So it’s been forever since I’ve posted and I’m sorry. Honestly….I just didn’t know what to write exactly. My life is in constant flux right now with nothing set in stone and every time I think I know what’s going on and feel like I should update everyone, everything changes and I’m left with the carpet ripped out from under me waiting to find out what’s going to happen. I was getting tired of telling people I was going to be doing (fill in the blank) and then having to back track a few days later saying “Oh right….yeah, I thought I would be doing that…..but it looks like I might be doing something else instead….I don’t really know what, but it doesn’t look like it will be that anymore.” So I’ve kinda stopped telling people anything at all. Thus the silence on the blog. So, I’m sorry and you’re about to get a really REALLY long post trying to update you.
FYI….I still don’t know what I’m doing of where I will be living/moving to or what’s going on. I’m kinda frustrated about the whole thing and getting the silent treatment from God right now about what’s to come so yay for that.
But instead of concentrating on the future and everything I don’t know….let’s look to the past and see if I can catch everyone up on what’s been going on these past 2 months or so….
___________________
I went to Uganda! That was amazing. And hard. And beautiful. And interesting. And difficult. And challenging. And wonderful. And about a million more emotions all rolled into one. I helped lead a team that consisted of one doctor, three nurses, and six lay-people (which included Matt, all 3 of us interns, and one of our board members). We worked at a very remote hospital with a partner organization, Kissito, where our nurses helped take care of the in-patient wards, our doctor helped out with surgeries, and the rest of us tried to be as helpful as possible. I spent most of my time behind me camera taking pictures and documenting as much as I could and then learning as much as I could about the hospital and trying to be an encouragement to our nurses who were struggling with figuring out what needed to be done most at the hospital. This was SafeWorld’s first time working with Kissito and bringing a team to the Bugobero Hospital so a big portion of the trip was to just learn about the hospital and how we could better prepare and serve there in the future. Below are four stories told by four different team members of what we experienced while working at the hospital:
A Rush Delivery
Alicia Pearl – Pediatric Nurse – Louisville, KY
As a pediatric nurse, I felt very under qualified for my week of working in a maternity unit, but I was willing and excited to serve the people of Uganda anyway I could. My first bout of real excitement came, at about 11am on my first day when I hear screaming from down the hallway in the delivery room. I rush in to see a woman on the floor with the baby’s head half way out. Not knowing what I was I doing, and quickly realizing I was the one with the most medical training, I gloved up and helped the baby out the rest of the way. My first successful delivery in a third world hospital with no electricity, water, epidurals, nothing. What a rush! I cleaned up the healthy baby boy and got to hand him to one proud mother. I have to admit I was pretty proud at that moment, too! To help bring new life in the world was so amazing. Words can not describe the emotions felt from this experience. Some said I glowed as if I’d just had a baby myself.
Pain of Life
Rachel Spinks – SafeWorld Intern – Bristol, TN
Beatrice is a young woman from Bugoberro, Uganda. When our team met her, she was lying in bed 13 of the hospitals maternity ward. She was 30 weeks along in her pregnancy, had been infected with malaria and just suffered a fall as a victim of domestic violence. The trauma of the abuse inflicted on her combined with the malaria took the life of her unborn child. As our nurses did the rounds each day in the maternity ward, we watched Beatrice lie in bed 13 each day. Women waited to deliver or cuddled their newborns throughout the ward, but Beatrice would never hear the voice of her child. She quietly continued to wait, enduring a great deal of pain, for the delivery of a baby she could not raise. A simple bed net can protect an expecting woman and her unborn child from malaria. Caring for people as we would care for ourselves shows that people like Beatrice and the baby she lost should be valued and shown respect.
Brink of Death
Sarah Herbert – SafeWorld Intern – Bristol, TN
I walked into the maternity ward at the end of the day and told our nurses to load up to head back to the guest house and they looked at me and said “Not until he gets help.” I looked down at the bed they were standing next to and saw the week old baby that had come in the day before that was on the brink of death. He hadn’t been fed since his birth and was quickly fading even after struggling the day before to get an IV in him. His breathing had slowed to six times a minute and he was becoming very still. I watched as our nurses put a breathing masked on his tiny face and began to breathe for him. I watched silently, listening to our nurses murmur “Come on baby, breathe. Do it yourself,” trying to will the life back into him. With his condition not improving and with no oxygen at the hospital to give him, two of our nurses loaded into a car with the baby’s mother, to endure the hour long drive to the next closest hospital that did have oxygen at it. Once there, they left the parents with the baby now on oxygen with some money to buy food and a promise to check in on them in the morning. But the next morning when we got to the hospital they were gone. We were informed that early that morning the parents had unhooked their baby from the oxygen and IV, taken the money that had been left, and walked out. After two days of struggling to keep him alive, he was gone…
Joy & Perseverance
Katie Garrison – Pediatric Nurse – Raleigh, NC
Elulcan. Translated “John” for us Americans. One of the bravest young boys I’ve ever met. With one of the brightest smiles I’ve ever seen. Sweet Elulcan was brought to the hospital in Bugobero by his equally kind-hearted father with a painful abscess on his right arm, extending into his elbow. He was stoic throughout each and every painful procedure, including frequent debridement of his wound as well as intramuscular injections of pain medication. He ended up having to be admitted to receive several days of intravenous antibiotics. Every morning the team arrived to the hospital we were greeted by smiles and warm, broken English by Elulcan and his family. I learned a lot from my friend throughout our time in Bugobero. I learned joy in the midst of sorrow. I learned strength in the midst of pain. And most importantly I learned perseverance in the midst of adversity.
___________________
Returning from Uganda I went straight home to be with my family in NC. I stayed there for about two months and spend Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years with them while attempting to do support raising. I say attempting because overall it was an epic fail. Now, understand, I am TRULY blessed and grateful for the people I got to talk to while at home and how they chose to partner with me and support me while working for SafeWorld…..I literally could not do this without them. But things overall did not go as I hope or planned (a repetitive outcome that you would think I would be use to by now) and I did not raise anywhere close to how much money I need which was a huge disappointment and struggle for me.
Something else that happened while I was at home was I heard from both the other two girls who were interning with me at SafeWorld, Rachel and Katherine, and both informed me they would no longer be working for SafeWorld. Rachel decided to stay home in Arkansas with her family and finish school, but still wants to help out with trips during the summer, and Katherine decided she would stay in Bristol for the time being (and is still one of my roommates) working as a waitress while she applied and pursued other jobs around the country.
___________________
So yeah, you’re basically caught up now. I moved back up to Bristol this past weekend and will start working at the local coffee shop again next week (which btw is being sold and once the sale is complete I may or may not have a job there any longer). I’m not sure what’s up next for SafeWorld or what I will be doing so once I know I’ll let you know.
I could really use your prayers right now as I try to figure out what’s going on. Like I said, my whole life seems to be up in the air and I feel like I’m stuck in limbo unable to commit or plan or hope for anything because everything keeps changing. It leaves me just waiting. And waiting and waiting and waiting with nothing to do to fill my time leaving me feeling useless. It’s really hard and it really sucks and i don’t know what to do. So prayers…..for direction, for peace, for assurance that I’m in the right place doing what God wants me to do, and for my heart to get on the same page as what my head knows to be true….that God is faithful, that He loves me and has a plan for me, that He has prepared good works for me to do, that all things work together for my good because I love Him, that He hasn’t forgotten me and that He hears me when I cry out, and lastly that this will all eventually turn out way better than anything I could have planned because He is in control.
Tags: hardships, hospital, support raising, Uganda
