Today is the perfect time to write an update, so I am doing just that. The presidential election is today, so everything in town is closed, including the roads. We actually had to get a permit to use the truck for hospital emergencies today. It’s good that we did, since there was en emergency c-section at 9:00 this morning.

This week has been full of excitement here at the house as well as at the hospital. The brother of one of the workers at the mechanic shop (at the hospital) came to me two days in a row, begging me to teach him English. The first day, I wasn’t sure what to say, so I kind of just listened to him ask and brushed him off. I don’t really have a ton of extra time to be giving English lessons. And, one thing I am learning quickly here is that if you say yes to one person about even the smallest thing, a line forms behind them with a whole bunch of people each asking something of you. It is very important to stick to doing what you are here to do and saying no to most everything else. It’s hard to explain and even harder to get used to, especially if you are a generous person! Then I got to thinking, and I remembered that Danielle was telling me about how badly she needed a Lingala tutor. Then it hit me; a trade. The second morning, when I was asked, I made the offer. He gladly accepted. Now, he comes 3 evenings per week, for an hour each evening. The first half-hour, I teach him English. The second half is spent with him (his name is Openal) teaching Lingala to Danielle. Since he speaks very little English and Danielle speaks very little French and no Lingala, I translate Openal’s French into English for all of his instructions for Danielle. It works great, and I even get a little help with my French this way!

Tuesday had some excitement, but of a different sort. I was on the tractor at the hospital around noon, mowing some grass behind a couple of the buildings that are housing some of the staff that came up from Kindamba. I was finishing up, but I noticed a small sliver of grass under a palm tree behind me. To make less work for Jean-Claude, who was doing the push-mowing, I backed up to get that last little bit and then I was going to put the tractor away for the day. At least, that’s what I thought. When I backed up, I disturbed a wasp nest that was attached under a low-hanging branch of the tree. Within a few seconds, my head was swarmed with wasps. To make a long story short, I ended up getting stung somewhere around 60 times on the back of my neck, my ears, back, arms, and hands. It was pretty painful, but I got over to the pharmacy, where Sarah Speer looked me over. A few minutes later I received an IV injection of 200mg of hydrocortizone, to get the swelling to go down. It did nothing for the burning and itching, but it did help the swelling go away. By Wednesday, I was feeling a whole lot better.

This morning, an Aka man came to the door holding what looked like a small brown ball in his hands. After a minute, I figured out what it was. It was a pangolin. It’s a spiny anteater. They look a lot like an armadillo with a long tail and small brown armored plates all over it that are like a flexible shell. The armor goes from one end all the way to the other. They are actually pretty cute little critters. He wanted me to buy it as a pet, but we are still unsure what is ok to keep as a pet and what isn’t. He assured me that it was a good pet and that you can feed it bread. When I said that I wasn’t interested in any animals right now, he moved on to the sob story about how he was hungry and had no money and no food. The guy just caught this thing in the jungle, and I think it is probably a little harder to get than bananas. If not, he could always cook the little pangolin if he was that hungry. Again, it is hard to turn people away, when you are here to help them. But, these people are good at coming up with stories, and they think the white people are an easy target. It’s still hard to say no.

Aside from all of the fun, there is plenty of work to be done here. I have taken inventory of all of the tools and supplies at the shop and put it all in a spreadsheet, so that we can easily sort through all of it to find things when we need them. I have also begun a routine maintenance schedule for all of the motorized equipment on the hospital grounds. It might seem pretty basic, but none of that was being done before. If we take good care of what’s there, it will mean less money spent and time lost replacing things or fixing needlessly broken things. There is a “to do” list a mile long that was waiting for our arrival. I am whacking away at a couple of things each week, which is about as fast as anything can get done here. In a couple of weeks I am expecting the arrival of the rest of my tools that have been stored in Brazzaville. Once I have those things I will begin to tackle some of the larger projects, including repairing a dead truck and the large stationary diesel generator. In the mean time, I am sticking to what I am sure I can do with the tools that I have on hand. In the next week or so, we will also begin some building renovations to prepare for the nursing school to open (hopefully this Fall).

Danielle and Michael are getting ahead with some school work, while the Harveys are gone. That way, they can take a break when the Harveys first come back. Michael is having fun playing with some of the children around the mission, as well as building with his Lego’s. Danielle is learning how to shop here.  She goes with Serge once a week to the market (a little bit here and there, spread out all over the place), and she is starting to know where to go to get what she needs. She is also learning how to cook here. Things are a lot different, but she seems to be doing fine.

As you keep us in prayer, please continue to pray for our language-learning. We thank God for His provision of Openal in that area, but we do still have a lot to learn. Outside of that, we just ask for prayer for general protection (not that we are in any known danger) and for God’s continued provision and strength to do all that He has put us here to do. Thank you for your prayers and support. Thanks to God for the fact that we are here, all of our needs are met, and that we have the opportunity to be used here by Him. Thanks to each of you for your involvement in that, as well. Until next time, God bless!