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Wednesday, 22 November 2006

 


Hello Everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Things here are going well.  Work is going well, home is going well, even play is going well!  :-)  I haven't been sick in two weeks... How much better could it get?!
I have bad days at the hospital.  Circumstances beyond my control frequently frustrate me and lead me to ingesting copious amount of chocolate, and sometimes even to tears.  The gap between what is and what I know can be is so great and just adds to my frustration.  Those around me that I trust, especially Alisa, often hear these struggles as I share my frustrations with them.   
It is easy to focus on the could haves, should haves, and bad outcomes that we (not the royal 'We' but the collective 'we' as a staff at the Pediatric ward) have.  There are a lot of deaths that happen in spite of what we do to try to help the patients.  However, I want to take this Thanksgiving holiday to tell you, and to remind myself, that occasionally we do get the chance to witness miracles.  Life that happens in spite of the things that we do or don't do.  I would like to share with you one such miracle from last week.
Her name is Made Ubertha (mahd-ay oo-bear-tah).  She is a seven month old beautiful baby girl.  She is the firstborn of a 16 year old mother that cares about her very much, which is unusual for this culture.  She is not afraid of me as many of the babies are.  When I walk into her sight she does not cry, she simply stares wide eyed at me.  She allows me to pick her up and play with her, though she doesn't really smile or anything, she just stares.  And when I have her she always keeps an eye on her mom for reassurance.  She was admitted two weeks ago for bronchopneumonia and is then was being treated for tuberculosis (TB) and malnutrition, both of which put her at risk for getting any other disease that she is exposed to. 
On Sunday (the 12th) the mother rushed to the nurse's desk carrying her, asking for us to come look at the baby.  After getting the nurses to translate for me, they said 'The mother said she stopped breathing.'  My heart sank and I didn't expect anything good to happen next.  Ruth Kahutji (kah-who-chee), an enrolled nurse (equal to LPNs in the States) and I immediately ushered the mother and child into room 7, which is our critical care area and contains the oxygen cylinder and emergency cart.  The child was indeed not breathing and was having convulsions.  They don't use the word seizures here, they say convulsions or 'fitting'.  I motioned to another nurse to come into the room so I could tell her to call the doctor to come immediately.  'Immediately' in this culture is often something akin to the speed of molasses, but I knew that something needed to be done urgently.  Then the baby started vomiting and having very shallow breathing.  We turned her on her side and I got the adult sized oxygen mask, which is all we have, to place on her.  She kept having convulsions and apnea (periods of not breathing).  For the periods of apnea I got the resuscitation (or ambu) bag and mask from the emergency cart.  It was an adult sized mask that I couldn't of used on her even if I had tried because it was old and malformed, so I sent one of the nurses to the maternity ward to get an appropriate sized baby mask.  During the periods of apnea I tried stimulating her to breath, but she was not responding.  The convulsions continued at regular intervals along with the apnea as we waited for the doctor.    
During this time the mother asked me to take the oxygen off.  There is a misconception in the culture that the oxygen can kill you.  It does makes sense because we put oxygen on very sick patients, many of whom die.  If you see this repeatedly and aren't educated about what the oxygen is and/or does, then it is easy to understand where the misconception comes from.  I refused to comply with her request, knowing that any breathing the baby was doing wasn't adequate enough to get enough oxygen to her body and that she needed all the support we could give her.        
Throughout all of this activity the mother was crying and trying to get in to see what was going on.  I didn't really stop her because I didn't think that the baby was going to make it and I wanted the mother to be close to the baby so that they would both be comforted.  We were still waiting for the doctor to come, so we continued doing what we needed to do, which included the decision to take matters into our own hands.  The other sister in charge went out and got the intravenous Valium, which is how we treat convulsions here.  Though the doctor hadn't shown up yet she felt comfortable enough to dose the baby so I let her.  She continued to have convulsions though the apnea seemed to have stopped.  The doctor did finally show up after 20 minutes (a time which is actually impressive, we have waited hours before) and wrote some orders, but we had already done everything she wrote for.  It was well after my time to be off, and it was at this point that I decided to leave the baby in the hands of my colleagues.  Before I left though, I showed all of them how to use the ambu bag, giving them very specific instructions on how and when to use it.  When I left I was very sad because even with all we did, I still didn't think that the baby was going to pull out of it.  My days off that week were Monday and Tuesday, and though I wanted to know what happened, I couldn't bring myself to call in.  I didn't want to actually hear the bad news, so I decided to leave it until Wednesday when I went back to work.      
Wednesday morning arrived and I went to work still a little sad about the situation.  You cannot imagine my shock and amazement when the mother walked out of the room in front of me carrying this beautiful little girl!  The mother doesn't speak English so I couldn't ask her any questions, all I could do was stare in awe!  Finally I went to Sister Musenge (moo-sang-eh) and asked her what happened.  She told me that after I left the baby actually got worse and they had to call the doctor back.  She had many more convulsions, one that lasted fifteen minutes(!) and many more periods of apnea.  When the doctor came she transferred the baby to the Higher Care Ward, which is their version of intensive care here.  Apparently she stayed there Sunday evening through Tuesday morning when the doctor sent her back to us.  They never figured out what was wrong with her that was causing the convulsions, they just seemed to have stopped on their own.   Everything from meningitis (there has been a string of meningitis cases lately) to malaria that they tested her for came back negative, so they really don't know what was wrong with her!
The most amazing part of it to me is that there doesn't seem to be any residual effects from the multiple episodes of convulsions and apnea.  If anyone goes as long as she did without oxygen (especially as many times as she did) there tends to be some brain damage, but there seems to be absolutely nothing wrong with this little girl!  Words really can't convey how amazed I am at this little girl's survival!  On Saturday (the 18th) I had the joy and privilege of sending Made Ubertha home!  Praise be to the God who saves!
I am going to try to post Made Ubertha's picture on the journal page (the second link in the list below).  If it's not there tonight then check back in a few days and hopefully I will have gotten it on there!  I hope that this finds you all doing well and enjoying the company of loved ones!
   
love and hugs,
kimmie
Praises:
  • my stepmom's surgery went well and she was able to go home that evening to recover!
  • Mary seems to be settling in very well, she has been making friends with her neighbors and it turns out one of them will be her colleague! 
  • the volunteer from the Philippines that was in the accident is recovering well.  She has a long road to go though.  She broke an arm, ribs, had a pelvic fracture and a few crushed vertebra...  It is amazing that she survived and that she is doing so well!
  • For the life of little Made Ubertha that was miraculously spared!
Prayer Needs:
  • Please continue praying for Rob and I as we try to practice medicine in difficult situations with a lack of adequate resources
  • Please continue to pray for Mick & Suzanne's work visa.  Also, Suzanne will be going to the States to accompany their oldest, Hannah, to settle in at college.  Please pray that these last few weeks as a family will be precious and full of good memories and abounding in love.  It is going to be hard on everybody to see her go...
  • For safety for all of you in the States that will be traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday! 

 

                

