Africa Journal Day 5 & 6

Day 5
Mkar Guesthouse

Tuesday, April 26th was a wonderful day in our lives—seeing Andrew revisit his birthplace was very touching. We have pictures of him standing on the very spot where he was born, and we have talked to nurses who were present at his birth. People see him as one of their own.

Andrew is getting more used to the culture today—yesterday was overload for him. After sleeping and getting a feel for the importance of relationships in this culture, I think he is rather enjoying his time. Achir showed him around the village, and will climb Mkar Mountain with him tomorrow.

I did my first clinic today at the hospital and am starting to get a feel of the prevalence of the conditions that interest me from a research perspective. Depression continues to be very rare, and antidepressants are rarely prescribed. Suicide is also rare; my friend Terkegh knows of one completed suicide. Chronic pain is also relatively rare compared to home, and this hospital does not stock opioid pain killers.

After clinic today, we visited Terkegh’s compound and met all his family; he has four lovely children. We had our first feed of ruam, which I enjoyed more than Andrew. Then back to Gboko to post yesterday’s blog. Today, the Internet Café was like stepping into another world; the air conditioning was working, and for a moment, reading Cathy’s email put me back home. Technology can shrink time and space,

This evening visitors kept streaming by our room. I had a long chat with a dear friend, Peter Dzawua; he and his wife head up a Christian ministry that is impacting many lives. He said that people here are very open to faith, and are not embracing secularism as we see in the West. And Member, who frequently babysat Andrew as a baby, stopped by with her own family of five children. Her husband was just recently elected into civic politics.

All in all, a pretty full day; haven’t had much time for reading. I am thankful for the opportunity to be encourage local leaders to persevere. Speaking of perseverance, two staff I saw today deserve medals for longevity of serving—a nurse who heads up the Under Five’s Clinic, still serving at age 80, and an Operating Room technician, still there at age 90!


Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Day 6
Mkar Guesthouse

Andrew and I are sitting on the veranda at the guesthouse enjoying a rain. The wonderful thing about rain in rainy season is that it only lasts an hour, and everything cools down. Today was desperately hot and muggy; almost too much for me, not having had time yet to acclimatize. No one has a thermometer around here to actually document the temperature, but I suspect it is mid to high thirties, with high humidity.

Andrew climbed Mkar Mountain this morning with Achir; they hoped to see some monkeys that are known to hangout there, but didn’t. I had a full clinic day, and had my first face-to-face encounter with the African AIDS epidemic. Three of the people we saw yesterday tested positive; all were in the prime of life, and are likely to have several years of suffering before succumbing to their illness. I think I can already start to spot them. We will see a lot more AIDS in Malawi, where Dave and Joy Schellenberg work with AIDS orphans.

Supper today was with Rev. Joshua Yakubo, an American trained PhD in theology who is currently working on a translation revision of the Tiv Bible. He reminded me of the time I treated him for typhoid fever in the early 80’s, something I had completely forgotten.

The thing about Tiv culture that stands out the most is that these people are so relational—stopping to greet a friend or relative is more important than anything else. For example, we were riding back from Gboko last evening with a physiotherapist who works in a sister rehabilitation hospital (former BLS), when he saw a lawyer friend along the road. So he stops on the road in the middle of heavy traffic to say hi. Others seem to understand and just go with the flow. Everybody greets everybody. I suspect the reason for some of the resilience that we see is because of the strong social network these people have. My other theory is that the value placed on children here, stands them in good stead later. I can’t prove that, but I hope to demonstrate an association.

The highlight of my day was having a few moments with the student nurse helping me in clinic today; she had some spiritual struggles and questions, which I trust I was able to help her with through counsel and prayer.
We’re expecting Terkegh back shortly to take us to Gboko to check our emails and post my blogs. If you are following along, please send us an email to havisser@wholenessfc.com I would love you hear from you.