free, ridiculous situation free journey.  I could tell you about the times when I feel like such an outsider, being called a "mondeli" (white person) and having to defend the fact that I am not a millionaire and won't pay the bribe they think is no problem for me but I could also tell you about the times when I am sitting on the dirt floor of a hut in a pigmy village holding a small malnourished child that is just happy as can be and smiling at me while the village moms sing a beautiful tribal song, and I feel completely at home and can't imagine ever being anywhere else.  I could talk about the patients and families I have met and I wouldn't have to explain how much I have fallen in love with some of them, you would be able to tell by my stories, laughs and smile on my face, and I also wouldn't have to describe to you the pain that I have felt because of their suffering, the injustice they have experienced or the pain they have endured, tears could say all of that.  

Nadine and I (love and miss her so much)

         If I could rewind for a second and give a brief breakdown of my first 4 months in Africa on the Mercy Ship it would go something like this:  hospital ship, ward dance parties, beautiful faces revealed with removal of massive tumors, great friendships, amazing patients, happy stories, devastating stories, happy endings and times where there is nothing to be done, living with 6 girls (surprisingly it was so easy), God sent roommates and friends (you know who you are :),  P-Squared, the most incredible african singing/drums and music, Nadine and Angilique (2 of the most amazing women I have ever met), countless games of Connect 4, life risking morning jogs, eye opening orphanage visits, senior centers, lots and lots of fried plantains, insanely hot-muggy-dusty-sweaty-humid weather, amazing race congo, hiking at the gorge, death defying taxi rides, amazing Congolese day crew translators and Sibissi (my first jungle rat meal).

Angelique and her mom(one truly amazing patient)

                    About a month ago I said goodbye to the big hospital ship and to some pretty incredible people and started off on a new direction.  After quite a journey through the capital city I headed up into the northern jungle of the Congo and landed in the city of Impfondo to volunteer at  Pioneer Mission Hospital.  I could only wish that I was a talented enough writer to put down in words what I have experienced and how I have changed in the past month here and do it justice, but for now that is quite the impossible feat as I have never done a blog before and am thinking this is turning out to sound more like a book report than anything else.  

         Just in the past hour, I knowingly ate several bugs that had made their way into my trail mix because I didn't want to waste the M & M's, I looked out the window while I was writing this and there was a family of goats wandering around my front lawn, I almost stepped on a chicken when I opened the front door, I took a cold shower from well water (because there is no such thing as hot tap water), I made tortillas from the only cooking appliance I have which is a small propane camping stove while rocking out to Nigerian reggeaton and listened to my roommate's account of how she just went to go meet people at the airport and ended up on the runway helping fix a part on the plane because the plane broke down and she was one of the only people at the airport that could speak english as well as the local native language. 

Mbote Amitee!  

In the past week I have taken care of more people with advanced malaria than I can count, seen a boy that I have been taking care of since I got here that was an inch from death due to malnutrition, meningitis and pneumonia sit in a wheelchair and smile and try to say "Mbote" to me (hello in Lingala), I have seen people die simply due to lack of diagnostic tools or treatment options, I have also seen patients survive and improve beyond what I even thought was possible, biked with my roommate and friend, Mama Sarah,  through a jungle road to a village outside of the town where the pigmy people live to bring food (stuffed into my massive basket that I have on the front of my old rusty beach cruiser bike), do wound care, and listen to Mama Sarah tell them a bible story.  I have been bit by the most interesting looking bugs while in the middle of giving meds or starting an IV, and I have chased gigantic African wasps out of the Emergency Room to the complete amusement of all the patients and their families.  I have been so hot that I just sat down on the floor of the ward to find some coolness.  I was invited to a coworkers house (they are typically 1 room huts made out of mud) in town and was taught by her and all the local neighborhood children how to prepare and cook some of the local food (who knew that it would take coming to Africa and having to pound out leaves in a wooden bowl while being cheered on in Lingala to get me to learn how to cook.)  

Mama Sarah and I

         My roommate (Mama Sarah) deserves an entire book to herself so this puny paragraph will not even attempt to do her justice....but she is an incredible woman.  She has been here since the 80's working as the town's "community nurse" with her main focus on the elderly people with leprosy.  She rides an old rusty speed bike all around the back roads, dirt paths and even jungle trails to take care of her patients that she only refers to as her friends.  She is tough as nails, kind as can be, caring beyond what I have ever seen and has a sense of humor that never ceases to get me rolling. 

swing on the jungle swing the pigmy village
people just made for us???  Of course! :)

Well I will have to save the rest for another day.... writing about everything turns out to be a lot of work and life is calling me :)