March 15, 2015 - Shelley

March 15, 2015

We just returned from the Katuba Stake Conference.  I’m always amazed at the faithfulness of the local people!  Below

is a photo of the stake choir in their matching outfits – same fabric for all of the ladies but made up in individual ways.  The format for the conference was the same as at home with only a few differences.  (1) The power (lights, fans, microphone) went off and on many times. (2) A revival-type church located across the street blasted away all through the meeting – it sounded like a total party!  Other than that, it was great and the building was packed!

I had a cooking lesson this week from Kieu, our landlady.  She’s such a sweet

gal!  One day one of our guards was picking the leaves off of some vegetables that Kieu had bought.  The photo shows that.  He was helping Kieu prepare sombe – pronounced SOAM – BAY.  She took the leaves, which are from the cassava plant, and cooked them along with onions, dried fish, garlic, and her secret ingredient:  peanut butter!  I’m sure that it’s very nutritious, but I just couldn’t quite choke

it down.  The sombe is on the right in the photo below.  It is served with rice or foo foo and has been a staple in the Congolese diet for centuries.  Don’t worry – she didn’t see us try to eat it and I thanked her for helping us to understand the culture.  But I gave the

food to Emmanuel in the office.  Steve

told us that he likes to eat other things, but until he has eaten foo foo and sombe each day, he hasn’t had a real meal.  It’s apparently very filling.

It’s nearing the end of rainy season and the foliage everywhere seems to grow a foot everyday!  Below are some

flowers in our yard, and the corn in our neighbor’s yard has reached the edge of his roof.  I can understand now how the jungle gets thick so quickly.

Our humanitarian water projects couldn’t get any slower at being approved, so the week has been a bit frustrating.  Fortunately, Operation Smile has returned and contacted us to provide volunteers.  This OS campaign is different than the last one here where they repaired cleft lips and palates.  We are a part of a pilot program to branch out into other surgeries.

The surgery that they will be doing is to repair obstetric fistulas.  It was explained to me that when a mother giving birth should have a Caesarian section but can’t – it can result in severe internal damages and tears – or “fistulas”.  If the mother lives, it can leave her incontinent and she becomes shunned by those around her because of her “unclean” smell.  Here these most often occur in remote villages.  It’s such a tragic situation, especially if the baby dies and/or her husband leaves her.  OS said there are approximately 6,000 women in the Congo who are living with this condition.

OS went to village a few weeks ago and did preliminary screenings.  There were more than 100 ladies who had gathered at the health center there in hopes of being chosen.  Some walked for days to get there – several had been there for six months waiting outside with only a pot for cooking and a mat to sleep on.  Out of those, 40 were chosen.

We have already grown to love the director of this campaign.  His name is Tim Lu.  He’s young, grew up in Ohio, and is engaged to be married soon.  He’s very kind and well-organized.  He asked our translator, Steve, to recruit volunteers and to set up a schedule.  This is quite different than our first experience because we are only dealing with adults and most of them have come alone.  A private plane has flown the patients here from the village.  They will be here for a week before surgery in order to get nourishment and build up their strength – then for a month more to recover.   The doctors will arrive on the 21st.

Steve, back right, asked two people from each of the three LDS stakes to be in charge of four days each – to find and train the volunteers from their stake.  Mainly the tasks will be to bring meals up from the kitchen and to transport patients to and from surgery.  Tim is in the green shirt.

This is the first group of patients to arrive.  They’ve each been given a bed and some basics to care for themselves.  Tim even bought fake flowers to brighten up the hospital room.  This hospital is a total relic – except for a brand new operation room – which is why the surgeries are being done here.  Other than that, it’s a four-story building with no working elevator and no running water!  Below is an example of one of

the rooms.  The sticks are to hold up their mosquito nets at night.  There are two rooms with 20 patients per room.

Sendwe Hospital, where the surgeries are being done, apparently used to be state-of-the-art when Belgium had control of the country.  Patients  were brought here from all parts of the country.  It’s really huge and spread-out, but now it’s practically empty.  There are a few patients here and there, except for the maternity wing, which is very busy.  One of the local Stake Presidents is the hospital administrator.  There is a morgue next door, which can be quite disconcerting when there is weeping and wailing going on!  Anyway, it’s a perfect place for OS because there is plenty of room.  The patient below has just received her dinner meal.

I just have to say how wonderful I think these volunteers are, too.  Transportation is a huge issue because almost no one has a car.  It takes several transfers on local transports (vans) to get anywhere – and most of these volunteers are unemployed.  No one is giving them money to get there or food to eat themselves while they are there.  It’s not like they can just stop at Wendy’s on the way.  Outside of the hospital gate are ladies under umbrellas selling bananas, peanuts, and other local food items – but the volunteers have to buy this for themselves.  That’s one reason we have grown to love Tim.  On both of the training days, he brought the training team food for lunch – even pizza!  That’s very unusual for here.

As I mentioned, there are a few other patients in the hospital – mostly broken bones, etc.  These little gals were just

too cute to pass up!

This week we wish a Happy Birthday to Annsli Claire Davis who is turning six on St. Patrick’s Day!  Clark is having March Madness symptoms.  He and Dr. Mikesell check the news sources everyday to try to live vicariously through the experiences of others.  He’ll probably make it, but any bones you could toss his way would be greatly appreciated!  Have a great week and thank your family doctor for anything and everything he/she has done for you!  Thank you, Dr. Keller!!!  Love,  Mom/Soeur Davis