July 11, 2011
We drove in to town today to run some errands and stay at Pierre and Rentia’s for the night. Norma and I got to watch this horse trainer work with a majestic thoroughbred for about an hour this afternoon and it was fantastic. I figured out what I can do with the 4 free days a week I will have once I’m a nurse first year.. take horse lessons! As long as I can afford it and there is a location relatively near, I’m so in. I want to own my own horse too badly.
Mason and I were able to use an internet café for about an hour while Norma sorted something out with her car. I was filled with joy and strength after reading a short, sweet little email from my boyfriend’s dad. I really was just so humbled by his message and encouragement. It must have been a day of great emails, because I also read one from my mother that just had me in smiles and tears and laughs of joy the whole way through in the middle of this café. People had to have thought I was crazy. Emotional American, that’s for sure. My mo mis a beautiful woman and the Lord is teaching her so much. I love seeing her child-like passion and joy and conscience. She is precious and I miss her very very much. Please keep taking great care of her, Jess! Be her love.
When we got back to Pierre and Rentia’s, Mason and I were having a blast with music and jokes at the kitchen table. It fairly quickly turned in to name calling and fist fighting down the hall. I’m glad we could be honest about how we REALLY feel about eachother, haha. I’ve really been missing my brothers and the fun and fights we have, so I was very thankful for God filling in those gaps with that time with Mason. I loved every minute of it. I also got to chat with Conner on facebook for the first time since Johannesburg!!! That by far made my night.
July 12, 2011
Boring and long day in town running errands. Finally got back to the Matopos.
July 13, 2011 – Clinic Day #2
Now for this beautiful day – Chris and Mason dropped me off at the clinic to help out again and today they were much nicer to me. I worked only in the screening room today and it was much less busy than last Wednesday. At tea, they tried to teach me some Ndebele but I have already forgotten all of it besides “Ilanga i chisa,” which means “the sun is hot.”
In the screening room there were lots of mothers with babies (one woman was 64 years old!!!), a man with terrible acid reflux and cancer, and one woman with sore and swollen eyes. The man hadn’t eaten anything other than mealy meal pourage for 7 months because of an issue in his throat. He lifted his sleeve to show me how skinny he was and explained how difficult it is to walk because his bones have weakened immensely without having any nutrients. He could barely walk because he falls over so much and so easily from not having strength. It broke my heart. I helped the nurse to find out that the lady with sore eyes is probably allergic to smoke, and there were a few other small things the nurses asked my advice on and I had to try my best not to be careless or dumb.
July 14, 2011 – People’s Presence
Today, Ruth and Brad (a British couple living in Bulawayo) and their friend Ben came out to the farm to spend the afternoon. We went on a walk and climbed rocks and traveled through brush and sat an talked about Bear Grylls and his absurd lifestyle on his show. It was good and fun to have fellowship like that and just enjoy the “togetherness presence” of the people around me. The land here at Morning star is spectacular.
July 15, 2011 – Clinic Day #3
Chris and Norma left for Bulwayo today, so now Mason and I are lonely and bored. Norma gave me some little chores to work on, like wrapping the soaps she made in recycled paper so she can sell them and cleaning up the boys dorm for the 5 guests coming on Sunday. Mason and I will take this weekend to relax, recharge, and get ready to go all out these last 3 weeks.
Once they left, Mason and I set up the solar panels and left for our days. He dropped me off at the clinic again because it is the only place, besides out by myself in the landscape, that inspires me and gets my mind and heart flowing. I can’t wait to be a nurse.
I was there from 10:30-1:10. The nurses in the screening room switched 2 times today. The male nurse made me a little more hopeful because he was giving out different prescriptions and diagnoses . . . I don’t necessarily know if that is hopeful, though. Each day I go in, the conditions I see keep getting worse and worse. Today there was a baby with yellowy-white arms and hands from either jaundice or low circulation from the cold weather, and a penis that either looked cut off or inverted. I had never seen anything like that on a baby boy… I had also never thought about how good these nurses are or aren’t at circumcising them when they are born. There was a 22 year old guy who had previous complaints of discharge from his penis and now needed medicine for a urinary tract infection. A friend of ours brought in her son and he had an itchy rash all over his body and ulcers the size of a silver dollar on both of his legs. We also diagnosed “Early Stages of Pregnancy” for a 24 year old girl who was complaining of vomiting and headache for the last 3 weeks. I kind of found that funny. The last patient we saw was a 21 year old girl with dried blood all over her nose and swollen eyes. At a closer look, she had nasal and optic sores and ulcers that had been bleeding and pussing and making her face almost immobile due to the pain. After talking with her a little bit, we discovered that she was already being treated for HIV/AIDS so they were likely opportunistic infections from a weakened immune system. I had never seen that personally. My heart is now broken so much more for HIV/AIDS sufferers.
Mason picked me up, we had an interesting few exchanges with some police officers about a flag, saw some Zebras, and came back to cook some dinner. Pumba slept with me last night so I missed my personal hot water bottle, Boomer, at home. I miss you puppy!! Momma, you better tell him I said I love him.
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