Posted by thekimmieconnection at 8:16 PM GMT
Updated: Tuesday, 28 November 2006 8:34 PM GMT
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Monday, 13 November 2006
"There's no place like home." ~Dorothy in the 'Wizard of Oz'
"There's no place like home."  ~Dorothy in the 'Wizard of Oz'
Even though I am not sure I would say that I am completely settled in here in Rundu and I still struggle with loneliness and feelings of isolation, I am glad that when I arrived Tuesday morning at 3:30am on the bus (thanks be to Rob for picking me up at that awful hour!) I truly felt like I was home.  A little over a week of camping, staying in a backpacker's hostel and staying on the top bunk at Mick & Suzanne's made me realize exactly how much I like my own bed (among other things)!  Nothing against any of those locations (and the Rineer's know that I love staying with them), it's just that, as Dorothy says, there's no place like home! 
On the flip side of coming home, I wasn't looking forward to coming home to an empty house.  For those of you who have been praying that I wouldn't be lonely, thank you!  It's working!  I have been busy since my return and haven't really had time to be lonely (for that matter I haven't even had time to clean house or do laundry either).  Please keep praying though!  :-)
All of that said, our new team member, Mary Bennet, arrived Friday to make Rundu her new home!  She seems really nice and I think that she will fit in nicely with us crazy folks up here in Rundu!  She is a proper English lady and it is fun to listen to her talk.  I even enjoyed a spot of tea at her house Sunday afternoon when she invited me over!  :-)  As I mentioned in an earlier email she will be working at the College of Education teaching teachers.  She will have until the middle of January (when the next term starts) to do language and culture acquisition, then she will settle into her new position. 
My little Anna
I asked the nurse that is Anna's neighbor how she is doing and was quite shocked by the answer!  Apparently Anna is no longer in Namibia.  Family came from Angola demanding that the Aunt give them Anna to take back with them to Angola!  Apparently they even went to Home Affairs and got custody of her.  The person the nurse spoke to didn't know exactly who the people were, but because of the papers they got from Home Affairs they had to give her up.  I can only pray that they took her because they really love her and that they will take care of her! 
Work
Work continues to go well.  As I mentioned I arrived at 3.30 am on Tuesday and started working that day.  Thankfully I didn't have to go in until 1pm!  The really good news is that the students are back.  They were on break from clinicals while they were writing their exams, and boy was it difficult without them!  The saying 'many hands make a light load' really is true!  There is a considerable difference when students are present.  Of course having them there adds a different level of stress for me as the 'Sister in Charge' (charge nurse), having to watch over them and make sure they aren't doing anything to kill anyone. 
The little things can be stressful too though.  Today I asked them why I they thought I was so hard on them, and they couldn't answer me.  I asked if anyone else was as hard on them and they said no, not really.  Then I asked them if they thought they were being 'ok' nurses or if they thought they were being good nurses.  They said just ok... which might be a bit of a generous estimation of their capabilities... so I asked them if they wanted just ok nurses taking care of them when they were sick, or their mothers, fathers, or even children were sick.  They said no, so I tried to explain that I am hard on them because I don't want them to just be ok nurses, but that I want them to be great nurses, and that without someone pushing them they might never realize that they can be great nurses.  I don't know if they bought what I was saying or not.  The looks on their faces said that they thought I was hard on them just because I like being mean...  We'll see tomorrow if my pep talk worked or not!  :-)  They seem to be caring and intelligent and I will be really disappointed if they continue on the way that they are...  Guess we'll see!
A big happening at work is that we have been having practice inspections to prepare us for the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) inspection team that will be coming from Windhoek later this month.  For those of you in the hospital world, it is a similar event to JCAHO coming.  There have been changes galore in policy and practice which have been a little hard to keep up with.  Of course this has also been an excellent opportunity to try to challenge and push the nursing staff to elevate the level of care that they are giving.  I am not sure if it is working as I am continuously asking them to do things that I have asked them multiple times already, but hopefully it is having some sort of positive impact!
Holiday (vacation)
Sossusvlei was everything that I could have hoped for!  It is even more spectacular in person that it is in all the pictures!  Of course I think I will be dumping red sand out of my shoes for the next year, but it was completely worth it!  :-)  The best day we had was when we climbed the Sossusvlei sand dune and then went to see Deadvlei, which is an area of white sand with lots of dead camel thorn trees surrounded by the largest sand dune in the area (in the world too I think).  It is just awesome!!!  After seeing Sossusvlei we went to Swakopmund, the Atlantic coastal town that Brad & Angelina were next to.  Aside from the cold wind coming in off the ocean, the town itself is just beautiful.  I can see why they fell in love with the area!  I even got to see some seals there!  It was after sunset that they were pointed out to us, so I have some pictures but they aren't very clear.  I was thinking that eventually I would like to see the seal colonies, so this was just a little taste that confirmed that!  We had an afternoon and a morning to enjoy Swakop, then we returned to Windhoek to shop, eat, and enjoy our time together until Kristin left.  It was a good trip and I hope to get the pictures up on the website sometime next week. 
Benin
I sent out an email to several of you to pray for a situation in Benin, where I came to Africa the first time.  The church in Ouega was having major opposition and the church members threatened with death if they returned to have service in the hut that they called their church.  Praise God no one has been harmed (although one church leader did come down with Typhoid fever) though services continue to be held each week, however they are being taken to 'court' with the claim that the land the church building is on isn't theirs.  Please continue to pray that God will show Himself mighty and that He will receive glory and honor from the decisions made.
Baby Shiloh
A while back I also asked you to pray for baby Shiloh, my friend's baby that was born overseas with some medical problems.  They returned to their homeland of Texas and so far they have seen several specialists, but I don't have any of the results of those visits.  As soon as I hear anything (hint hint Joy) then I will share it with all of you.
Email
Just a reminder to everybody that I have very slow dial up and am charged by the minute.  Please try not to send me emails with attachments as they take a long time to download and can be very expensive for me.  Thanks!
 
I love all of you and miss you!  I hope this finds you doing well!
love and hugs,
kimmie
Praises:
  • Kristin and I had a great time on our trip!
  • Mary and all of her things arrived safely in Rundu last week!
  • My friends from Zimbabwe were incredibly welcoming and loving when I saw them today.  They are truly part of what makes me enjoy living here in Rundu!
Prayer Needs:
  • Mick & Suzanne still don't have their work visa renewed.  Apparently at any time Home Affairs could give them only a two week notice to get their things in order and leave the country.  Please pray that God will grant them favor in the eyes of the government and that their visa will be renewed quickly! 
  • Speaking of, my work visa which was supposed to be for two years was only granted for 10 months and expires in February.  During December and January not much is done in the government because of the holidays, so timing might be a little tight.  Please pray that my paperwork will be dealt with in a timely manner and that a 2 year visa will be granted. 
  • There is a volunteer from the Philippines that was in a bad car accident with multiple injuries and she has already had several surgeries.  I don't even know her name (God does), but please pray for her, that she will heal quickly and pray for her family that is so far away during this stressful time.  Minnie went to be with her during this, so please also pray for Minnie who hasn't even recovered from the stress and shock of Joseph's death.
  • Continued prayer for Joseph's family
  • For Mary as she settles in.  She was struggling with having left her family and friends (I know the feeling), which is hard to deal with.
  • For me and my family as this will be my first holiday season out of the country.  I have lived far from home, but it is definitely different being in another continent!    
  • On Wednesday the 15th my stepmom, Robin, is having surgery on her elbow.  Please pray for a successful surgery and a speedy recovery.  Please also pray for my dad as he is going to have to provide some nursing care for her during her healing time! 
  • One of my best friends is getting married in December.  It really makes me sad to miss this happy occasion and makes the sense of my distance much more of a reality and makes me homesick.  Please pray that I will not be homesick the first week of December (or during any of the holidays for that matter).  Please also pray that her and her family will keep their sanity as the day approaches and that all the final details will fall into place.

Posted by thekimmieconnection at 8:59 PM GMT
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Friday, 27 October 2006
looking back, looking forward
Hi Everybody!
How are you all doing?  Aside from the situation with Joseph, things here are going well.  I am getting ready to travel to Windhoek on the night time bus, so things are a little hectic today.  Especially since I left laundry to do until today and the water went out last night!  The good news is I save all of my two liter bottles from my vanilla coke with fresh water in them for when the water goes out.  The bad news is I didn't have enough for all the laundry!  However, the water did finally come back on and I was able to pack for the trip to Windhoek. 
Looking back:
Dr. Kristin
The last few weeks have flown by since the arrival of Dr. Kristin.  It has been really wonderful having someone to share my home with and enjoy African life with.  It has also been really nice having someone around who shares some of the joys and frustrations of working at the hospital. :-)  Her arrival was a little stressful as her luggage didn't arrive in South Africa with her and she had to stay there a few extra days, then she was stuck in customs for something ridiculous like 5 hours trying to get her bags approved in Namibia... but after that it has been pleasant!  I honestly don't know how she did it, I would have been a basket case by the end of it!  She started work on Monday after her arrival and has only had 10 women come that had the special surgery that she was here to do/teach.  Since she hasn't been busy with that special stuff she has been keeping herself busy with some general urology surgery. 
Looking forward:
Trip to Sossusvlei confirmed
I am really looking forward to seeing some of the sights of Namibia.  I love the pictures of the red sand dunes that come up any time you search for anything about Namibia and am excited to finally see them for myself.  I am sad though that it means Kristin's time here is finished.  I don't look forward to the return trip when I know I will be coming back to an empty house...
Kenya
It turns out that there is a nursing conference in Kenya in March that I am looking at going to.  It offers continuing education points that are needed for people to keep their nursing licenses up to date.  It is held every two years and is run by a nursing school out of Texas.  It will be very good to keep up with all of my knowledge and skills from the States as well as network with some other nurse's here in Africa.  I will keep you updated when I find out more about it.
Mary Bennet
Our new team member arrived in Windhoek safely today!  We have a British woman coming that is going to be working at the College of Education, which is training only for teachers.  Rob, Alisa and I are all excited to add another person to our team here in Rundu!  She will be in orientation in Windhoek until the 10th of November, then she will head our direction.  Please be in prayer for her as she transitions into the culture and her new home.  For those that are curious, she will be staying in a house by herself...
Sarah N.
There is a chance that there is an American nurse that will be coming to do a 4-6 month term here in Namibia.  Mick thinks the best placement will be here in Rundu at the hospital, so there is a chance that I will be getting a roommate in January!  There really aren't any firm details yet though so I will keep you updated!
I love you all and hope this finds you doing well!  I will catch up with you all on my return next week!
love and hugs,
kimmie

