“BITTERSWEET”
– Revisited (Medical Missions)
(F Black – July 2015)
I was reminded of my article,
entitled “Bittersweet”, written upon return from serving at Chimala Mission
Hospital Third World ?” à “CHANGE:
LITTLE and very SLOWLY!!” The
only glaring exception is the presence of the cell phone. Even Masaai men, cattle herders from deep in
the “bush”, have cell phones. They’re cheap,
and people pay for their minutes of usage. -- I always wonder, “Who calls
them?”
First
of all let me tell you what I didn’t miss during our month in Tanzania Kingdom of God
I’ll
give you just a few examples of the galactical differences in your world and
the world of the people of Chimala:
The
evil spirit world (animism) is all too alive and well. One morning there was a disturbance at the
hospital. It seems the uncle of a three
year old albino child had come during the night to steal the child from his
mother. Why? He planned to sacrifice the
child and sell his body parts for witchcraft activities (apparently in the evil
spirit world the genetic difference of albinism holds some “special power.”).The
boy’s mother and some other family helped fight off the uncle. The child was uninjured but his mother was
admitted for some injuries. The uncle
had been apprehended and was taken by the police. My comment to the people
there was, “Mungu amekuwa na uwezo zaidi.” (God has more power).
We
had a seventeen year old girl die from complications of “local medicine” she
took to cause a miscarriage. Abortion is illegal in Tanzania Third World ”]. At this same time
we had another young girl who took the same ‘medicine’. She survived but did lose the baby.
They
sound much less dramatic and almost mundane; but trust me, we save more lives
treating malaria, dysentery, and pneumonia than the much more ‘exotic’ sounding
diseases.
Difficult
decisions: The first thing one morning I
was checking Obstetrics as usual. There were two women in labor with their
first pregnancies. Both women were having difficulty, and both babies were
showing signs of extreme distress. I
sent the lady for a C-section first whose baby seemed in the most distress. Shortly
after surgery, the baby did well. There
was about an hour between the two C-section cases. The second baby was severely
depressed – not breathing on its own for about 45 minutes. The baby died the next day. Why am I telling you this? We have one operating room. A decision had
to be made as to who went first. The extra hour was just too damaging to the
baby. Two simultaneous C-sections were
needed. Just not possible. Add this to
the list, “What is Third World ?” Can you just
imagine the ramifications of such a situation in the USA
On
a much lighter note: We had a
hippopotamus bite one day. Fortunately,
the man was able to outrun the hippo and was bitten on ye ol’ bohunkus. - Not
something you’re likely to see in the St. Francis ER.
--------------------------------------------------
Of
course most of my time was taken up being a doctor, but I was able to give
devotionals at the hospital, pray with patients, speak at church, and give a
series of talks on HIV/AIDS – some for the hospital staff and some during a
Seminar for young adults held at the church on the Mission
---------------------------------------------------
It
was a special pleasure for Lou Ann and me to have our granddaughter, Hope
Faidley,with us. She’s mature well
beyond her 16 years. She didn’t just
“tag along” but pitched right in and helped us medically, just like the Harding
senior nursing students.
I
conclude with the same quote used last year:
“You have the blessing of
location.
They are the victims of location.”
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