Today was another long day. It is so hot here and we are definitely dehydrated by the time we get back home (yes I carry water but it does get pretty warm and isn’t very refreshing) but here I am to fill you in on the days events while Chuck and Joseck are delivering medication to Grandma Eunice 🙂
We park the truck at a neighbors so we pack up and take all our supplies with us and I have to say thank you to two beautiful women who have given us these carrying bags. They are coming in extremely helpful with everything we have to carry. And they make a nice accessory for Chuck’s outfit, don’t you think!?
Then it was busy, busy busy. We picked up construction materials for Okemi and Ruby’s new toilet/shower along with wheelbarrows and shovels. Then we went to the doctors to pick him up to visit Grandma Eunice. We got to the clinic and I guess the welcoming committee was busy so the chicken welcomed us 🙂
They were pretty busy so we left them to do their doctoring for a bit while we went to the bank and paid for Beatrice’s son to attend school (I mentioned her in a previous blog post). We then picked up the doctors, Doctor Edward and Doctor Rafael, both well over 6′ and basically folded them into the back seat of the truck! At Grandma Eunice’s they took her blood pressure and found it quite high (196/101) and said she should be on medication. She had taken blood pressure meds before but her step daughter said she couldn’t help and Beatrice (the daughter who is looking after her) isn’t working. The total for her medication for a year would be approximately $100. We purchased a months worth of blood pressure, nerve medication (for help with neuropothy due to the stroke) and pain killers.
Then I have to be honest, we kidnapped the doctors! Ok, so we asked them if they would come with us to see Ruby and Okemi to check on their feet. These 2 doctors are such compassionate men and have a love for their people….but as Doctor Rafael said, he also understands the community in which he works. He is also frustrated with the lack of assistance given by family members and told us of patients who were brought to his clinic by 20 relatives but once he told them the patient would need a 100/ shilling pain shot they would all clear out, never to return to visit the patient again. They are stuck on either treating the patient, knowing they won’t be paid, or attempting to get some sort of payment. I feel for these 2 men and pray they can continue to work within their community for the good of the entire community. So, enough praise for the doctors…well actually there is more but you’ll see that in the photos below.
After arriving at Okemi’s the material was off loaded from the truck and carried by foot across the foot bridge and up the hill to Okemi’s home.
Once we reached Okemi’s we found Ruby, with her sandals on, walking from her bedroom! She had a bit of assistance but she was walking!!! Praise God! Both doctors got right to work checking on their feet and told us “they aren’t that bad”….are you kidding me!? Nope they said they’ve seen worse but that Okemi and Ruby seemed to be on the mend. However, they did go on to show us (ok, they showed Chuck I could barely get these photos taken without my gag reflex going or fainting) how to help this type of situation. They took a disposable scalpel and began carving the dead skin from the bottoms of their feet. Doctor Edward even showed Chuck where part of Ruby’s foot had started to turn green from the dead skin.
Poor Ruby and Okemi were in some pain but the doctors said this was necessary for total eradication of the jiggers. They told us the method we had been doing would work, but would take a long time. By scraping the dead skin then soaking we are getting to the base of where the eggs were laid and killing them at the root. Thank you Doctor Edward and Doctor Rafael for the lesson, you certainly helped us a great deal!
Poor Okemi could only watch as his wife squirmed in pain, but they were both troopers and endured the procedure.
While they were soaking their feet we took the doctors back to their clinic. Please keep these two in your prayers that they can continue to overcome the obstacles which arise while they attempt to doctor their community.
From left-Doctor Rafael, Joseck, Doctor Edward and Chuck
After a tour of the facility we headed back to Okemi’s. Upon arrival Catherine (Joseck’s wife who had stayed with Okemi and Ruby while we took the doctors back) told us Ruby was concerned because we had packed the cement and other construction materials for tomorrows use in there home and she was afraid some of the men there would come back at night and take the stuff and sell it. Chuck and I were dumbfounded and said, in our normal voice hoping they would hear, who in their right mind would steal from an elderly couple? To which Catherine and Joseck said, pretty much anyone. To think the guys working on the toilet (who are being paid) would come back and terrorize this old couple for a few shilling is unimaginable, yet it happens all the time and it’s a way of thinking we just have to get used to. So we had these same men carry all the material to the elder of the village who said the items would be safe at her compound.
Of course, wherever we go a crowd gathers.
We were pretty frustrated with the end of this day at Okemi’s but after seeing Ruby in her new dress and telling us “thank you very much” in English helped alleviate the frustrations. They are both looking so much better and know that someone cares for them. I pray they know deep in their hearts that the God of the universe loves them immensely, enough to send a white couple (and all their friends who are supporting this ministry) to the other side of the globe to assist them.
Feeling like we’d been on the field for days instead of just hours we drove into town to pick up a bunk bed for Grandma Eunice (not the same Eunice with blood pressure problems). We delivered the bed, set it up and had a chat with many of the women living on the compound. Basically all the older men had died, leaving all the women widowed and the children without fathers (the men in the photo are neighbors, not living on the compound. The whites show up and again a crowd forms). One of the women who told us she was married with 4 children but her husband had left, never to return. It’s pretty much the same story wherever we go and it’s so sad each time to hear.
I did meet a new friend today too.
I’ve given you a small taste of the frustrations we’ve run into doing this ministry here in Luanda. I do plan on telling you more but it’s late, I need a shower and we haven’t eaten yet. But let me leave you with a couple of beautiful faces we met today.
Let me end with a link to our donation page if you’d like to become a partner with us and this ministry (C4KK Benevolence). Thank you for prayerful consideration.