Posted by thekimmieconnection at 8:02 PM BST
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Monday, 23 October 2006

Hi Everybody!
Sorry I haven't been in communication with you all in a while.  As you guessed I have really been enjoying Kristin's company.  :-) In fact we like each other so much we are going to Windhoek together next week to see what kind of trouble we can get into!  We are trying to go see the sand dunes at Sossusvlei (sauce-us-vlay) and maybe even Swakopmund (the same place Brad & Angelina were)... but we will see what works out.
I have a prayer request that I wanted to share with you that really hits home and makes me very sad.  On Sunday one of the occupational therapists, Joseph, that works with my friend Minnie committed suicide.  It came as a shock to all of his family and friends.  Because of all the time I spend visiting Minnie at work I greet him on a very regular basis so am quite effected by this.  Apparently he hung himself while in his bedroom and his son is the one that found him.  Please pray for the family, and especially the son, as I cannot imagine what they are all going through.  Please also pray that God will open some doors for me to share the Hope that I have with my coworkers.
I hope this finds you all doing well.  Thank you in advance for your prayers!
love and hugs,
kimmie

Posted by thekimmieconnection at 7:40 PM BST
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Saturday, 30 September 2006
praying for rain?
Hi All!
Ok, be honest, who of you prayed for rain for me after that last email?  Today it's been raining on and off all day!  So it's not actually rain, more like sprinkles, but you can't imagine my surprise at having rain--- in September!!!!  Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining at all, I am just very, very surprised!  :-)  I would really like to have a good shower, one that will help knock all the dust out of the sky, but this is one of those 'just enough to mess up the dust on the windshield' kind of things.  :-)
Tonight is my last night on night duty.  Last night was truly awful.  We started with having 39 patients, meaning I took 20 and my colleague took 19.  But that was before we got the 4 admissions, the last one which came at 5 am!!  It was so busy that I was still giving medications when day shift arrived!  And of course I still hadn't done the paperwork for the last admission or restarted any of the IVs that weren't working!  It was one of the nights that make me wonder why I chose to be a nurse!  (Of course the answer is to help people in their suffering, when they are at their most vulnerable and in need of a compassionate touch- but after having to work that hard for a whole 12 hrs it makes me wonder....)  I came home and ate an entire candy bar!!! Hey, I am just being honest with you!! It was a Cadbury Fruit & Nut which really just has raisins and almonds, but it's turned out to be my favorite here.  I had a nice big glass of Vanilla Coke to go with it too!  I then took 2 Benadryl and went to bed!  Thankfully I slept really well, but I am still not ready to go back in tonight!  However, it is my last night so maybe that will help me to get through it!  I'll let you guys know next week how it went!
Speaking of letting you guys know, there is a possibility that I will be without internet for a bit.  When I set up my account I paid for 6 months, and haven't really thought of it since. However, 6 months is up today.  Rob & Alisa are traveling to Windhoek tomorrow (the only place you can pay for it), so they are going to pay on Monday or Tuesday.  There is a possibility that if they don't have the payment they will turn off my service until it is paid.  Then again, this is Africa, so who knows!  :-)  All that to say, I may or may not have internet over the next few days.  I also think that my communication will slow a little bit with the arrival of Kristin, the doctor I told you guys about.  She arrives on Tuesday and will be coming to Rundu on Wednesday.  In email communication she seems really nice and I am excited about her coming!  Being alone in this big house is hard sometimes so I am really looking forward to her coming.  :-)  Having her here though means I will have someone to talk with and will probably be on the internet less.  :-)  But I will still try to keep you all posted about what is going on with me! 
love and hugs to you all!
kimmie

Posted by thekimmieconnection at 7:17 PM BST
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Tuesday, 26 September 2006
part 1: housing & work struggles
Hi Dear Ones!
Recently someone reminded me that I haven't been sharing much about my actual life here.  She said vacations don't really count, that she wanted to know how I am doing.  Ask and you shall receive!  :-)  I didn't think it was fair to just write to her though, so here is a random smattering of snapshots about my life in Rundu.
housing
I still haven't heard anything about moving to the hospital campus.  Rob said that Dr. Yuri (the Ukrainian chief of staff over the whole hospital) thought some of the units would be completed soon, but that news hasn't officially trickled down to me yet.  So it looks like I will be here for a while longer.  So far my taxi driver is still proving to be punctual and becoming somewhat of a friend. 
The good news is that I am going to be getting a roommate for the month of October!  Dr. Kristin Chlouser is a specialty urology surgeon and will be here doing some surgeries and teaching Rob and some of the other docs how to perform some of these intricate procedures.  I would rather not get into the details, but there are some female issues that require this specialty knowledge that Rob kept seeing repeatedly.  Through some of his contacts he found Kristin, who is spending the first year out of her residency traveling in Africa and India to do and teach these procedures.  It is a huge blessing that she has agreed to come and teach these not necessarily life saving but dignity and health preserving techniques.  Please pray that her time here will be productive and that all the patients that she needs to see will come out of the woodworks to be seen.  Please also pray that our time of living together would be encouraging and non-stressful for both of us.
the weather
Right now we are at borderline spring/summer.  October and November are supposed to be the hottest months here and the end of September is definitely leading us towards that!  The odd thing is that we are in the dry season, yet it is considered spring.  Even more odd though is that even though we haven't had rain since like April, trees are still budding and flowers are blooming!  There is a big tree in my yard right now that has these beautiful purple/bluish bell shaped flowers.  Every morning when I return from work the night breeze has blown a fresh carpet of these flowers onto the ground, so I feel like a princess whom God has created a petal strewn pathway for! :-)  (delusions of grandeur I know- maybe this place is getting to me in unexpected ways... ha ha)  It is absolutely beautiful! 
However, the not nice part of living in the sandy desert is that the drier it gets the dustier it gets.  During the day you can see the haze of dust if you look outside!  When a car drives by of course it makes it even dustier, which is just kind of gross.  There is one advantage to all of this dust though.  The sunsets every single night are just amazing.  Even though there aren't any clouds, the horizon turns red like the sun is protesting its exit by creating a blazing fire burning its way through the earth crashing us into the night.  Many nights you can look right into the sun and it not hurt your eyes because it is so masked by dust.  It's beautiful!
work
As most of you know I am still on night duty.  It has honestly been the hardest thing I have ever done as a nurse.  There are only 2 nurses at night, so you split the patients in half and go to work at it.  Right now that means taking anywhere between 16-19 patients each!  There are two separate assessments and two rounds of medications that have to be done which means there is a lot of work!  I come home completely exhausted at the end of the shift!  The weeks where I only work three days it's not so bad, but the others where I work four in a row is just a killer!  It took me 3 days to recover from it last time.  This week I will work 4 nights, get two off then switch back to day shift!  (I hope I survive!)
Last time I wrote to you I said that I was having a hard time reconciling the differences in my view of life and medicine versus the view of those around me.  I would like to tell you that this struggle is getting easier, but it's just not.  Please pray for me as I seek to find ways of elevating the level of care and compassion that those around me give.  To give you an idea of the kind of things that I deal with, I would like to tell you of the really sad night I had last week.  This is going to be hard for some of you to read.  I truly wish that I didn't have stories like this to share with you.  I wish I could say that we are able to save every child from death, but that's not the case.  I share this story with you to give you a more complete picture and to maybe help you understand some of the things that I struggle with here.  If you are having a bad day you might want to skip this section and come back to it later... 
When it is time to give medications one frequently discovers that several of the IVs are not working, so to speed the medicine giving process we wait until after all the other medicine is given before restarting the ones that aren't working.  So it was while I was restarting some of these IVs that we got a new admission, a 3 month old baby named Magreth, with the diagnosis of pneumonia.  Since I was busy trying to start an IV, my co-worker assessed the baby and started the paperwork.  She asked me where to put the patient so I told her that we had very few open beds, but the ones we did have open were in rooms 1 & 6, so she could decide.  She placed the child and mother in room 6.  After starting two more IVs I went to wash my hands (we have only one sink and that is in the bathroom at the far end of the ward, so I tend to use the closer one which is in the isolation ward at the other end of the ward).  After I had washed my hands I walked by room 6 and heard what I knew was severe difficulty in breathing.  I immediately got a few extra blankets to prop the baby up (it's easier to breath in more of a sitting position than laying flat) and said a prayer over the her. 
From the few months of experience I have had at the hospital I knew that the baby was really too sick for us to be able to help her.  I knew that without the critical intervention of putting her on a respirator (breathing machine) that her body would not be able to withstand the demands of trying to get enough oxygen into her body for much longer.  And, because we don't have that capability at our hospital, I knew that she wasn't going to survive the night.  After a short while I moved mother and baby into room 7, which, located next to the nurse's desk and having a big window to be able to watch the patients, is considered the critical care area within the pediatric ward, and placed her on oxygen by mask.  I knew that it wouldn't make a huge difference, but I also knew that I couldn't just stand there and do nothing to help her.  At 4:10 am the mother knocked on the window to get my attention.  I knew with that knock that little Magreth had stopped breathing, so I rushed into the room and did CPR.  The truly sad thing is that I knew she was gone, I only did the CPR so that the mother would be able to know that I tried.  After only a few minutes (which seems like eternity when you are doing CPR) I stopped because there was no response in the baby.  So I got the stethoscope and verified that there was no heart beat and pronounced the death.  The mother sat there silently.  I put my hand on her shoulder and stood there for several minutes.  Not being able to speak the language means that any comfort I try to give must come through my presence.   
One of the things about the situation that is hard for me to deal with is that the child probably could have lived if it had been brought in at the beginning of the disease process.  As it is, many people do not come to the hospital until they are critically ill, after they have been sick for a long time.  Many lives could be saved if early detection along with early treatment was practiced.  This is something that I stress to the nursing students on a regular basis.  But then again, in such a poverty stricken area, how can you tell a family to spend the money on taking a child (which has little value in this society to begin with) to the clinic to be seen, when the money could be used to feed the family for several days.  There are no obvious answers.  All I can ask you to do is pray.  Another thing that is frustrating in this particular situation is that my co-worker thought it was ok to not be aggressive in the treatment of this child but simply to place her in the room farthest from the nursing station.  It is also very difficult because I know that in the States that the outcome would have been so different.  That knowledge makes these kind of situations so difficult.  Please pray for both Rob and I as we deal with the hardships of practicing medicine in an under-resourced establishment, and as we deal with the nationals and the staff in their attitudes toward life and health care. 
visiting
Since I have been on night duty my social life has completely plummeted!  However, last week Sarah (Rob & Alisa's youngest) asked if she could come to Auntie Kimmie's and watch Veggie Tales.  Of course my answer was yes!  So, she came over and we watched not one, but two episodes!  Ok, so she didn't really sit through the all of it, like any 3 year old she was up and down and doing this and that, but we really enjoyed our special time together!  :-) 
After almost a month, I finally got up in time to go see my Zimbabwe friends!  It had been almost 3 months since I had seen Auntie, so it was a really good visit.  I am constantly amazed at how much they love me and love on me when I am with them.  They have truly made me a part of their family, and I absolutely love it! 

