I went to the hospital on Tuesday. And after a few hours was put into the hospital for the day on an IV drip. Hospitals in developing countries aren’t on my top 10 list of favorite places to hang out. I was with my dearest friend, Evelyn, but still. It was not pleasant. I have an infection… I won’t go into details you don’t need to know. The only problem is that the diarrhea is not a symptom of the infection I have… so the doctor was a bit confused and decided to keep me in the hospital for the day… because I hadn’t eaten in like 24 hours (because it was all just coming up/out).
I was a bit of a scardy cat. I really don’t like needles. And I really don’t like needles in developing countries. They are just a little bigger, not so pretty, and generally not very gently handled. I had to get stuck twice… once to draw blood, once to put in the IV. Neither were done super well. My vains don’t like needles either. When they were changing out my drip, the nurse decided that turning the needle IN my hand was a good idea. I screamed. Yeah, I wasn’t being brave that day.
So I demanded to be released, because the doctor said I only had to say 4 hours. They wanted to keep me over night, for the money I’d bet. But I demanded to go home and Father came and collected us around 4:30.
On the way home, Father Emmanuel laid down the law. I have to take ALL my meals from the priest’s house now. *sigh* … I lost that battle. We got my meds and went home. I didn’t go to the evening session of the DTS. I needed to rest. But I had a fun dinner with the community leader, Matthias, who finally joined us for a meal at the priest’s house. Lots of laughter and hilarious discussion about marriage… during which my friend Elizabeth offered me her brother. She was “offended” (not actually) when I told her he wasn’t educated enough. It was a good time of laughter. I was super hungry because I hadn’t eaten for a long while (except the lunch I had to take at the hospital which Evelyn magically produced).
I had to tell people I’d been in the hospital. It is super humbling. The evening I got home, I took some time to meditate on the fact that we are made of clay… and clay can easily become dirt, or break or crumble. My body is weak, why can’t it catch up with the rest of me!
I forced myself to be on my feet the next day. Finally I got to meet with the other staff member, and Fulgencia from Emmaus Community who is here facilitating for the week. She is great, one of my Mamas for sure. I basically want to be her when I grow up. I worked with her on my first tip to Uganda.
Right now the school participants are sharing their stories. I can’t even tell you how intense the stories are. These people are incredibly broken and in need of restoration and transformation. The process has already started, that is why they are here. But there is a lot more work to do. I am ready to start doing a lot of loving!
I have been consistently impressed with the staff. They are beautiful people. The school hasn’t really taken off yet, it’s just an intro this week. But there have already been several times when I just looked around me and was filled with gratitude for the wonderful Africans I work with!
No comments:
Post a Comment