(Anita McCormick--Lutherhaven's Office Manager--and her husband, Cal, are working in Danja, Niger, West Africa, on the edge of the Sahara Desert all summer, where it's a ba-zillion degrees.)
June 21
Dear All,
Cal's crew continues to work hard on a couple of projects.
They have completed the foundation for the house and have brought in fill
material with wheel borrows and carts. The dump truck broke down, so
some teenage boys from a nearby school were rounded up to do the project
by hand. It took them a day and a half and it was ridiculously hot! The
interior walls were formed up and the rough plumbing is nearly complete.
Plans are to pour the house slab next week.
Cal and his digger and cement men are also
working on a sidewalk at the Fistula Hospital. It runs from the hospital to
the kitchen where patient food is prepared. This is an outside kitchen where
women prepare traditional African food for the patients that will now be able
to be transported via a cart on the new sidewalk.
My primary role is "wife of the contractor," which is actually
the best. I make sure Cal keeps hydrated, eats (which is much more involved than
you may think: making sure you use purified water, bleaching fruits &
veggies, sifting flour, making goats milk yogurt, checking to make sure the eggs
are good, figuring out packaging written in French ... you get the picture!) I
continually ask him to be careful in the sun and do laundry. I have
the sweatiest husband ever!
I work with the ladies who have applied to be employed on
the cleaning crew, and did we ever bust it out! Ashley the Operating Room nurse and I each
had a translator and some women to clean every inch of the hospital. Nothing
like you would think: imagine strong winds and sand storms blowing through
inadequate windows. Someone said, "Sand is like the wind, it goes wherever it
wants". So true! The women were amazing with their little hand brooms! They
worked together in a line to sweep and then poured water out on the floor, again
sweeping as a team to wash it and brush the sand and water outside. It really
turned out spotless. They did a
great job!
When the medical team arrives from the States I will be cooking
lunch and dinner for them daily. Ladies
will be arriving and staying in the village (mud brick lodging where they can
stay while they wait for an exam) at the end of next week.
Cal and I toured the Leprosy Hospital last week. I had been
kind of putting it off because I knew that it would be hard, and it was. The hospital was established 58 years ago to provide treatment for the leper
patients. Now they also provide services for other ailments. Treatment for the
leper patients is provided at no charge while services for everyone else is very
costly for them. For a diabetic patient it is estimated that treatment for their
lifetime would represent 1/3 of their income. The average income is $1 per day
and the cost of treatment isn't an option for many/most. They see many diabetic
patients for open sores, amputations etc. The conditions are unbelievable, yet
even with horrible sores and everything else, nearly every patient tries to
sit up and greet you.
They see many patients in the late stages of ailments when it
is far past options for cure. A recent patient came in with near-death stages of
throat cancer. In other countries they are taken to a room and told in private
that nothing can be done for him. Here the man was told in a ward with many
other people within earshot, all quietly consoling him as the Doctor
talked to him. The doctor said he couldn't heal his condition but went on
to tell him and the others about Jesus. The man said he understood and the
reason he came here was because he knew they would care. Who are the
people in our life that we need to remember to care about?
On a lighter note, I got locked in the bathroom in the kitchen,
and it took five people and a couple hours to get me out. Good news: I'm sure I
probably dropped five pounds of sweat while I was in there. We have pigeons that
like to land on our tin roof and play "I'll slide down and claw my way back to
the top half the night." Our electricity goes off regularly, challenging for
everything electric.
The other day we went to dinner at another family's house here at the compound. Jason is a teacher at the nearby Bible school and Lenge is a
nurse at the Fistula hospital who mostly teaches prevention. Simon is eleven
and Isaac nearly seven. Just as we arrived the boys had some friends show up on
their donkeys for some boy time. The boys had a small
burner that they used to build a fire and make tea. They did it their certain
way, brewing it, mixing with milk and sugar and serving it to everyone in small
cups. All the while they were playing on a drum and singing. Loved it!
Cal and Anita
P.S. Tuesday at the bus station I saw
an honest to goodness, real life Arabian knight, complete with authentic dress
and sword! I couldn't take a picture. (I'm not exaggerating ... I think the sword
was five feet long!)
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