Posted by thekimmieconnection at 11:06 PM BST
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part 2: lizards & snakes, pictures
lizard killing
I really didn't mean to do it, I promise, and I did feel really bad about it afterwards.  It's true that I don't like the nasty little creatures, but I don't want them to die, after all, they eat bugs!  It was the week that I had a really nasty stomach bug and Rob said he would bring some antibiotics over after work.  So about that time I went and took the padlock off of my gate.  I got to the screen door and opened it slightly but thought I heard Rob at the gate so I tried to push it closed while I was looking out towards my gate.  It wouldn't close so I pushed a little harder (bad idea).  It still wouldn't close, so I looked to see why.  That's when I saw it's body stuck in the door jam with it's innards having now become out-ards... ICK!  It wasn't moving at all so I knew it was already dead.  I was freaked out so I closed the main door and had to leave him there.  I knew that I couldn't do anything to him without freaking myself out more, so I waited to see if any birds or other critters would come and get his body in the night.  Unfortunately they didn't so I had to wait a few more days for his body to get dried out and hard so I could knock him out with the broom.  YUCK!! 
black mamba sighting
Ok, so it was dead, but I still got to see one!  On one of his visits, Mick & Rob went to play tennis.  After playing they went to have a cool drink and watch the sunset over the river.  While standing there a black mamba came up behind Mick!  After chasing it down with a rake they were finally able to kill it!  Then they brought it home for all of us to look at!  Gross but kinda cool.  After all, I think dead is the safest way to see one of the deadliest snakes in Africa!  In the pictures (yes there are pictures) you will notice that the snake isn't black at all, it is kind of a gray with a hint of tan.  That's because the 'black' in it's name actually comes from the fact that the inside of it's mouth is black.  Sorry we didn't get any pictures of the inside of the mouth, though I guess that would have been cool!  Next time the guys kill a black mamba I'll definitely take pictures of the mouth! :-)  hee hee
pictures
Speaking of pictures, I finally got a chance to post the leopard and cheetah pictures from Carole & David's trip to the private ranch.  There is also a picture of Sarah when she was visiting me.  I thought you should all see the sunset so there is one of those too.  The other two are pictures from a fire in the empty field behind me.  I was completely oblivious to it until Rob & Alisa sent me a text message telling me to look outside.  It was an amazingly fast brush fire!  I stayed outside watching it until it died out in the corner of the lot.  The other picture is Peter (one of Mick & Suzanne's) holding the dead mamba and a close up of it's head.  There are also two final pictures of my little Anna.  One is with Hannah (Mick & Suzanne's oldest) and another is her asleep with a piece of bread under her cheek!  The day the Rineers (Mick, Suzanne, all 6 children plus 2 of Rob's) came to visit me at work, Anna was a little overwhelmed by them all and I couldn't get her to smile for them!  That's ok, she is a cutie pie anyways!  :-)  The name of the album is 'smattering of random pics'.  Hope you enjoy them!
         
I hope this email sheds some light into my life and ways that you can pray for me.  If you have any questions please feel free to ask.
love and hugs all around!
kimmie

Posted by thekimmieconnection at 10:10 PM BST
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Saturday, 23 September 2006
Empty Nest Syndrome
Hello Dear Family and Friends!
Based on the subject of the email I am sure that most of you have guessed that it has finally happened.  Anna has been discharged.  It happened on Wednesday so I didn't get a chance to see her.  I have complete mixed emotions about it.  Children aren't meant to grow up in institutions, which is basically what was happening since she had been in the hospital for almost 3 months.  However, I question the family's ability to give her the level of care that she will need to fight these diseases that are plaguing her body.  Between the TB treatment and anti-retroviral drugs for the HIV, she is going to be on daily medications for the rest of her life, not to mention the physical and emotional needs she will have.  I hope and pray that her extended family will fall in lover with her as much as I have and that the need to care for her will be so overwhelming that they will care for her like she is their own child (or better).  Thank you all for your loving prayers for Anna.
many blessings,
kimmie

Posted by thekimmieconnection at 10:48 PM BST
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Wednesday, 6 September 2006

Hi Everyone!
Just thought I would give you an update on my little Anna.  While I was away on holiday her dad was admitted to the hospital and passed away.  Apparently sometime after the funeral the family showed up and stated that they would take Anna.  However, that was almost two weeks ago and Anna is still in the hospital.  Please pray that things would work out for the best for her and that she would be taken well care of.
As far as work, I volunteered to work night duty for the next week (maybe two) while we are in a critical staff shortage.  Please pray that I will be able to survive!
Just to confuse everyone, we just went through another time change this past weekend!  :-)  So now I am 6 hours ahead of those of you in Atlanta and 8 hours ahead of those of you in New Mexico.  (OK you are right in the middle at 7 hrs- in case you didn't figure that one out!  ha ha)  Of course when you guys go through your time change then we will have to change it all again!   Could this be any more confusing?!?!?!
I am still in need of writing to you about the Etosha trip and our conference.  I did however, get a chance to post pictures for the first two parts of my vacation.  The albums are 'Victoria Falls' and 'Etosha trip August 2006'.  I will get pictures from the conference up soon!
Praises:
  • Mick & Suzanne had a surprise court date about Christy and they were awarded foster care of her!  Congratulations guys!
  • conference went really well!  It was a time of rest and renewal
Prayer Needs:
  • Sue Tops, a missionary in Belgium, is having knee replacement surgery Friday
  • for a suitable situation for Anna
  • for a friend who just miscarried
  • for me as I deal with yet another sinus infection :-(

Posted by thekimmieconnection at 3:35 PM BST
Updated: Sunday, 17 September 2006 9:41 PM BST
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Wednesday, 30 August 2006

Greetings Everybody!
It feels like I haven't been home in forever, but that's because I haven't been!  After this second vacation I finally felt refreshed and ready to enter 'reality' again.  I had one day after we returned to do things like catch up on laundry and go grocery shopping.  Today was back to work though!
For those of you I specifically wrote or who wrote to me, I am sorry I haven't had a chance to respond to you.  Please know that I appreciate your encouragement and love and I will be writing probably this weekend!
I guess I need to start with the first vacation though since I never got the chance to write to you about it.  To say that it is awesome at Victoria Falls is a major understatement!  We did so many things aside from just going to the falls that I really felt like I needed a vacation to recover from the vacation!  In the net few days I will try to write the next installment about out second journey to Etosha and our missionary conference.
Carole, David and I arrived in Linvingstone, Zambia on the 7th in the late afternoon to Jollyboys, a really cool backpackers hostel that we heard about from friends.  We did a little grocery shopping that afternoon and then just rested that evening.  The next morning we awoke earlier than anyone should have to on their vacation so that we could take a day trip down into Botswana to Chobe (Cho-bee) National Park.  Chobe has basically all the same animals as Etosha except that it is on the Chobe River and has crocodiles, hippos, and more elephants.  We saw plenty of the first two, but were a little disappointed in the lack of elephants that we saw.  That was until that afternoon when we went on the riverboat tour of the Chobe River.  We got within about 20 feet of three elephants crossing the river!  After they crossed the river they happily played in the mud, covering themselves in a protective layer of muck and mire.  It was beautiful!  On this river cruise I also got to see Cape Buffalo! 
There is something called the 'Big 5' here in Africa.  Back in the olden days when hunting was still done by bow and arrow, they put together this list of 5 animals containing the lion, leopard, elephant, Cape Buffalo, and the rhino.  They were considered the hardest to kill as well as the ones that you were at risk for turning on you and attacking you while you were hunting them!  So, it was on this trip that I saw the 4th in my list of the 'Big 5'!  For those of you that are curious I only have the leopard left!  However, since they are nocturnal and highly elusive my hopes aren't that high of actually seeing one outside a private ranch (which I think is kind of like cheating). 
That night we had a real dilemma on our hands!  Elvis was playing at a local pub and he had brought along Abba!  How many people get to say that they were traveling in Africa and got to see Elvis?!?!?!  However, we decided that since we had a full day ahead of us the next day that we needed the sleep.  Not to worry, we did actually get to see him!
We were very glad we got the rest because we definitely needed it!  We got up earlier than necessary on vacation, but this time it was so we could spend the day as dare devils!  We went to the Fifth Gorge (located on the Zambezi River) to do the gorge swing, repelling, and something called the Flying Fox.  The Gorge Swing was the best of the three!  Basically, they had a wire (ok, so it was 2 or 3 and it could hold 4 tons of weight, but it was basically a wire) that stretched from one side of the gorge to the other with a rope attached in the middle of it.  After being strapped into two harnesses, they attach the rope to you.  You walk to the edge of the cliff and just step off!  You free fall for 54 meters, which only takes about 3 1/2 seconds, until the rope tenses and pulls you into swinging arc over the gorge.  I did this crazy thing twice!   I would have done it more but there was a catch to it all.  Once you were finished swinging, they lowered you to the ground.  This means they lower you into the bottom of the gorge and you have to climb back out!  With the repelling you also have to walk out, so after 4 trips out of the gorge I decided I was too tired to go again.  The Flying Fox was also cool and it was my second favorite.  Basically they have another set of wires like the first I described, but this time, instead of dropping off of it,  you run off the platform and jump into the sky so that you can fly like a bird!  This one was cool because they used the rope attached to you to pull you back in (no effort required on my part!  Wahoo!).  
I told you that we had an Elvis sighting... well, he came to the Gorge Swing!  In full costume (I have a picture) he and his girlfriend (one of the singers from Abba) actually did the swing!  It was great that we had a chance to see them, even if they were screaming instead of singing!  Ha! Ha!
The 10th was a full day since we basically had three activities.  In the morning we went to another national park (this one much much smaller than any of the others) and went on a walking safari!  This particular park is the home to the only 2 white rhinos in Zambia, and we got to stand within 20 feet of them!  It was awesome and SCARY!!!  We walked through a large portion of the park and learned many interesting animal facts from our guide, Chinga (cheen-gah), such as how to distinguish different animal tracks as well as being able to tell the difference between male and female giraffe droppings!  It was really neat to have a real tour guide along that could share interesting little trivia pieces like that!  Finally we came to the area where the rhinos hang out and they were happily lounging around!  Rhinos have awful eye sight so for the most part we were safe because they couldn't see us.  However they have excellent hearing and smell and they did eventually run us out of the area because they were tired of us. 
That afternoon we finally went to see Victoria Falls itself.  Words cannot describe nor pictures do justice to how amazing and beautiful the falls actually are!  We walked everywhere you could go and still be on the Zambia side of the falls, except for the bridge that crosses over.  This is the bridge you can bungee from and I didn't want to be tempted, so we just looked at it from afar.  :-)  I could have stayed there forever!  I said that we basically had 3 activities.  Well, we found out that we planned our trip coinciding with the full moon.  We didn't know it, but it turned out to be a huge blessing!  During the day there is a beautiful rainbow that can be seen in the mist of the falls.  During a full moon there is enough light from the moon that there is a rainbow at night!  This lunar rainbow was our 3rd activity for the day.  We went late enough in the day that we could just stay until we could see it.  So we watched the sunset from the top of the falls, over the river and had a little picnic.  Then we watched the dark until we could finally see this thin little arc in the air.  We couldn't actually see the colors of the rainbow with our eyes, but the pictures I took with a long exposure show it beautifully! 
The 11th was Carole's birthday so we spent the morning just relaxing.  That evening though we took a sunset cruise on the Zambezi!  It was cool to be cruising along and have hippos pop out of the water next to you.  In Chobe we never saw any hippos in the water so it was cool to get to see it here.  And we got a picture of the hippo with it's mouth open!  (just what we wanted)  We spent the next day lounging and playing Scrabble (my idea of fun!!!) and packing up.  We left Sunday afternoon and arrived safely in Rundu that evening. 
If you asked me I don't think that I could choose just one thing that was my favorite!  It was all so much fun! 
PICTURES
I have chosen only 7 that I thought you would want to see at this point.  I will of course add more, but there are so many that it will take me a while to get to them!  I hope you enjoy the ones I chose!
I love you guys and appreciate your love and your prayers!  I honestly couldn't be here without them!  Keep up the good work!  :-)
kimmie

Posted by thekimmieconnection at 3:05 PM BST
Updated: Sunday, 17 September 2006 3:33 PM BST
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Tuesday, 15 August 2006

Hi All!
I have been busy since I got home, but I wanted to let you all know that I am home safely from Zambia.  The Falls were absolutely amazing!!!  It is definitely one of the 7 natural wonders of the world!  If I had gone there before choosing Namibia I think my decision would have been swayed to go to Zambia or Zimbabwe!!!!  It really was that awesome!
Unfortunately I won't get a chance to post pictures before I leave in a few days so I will have to do it when I get back at the end of August (I will try to put just one in my journal before I go).  I will write another, more detailed email though before I leave... I just wanted to ease your minds and let you know that I am back!
love and hugs,
kimmie

Posted by thekimmieconnection at 3:01 PM BST
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Saturday, 5 August 2006

Hello dear friends!
As I write this I am less than twelve hours away from the start of our journey to see Victoria Falls!  The local name for it, when translated, means 'the smoke that thunders'.  I can't wait to see this beautiful part of God's creation!  Please pray for our safety as we travel to and from Zambia and as we do all of our little excursions in that general area.  We should be returning by next Saturday so you will get an update as soon as I can at that point. 
Though Friday was an exciting day (the last day of work before a vacation always is), it was also very hard for me to leave my little Anna there.  The nurses assure me that they will take good care of her in my absence though.  In the journal I plan on posting her picture.  One of the other nurses brought in an old dress of her daughters for Anna to wear.  It hangs on her frame, but she looks so cute in it!
Several of you have written emails to me over the last week that I haven't had a chance to respond to.  I'm sorry!  I do plan on responding, it just might take me a while.  :-)
I pray that this finds all of you blessed! 
love and hugs,
kimmie

Posted by thekimmieconnection at 9:04 PM BST
Updated: Saturday, 5 August 2006 9:17 PM BST
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Wednesday, 26 July 2006
mass mailer- 7/26 'Third time's a charm'
Morokeni Chome!  (hello friend!)
How is everyone doing?  I am really sorry that it has been a month since I have sent out an email.  It's not that I haven't wanted to, it's just that aside from being busy, it has been hard to find the right words to convey what I have been feeling and experiencing. 
Transportation (third time's a charm)
I want to thank all of you for your prayers and concerns over my taxi situation.  I want to let you know that God has answered your prayers beautifully in the form of my neighbor, Beto.  Every morning as I would wait outside for the other taxi I would see a taxi leaving down the street from me.  After talking to Imelda, she said she knew the drivers (there are 4 taxis at one house) and she would talk to them for me.  Well, it turns out that he is wonderful!  He leaves every morning at the same time to pick up the other drivers for the day so he always leaves at the same time.  So now I am on time to work!  :-)  He is also very prompt to pick me up in the afternoons after work.  What a blessing!  Thanks again for your prayers!
Mosipangero (moe-see-pahng-err-oh) sa Rundu (the Rundu hospital)
Things are the hospital are good, but it seems like it is getting more difficult instead of easier as time goes on!  I guess it is really just a different kind of hard.  When I first started I was just spending my time getting used to the routines and the new environment.  Now that I am becoming more confident in those basic things I am beginning to deal with the different attitudes towards life and death and health care in general, which is a much more difficult task.  The basic things are just technique, which is easy to learn, but the other goes against my own culture and my way of thinking.  I am having a hard time reconciling the two and figuring out how to react/show concern in a way that is sensitive to the cultural that I am in.  Please pray for me in this area as I deal with something new almost every day. 
My daughter Anna
My WHAT?!?!  We have a special 4 year old patient named Anna right now in the ward that has won my heart over.  Her mother has passed away and her father is also sick and can't come very often to see her.  When she first came into the ward she was carried by another nurse and looked more like a corpse than a child.  She couldn't lift her head and she spent all of her time sleeping in bed.  Since she wasn't able to care for herself, I took it upon myself to become her primary caregiver.  I don't feel very good when all I do is lay in bed all day and I figured neither did she, so I started taking her out of her crib to carry her around, to let her sit in my lap or go outside to sit in the sun for a little bit.  I have been spending so much time with her that the other nurses have started calling me her mother and her my daughter! 
Through love, attention and prayers, over the last few weeks I have seen an amazing transformation!  Anna is now able to sit without leaning onto a pillow and feed herself, through daily walks she has started gaining more and more strength and is now able to walk without assistance(!), and she now smiles and laughs!  It has been wonderful to see the way she has responded.  However, on Monday, after being off for the weekend, she was mad at me!  She wouldn't even look at me for the first two days!  Today though she was back to laughing and smiling.  I guess that means I am going to make a special trip in on Saturday to spend a little time with her!  :-)  Maybe just one day of being off won't get me into too much trouble!
There has been some concern for who will be able to take care of Anna once she is sent home, so today the social worker came and interviewed the father.  Since he is unable to care for her at this time, please pray that a situation will be worked out for suitable caretaker for when she is finally discharged.
Church in the Bush
On Sunday the 16th Rob was invited to go with Pastor John to the farthest church that EBC (Evangelical Bible Church- the church that AIM is most closely partnered with here in Namibia) has planted, which is in the village of Kuatarera (kwa-ta-rreh-rrah).  It was too far into the bush to take the children (they get car-sick on regular roads, they wouldn't have survived the bumps and bends of the bush) so Rob invited me to join them!  We started our journey with Pastor John and four other church members from here in Rundu at 7:30am.  After an hour of fabulous off-roading we arrived at the church.  This village has never been visited by any of the AIM missionaries, and I wonder if some of the children had ever even seen a white person!  (None screamed like they do at the hospital but several of them wouldn't come anywhere near Rob or me!)  We were greeted by the entire church, all 25 of them, standing in a row singing to us!  They were singing in Luchazi, but Pastor John told us that the song basically means welcome guests, we accept you.
After a wonderful church service (I always appreciate hearing Rob teach since it's in English and I can easily understand it!) the church cooked us a wonderful traditional meal of mahango and chicken.  Mahango is a grain that is used for many different purposes.  It is dried then pounded three times before it is used to make everything from porridge to a drink that looks sort of like dirty dishwater!  (can you guess that I don't like it? ha ha).  I hadn't had a chance to try porridge made from mahango so it was a good experience for me.  You can probably also guess that though it was a pleasant experience I probably won't be making it for my dinner here at home!  :-)    
Holiday (vacation) is just around the corner!
One of the cool things about being in Africa is getting to see Africa!  :-)  My friend Carole that I have told you about from Canada, has her brother here for a visit right now and they are doing quite a bit of traveling.  Carole has been kind enough to invite me to join them on two parts of their journey.  For the first part we are traveling to Zambia and Zimbabwe to see Victoria Falls (no, we are not white water rafting on the Zambezi River, even though it is supposed to be the some of the best rafting you can do anywhere in the world- at least not this time) and will take a day trip down into Botswana to see Chobe National Park.  Then after a week back here in Rundu, we are off to see some more of Namibia.  We are trying to go near Waterburg to a leopard conservancy to see feedings (I hope this works out- it would be awesome!!!), then we will travel to Etosha (yes again) for several days and then spend a night in a Bushman (or San) village seeing how they live. 
At the end of that trip I will be traveling on to Windhoek where we will be having our missionary conference.  Every August all the AIM missionaries take a break from ministry to come together and be ministered to.  We have a guest speaker coming and we will have music and lots of other things that will be great fun.  It will be nice to see everyone again and get to hear some good Biblical teaching in English!
Pictures
There are two new photo albums to look at.  One is 'church in the bush' so you can see our wonderful experience.  I am supposed to get Rob's pictures from him soon so I will add those when I get them.  The other is 'hospital pics 2' which has more pictures of the hospital in general. 
I hope that you are all enjoying a wonderful and safe summer!  Eat some hamburgers for me!  (random question: why is it called HAMburgers when it is really made of BEEF?  Shouldn't we really call them beefburgers?)
love and hugs all around!
kimmie
Praises:
  • My older sister, Valarie, passed her nursing license exam!!!  It was really hard for me not to be at her graduation but I hope she knows how proud I am of her for all her accomplishments!!! 
  • Carole's brother made it safely from Canada and they are enjoying the tours of Namibia they have been doing since his arrival
  • my vacation and our missionary conference is coming up soon!
  • Anna is doing very well! 
Prayer Needs:
  • For Anna as she continues to regain her strength
  • For Carole and her brother as they travel over this week and next week
  • For the traveling that I will be doing with them in August
  • For our missionary conference in August, that it will be a wonderful time of renewal and rest for all of us
  • For me as I deal with the loss of the precious lives of children at work and struggle with how to reconcile my culture to the one I am in.
  • For work visas that still haven't been renewed for Mick and some of the other missionaries here in Windhoek

Posted by thekimmieconnection at 6:48 PM BST
Updated: Wednesday, 26 July 2006 7:31 PM BST
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Friday, 21 July 2006
Winter in Rundu

The winter weather here is quite different than what I am used to!  To start with, not all the vegetation has died like I am used to.  in fact, there are trees and flowers that are still blooming!  This is something that I appreciate, but just haven't gotten used to yet.  Attached below is a picture of my favorite flowering tree.  The flowers are so pretty!  

Another thing that is wierd is the actual temperatures.  The nights are cold and I frequently am in the house with pants, my fleece jacket and a blanket around me!  However, the days are quite the opposite.  It is hot here!  There for a about two weeks the days were quite chilly and it didn't seem to warm up at all.  Now though I can see that that is almost preferable!  (How many of you ever thought you would hear me say it was preferable to be cold?!)  The days get extremely warm, which actually kind of worries me since summer is so far away and going to be so much worse!   


Posted by thekimmieconnection at 11:45 AM BST
Updated: Saturday, 22 July 2006 1:01 PM BST
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Thursday, 20 July 2006
My Prince Has Arrived!

I know that a lot of you have been praying for me so I wanted to let you know my Prince has arrived! 

 

 

 

Wink  Ha! Ha! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, I just couldn't resist myself!  Hope you are having a great day!


Posted by thekimmieconnection at 12:01 AM BST
Updated: Saturday, 22 July 2006 1:43 PM BST
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Monday, 29 May 2006
mass mailer- 5/29- work is coming!
Good morning everyone!

How are you doing? I am doing well. I wanted to share the big news with everyone! After more than three months of being a bum, I am actually going to start working! :-)

I had a very nice meeting with the head MD and the Matron of Nursing last week and it was decided that I will actually start working on June 1st! I realize that this is a Thursday, but I think it will be better this way so that I can get a break after just a few days of culture shock! It was decided that I will be working in the Pediatric Ward. My shift will be from 6 am to 4 pm, and I will work Monday through Friday. Hurray for weekends off! :-) I am pretty sure that they are just allowing me to work less than the nurses here and giving me weekends off since I am a volunteer and they don't want to scare me off, but for now I am ok with it! I know that sounds awful, but at this point I know that I am going to need the time to be able to recover from both the physical and emotional part of it.

As many of you know I will be wearing a navy skirt (with pantyhose I might add) with a white top and navy shoes as my uniform. The hospital is supposed to provide me with these items but have been out of supply for the last few years so it is up to me to get them. Thankfully I brought a white scrub top with me and I have been able to find two skirts that will be ok for me to use. The shoes have proven to be a different story though. They don't really wear comfortable shoes. Most of them wear dress shoes to work their 12 hour shift in. I just can't do this, so I am bending the rules a little bit... Mostly with the Matron's approval. Since they don't have shoes for me then I decided to order some clogs from 'Green-Cross', a really nice line of shoes that I have mostly found sold at pharmacies. I don't know how long it will take for them to come in and until then I will just be wearing my sneakers. The Matron said that if I wanted I could wear my sandals, but I honestly don't think that I could wear open toes shoes to work and be comfortable! It goes against all training I have ever had!

Many of you knew that I was supposed to be moving to hospital housing right around the time that I was to start at the hospital. That isn't going to happen, at least not right now. The hospital is currently renovating the nurse's flats and is even putting some of their nurses 'out on the street' until it is finished. That in addition to the fact that they just recruited a small batch of nurses from Kenya to work and gave them any remaining housing adds up to me staying where I am for now. They are saying that it might be as soon as next year that they are able to get me housing (but this is Africa and things don't run on a time schedule like we are used to so I'm not holding out for anything). This does present a problem though. The hospital is about a 45 minute walk away and I know that I am not going to want to walk 45 minutes to and from a ten hour work day five days a week. So what is there for me to do? I haven't quite figured that out. After some prayer I don't think that I am supposed to be buying a car. This means that in the morning I am probably going to contract with a taxi driver to be picked up each day. Yes, it will be a little expensive at N$6 a ride, but isn't convenience always a little expensive? As for the ride home I'm not sure what I will do. At this point I am thinking of walking home since the time will help me clear my head and unwind from the day. Something that you can pray for is that maybe there would be a female co-worker that lives close to me that would volunteer to let me ride with her. I know that God has something planned, I am just waiting to find out what it is!

I am sorry that there aren't any new pictures for you to look at this week. I did take some on Saturday when I went to one of the lodges with some other volunteers and played ping pong but I haven't downloaded them onto the computer yet. But other than that nothing that exciting has been happening!

I pray that this finds you well.
much love and many hugs!
kimmie

Praises:
I was well received by the one doctor and the nurses that I met on the Pediatric ward last week
I get along really well with the Matron of Nursing
Rob's brother and family arrived safely yesterday
my friends from Zimbabwe made it back safely this weekend

Prayer needs:
for me as I start work, that God will give me peace and calm my anxiety, that things will go smoothly, that I will bond with the other staff
continued recovery for the two ladies that had surgery and Audrey (heart surgery)
Alisa's parents are in the middle of flying home, they left yesterday to go back to Canada

Posted by thekimmieconnection at 12:01 AM BST
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Monday, 22 May 2006
prayer needs
Hi everyone!

Just wanted to say thank you for all of your prayers for Audrey, my friend Michele's 2 year old. She came through the open heart surgery well. She had a few complications and stayed in the hospital longer than they originally anticipated, but she is home now and recovering well. Please be in prayer for her continued healing.

There are also two ladies that recently had some female surgery, please pray for their healing as well.

You guys are the best!

lots of hugs and love!
kimmie

Posted by thekimmieconnection at 10:16 PM BST
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What a week!


From left to right: Lynn, Rick, me, Elizabeth, Gary and Michael John

Last week was a wonderful blessing! Elizabeth and Gary are missionaries that live a few towns over (almost a 4 hour drive), and it was their pastor, associate pastor and music leader from Birmingham, Alabama that came to do some church training. Along with them came a healthy dose of Peanut Butter M&M's and a box of Bisquick, so you can guess that I adored them immediately! ;-)

Though most of my days were spent cooking lunches for the guys, I did get to attend some of the sessions that they taught. It was so wonderful to be able to understand first hand what was being said in church! Of course they were translating into Luchazi (the language my church here is in), so I thought it was a little funny that the tables were turned. :-)

For the meals I treated the guys as much as I could. I even had a first attempt at home made tortillas! There is no such thing here are Mexican food- so it's just what I can cook. Since you can't effectively cook Mexican food for one, it was the perfect opportunity to try it! The tortillas weren't round, but they tasted perfect! I also treated the guys to sweet tea with each meal. And, since they were kind enough to bring me the Bisquick, we had pancakes not just once, but twice! The syrup here is good, just super thick. Though it was a little different, the breakfast was a little bit like heaven!

Other than that, my week ended on Saturday with some exciting things! My day started with an English class. No I am not taking one, I am teaching one! Don't you feel sorry for my students?! One of the translators asked if I would be willing to teach a class once a week to help anyone who wanted to come to further their English abilities. Since I am not working at this point I said yes. (when I start I might change it to twice a month instead of every weekend) This first class only had two students, but since they announced it at church Sunday I a sure that this coming week will by much more full! Please pray for my teaching ability!

My Saturday ended with a Birthday party where I met many other Americans! I was so excited! I was invited to this party for a volunteer that is with another organization, and the guest list was almost entirely volunteers! There were many different organizations present including the Peace Corps. I was so surprised to know how many other Americans are here in Rundu! I hadn't met any and had only heard of one other through the grapevine. I am thinking of having a 4th of July party at my house since I have so many people to help me celebrate! :-) This Thursday I have even been invited to one of the girl's houses for pizza and a movie!

Posted by thekimmieconnection at 9:16 PM BST
Updated: Monday, 22 May 2006 10:06 PM BST
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Sunday, 21 May 2006
mass mailer- 5/22 I survived Etosha National Park (and it survived my driving)
Hello Dear Family and Friends!



How are you all doing? I have been really busy these last few weeks. I am sorry that I didn’t communicate with you sooner that I made it back safely from the park. We had a great time! Below is a fairly detailed account of our trip and the animals that we saw. The album on yahoo is ‘Etosha National Park- Holiday May 2006’. There are many more photos than what are on the website, but I think that you get a good mixture of everything that we saw. The pics are a mixture of all 4 of our cameras; I took the best shots to put on the site! There is also an album ‘getting my hair done’ that I know many of you were looking forward to!



As for last week, I had a great time hosting 3 pastors from Alabama that were here doing church training. It was wonderful to have Southerners in my home! Imagine their surprise to be served sweet tea in Africa! I am going to put a little blurb about our week on the journal tonight so you can look for that as well as a photo of all of us (https://thekimmieconnection.tripod.com/journal). I hope that the journal about Etosha isn’t too boring!



5/9/06

Yesterday I arrived in Grootfontein. I was almost able to tell you that it was an eventful trip. However, while we were driving we crested a hill as noticed that there was a huge group of guinea fowl in the road and we noticed that one had bit hit. Now, in certain parts of America we joke about road-kill stew and in my mind I was laughing about it. That was until I noticed that we were slowing down. The driver pulled up to a stop right next to it so all he had to do was open the door to look at it. He apparently decided that it wasn’t damaged so he decided to take it home with him! He reached down, picked it up, placed it under his feet, and away we went! Other than that I arrived safely and soundly with a great story to tell!



Today we arrived in Etosha National Park! I love driving by the way. It is a little confusing since it is on the left side of the road and the driver’s side is the right side of the car, but I am getting used to it. My partners in crime have really laughed since I repeatedly hit the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal! Everything is backwards and it just takes some getting used to!



Within the first five minutes of being inside the park we saw giraffes and springbok. Since then we have seen ostriches, Oryx (gemsbok), zebras, wildebeests, and more and more springbok. I felt kind of like Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s European Vacation saying ‘Look kids, Big Ben’ each time I said ‘There’s a springbok!’ Tonight we are going to the watering hole and will hopefully be lucky enough to see some big game. We almost saw some lions, the park rangers told us which road they were down, but when we went down there we didn’t see anything. Maybe tomorrow!



5/14/06

Ok, so I got so excited for the rest of the trip that I didn’t journal, but I can fill you in on the details now!



The first day we arrived at the park at 10:24am. We drove to the Chudob waterhole in an attempt to see lions but there were none there that we could see. Then we drove to the farthest campsite from the entrance we used. It’s name was Okaukuejo (oh-coo-quay-oh). We set up camp and realized that the tent we borrowed wasn’t big enough for four people (Kelly opted to sleep in the car). Then we went to the waterhole to sit and wait for animals to come. We didn’t see anything for a few hours then decided to go eat. We were told that at least once we should pay the big money and eat at the lodge so that we could try the different game meat. It was a bit of a disappointment in that there was only one game meat, Oryx, and it wasn’t that great. But in general eating at the lodge and getting lots of different foods was great! While we were eating however a male lion came to the waterhole. We were totally bummed!



The second day we drove from the Okaukuejo waterhole/campsite to Halali, which is the middle one. That day as we were driving, the only unusual animals that we saw were warthogs and a giant lizard! The warthogs were a mom and her baby. Chances are that we were close to elephants because of all the dung on the road, but we never saw any. Of course we went through some thick tree patches, so they might have just been beyond our sight… We also saw numerous Oryx, springbok, giraffes, zebra, wildebeests and lots of pretty landscape!



That night after we set up camp we were determined not to miss any animals at the waterhole like we did the first night, so we set up shifts so that one person was always at the waterhole. It paid off because we were able to see a rhino at 7:20 pm that night! It was funny because Kelly and I were eating while Aimee and Kimberly were at the waterhole. The sign we agreed upon was doing a missed call on the cell phones (calling but hanging up before the person answers). While I was eating I jumped when my phone rang! I ran to the car, drove to the toilet/shower area to get Kelly who was washing up after dinner, drove back to the campsite to get her camera, then drove to the parking area at the waterhole. Then we ran all the way to the seating area. Of course by this time I couldn’t breath and it was hard to hold the camera still enough to get a photo! The digitals that we all got weren’t great, I am hoping that my 35mm took better photos! We were so happy that we didn’t miss it! Then we couldn’t stop giggling because of what we had to do to get there!



This is also the night that three of us fell asleep while waiting for animals so show up. I was the first to fall asleep and I am told that I started snoring! Kimberly was kind enough to shake the bench I was on to keep my quiet! Thanks Kimberly! I owe you one!



Our third day was the most amazing! On Thursday we saw so many animals! That morning we were out of the camp as soon as the gates were opened at sunrise and it definitely paid off! We drove to the Goas waterhole and were there by 6:20am. It didn’t take us long to see the lump with ears that almost blended in with the long grass. It was a female lion! It was all we could do not to make too much noise because of how excited we were! She wasn’t that interested in us until a second car drove up and started getting out of their car! I was totally freaked out by their boldness! It was they, however, that pointed out that we had a second female off to our left that we had missed because we were so focused on the first female! That was very scary! He also told us that this second one had cubs near her but we never saw them. After a bit they all got up and went away from us, so off to the next waterhole we went!



After a few waterholes, we finally saw an elephant! Don’t know if it was a he or a she, but it was beautiful! Kelly got some really good close-up shots of it because it walked towards us, stopped, and then walked off. We were so excited!



Then we were off to the waterhole of Tsumcor where we really hit the jackpot! We rounded the corner and there was a sea of elephant backsides! We were in complete awe! We drove to the far side of the waterhole, which was a mistake! We weren’t there very long when we were approached by a large female that started flapping her ears at us. Having been through ‘Elephant Etiquette 101’ I knew that that meant she felt we were intruding and that we needed to get out of her space. It turns out that they were almost ready to leave and we were in their exit path! I am glad we moved- otherwise we would have been trampled! Though we visited another waterhole that afternoon, that was the end of our exciting day. We were so thankful that we had been able to see so many of the big animals that we had been praying to see! We felt very blessed!



That night at the waterhole there wasn’t much to see except a herd of zebra and a few giraffes. We were told later that night that the campsite has a big area fenced in and that it doesn’t include any predators. We were glad that we didn’t try to stay up like we did at the other holes. We would have been very disappointed if we had been successful in staying up but didn’t see anything!



However, at 4am that morning I woke up but I wasn’t sure why. It didn’t take long before I heard the noise that had awakened me- a lion was roaring outside our camp! I woke up Kelly to hear it (I’m not sure she was as excited as I was). We stood there talking and saw a lady off in the distance out of her tent so we went to talk to her. She was pretty sure it was a female because after each roar there was also a low woofing noise that thought meant the lioness was her calling her cubs. It could have also been letting the others know that she had made a kill. We weren’t exactly sure and we weren’t going to go out of the camp to figure it out either!



That morning we didn’t see anything big, but we had to leave the park by 7am to make sure that we got where we needed to go. On our way home we also stopped at the Hoba Meteorite, which is the largest meteorite in the world. For being the biggest in the world it wasn’t all that big. But maybe anything bigger would have thrown the Earth off its axis and we would be lost in space… Anyway, we had a lot of fun taking pictures and climbing on it. Unfortunately the batteries in my digital camera were dead at this point and I haven’t gotten the other girls pictures! As soon as I do I will add them to an album on yahoo!



I hope that you are all doing well. Again I am sorry that it took so long for me to get back in touch with you all. I hope you didn’t worry too much about those lions and me!



I love you guys!

kimmie

Posted by thekimmieconnection at 12:01 AM BST
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Tuesday, 2 May 2006
My first visit to the hospital!
I finally got to see the inside of the hospital!

On the Saturday before last, Minnie (my friend who is a volunteer from the Philippines) treated Thomasine and I to a tour of the hospital. We did not go into every ward, just the pediatric ones where she works and knows the nurses, but we were able to walk through the compound and get a tour. Overall I was very impressed with the cleanliness of the facility. As you enter the front door you are deposited into the main facility. This includes reception, all of the clinics, the emergency department and the radiology department (x-rays for you non-medical people). I am sure that there is more in that area but we just didn’t see. Then as you walk out towards the back you find the different wards. Each is a separate building, one to the right and one to the left but it is all attached through the middle walkway.

The first area that we went into was the children’s surgery ward. We visited with a few of the patients that Minnie works with as well as the nurses on duty. All of the nurses that we stopped to talk to were very impressed at my learning Rukwangali. One nurse was so impressed she offered for me to marry her son! (I can’t seem to get away from it!!!)

The next on we went into was the general pediatric ward. Here we stopped to ask the nurses permission and chatted with them. We didn’t chat with any of the patients past my greetings in Rukwangali, we just looked at how the ward was set up and left. It wasn’t exactly a thorough tour but it gave me enough of the basics to be able to have a good impression of the place (for which I was very thankful).

I still do not know what area I will be working in. While I was with my friend Ndeshy (nn-desh-ee) at the hair salon the other day I met a nurse who said that because I was a volunteer that they would place me in the high care ward (their version of intensive care). I am not sure who exactly makes the decision but I know that the third week in May I am supposed to have a meeting with Dr. Yuri, the head physician and find out all the details about housing as well as when I start and where I will be working. Please be in prayer for this meeting. There are several things that I think I want, but please just ask that God’s will be done and that I am placed according to His purpose.

Thanks!


Posted by thekimmieconnection at 7:20 PM BST
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