State-side

I leave in a few hours for the USofA. Pray for safe travels!

A quick update

Hello all!

Saying goodbye to all of my friends at Karanda was really hard- especially to the Kids Club kids. My last day, the ladies in charge asked if I wanted to say anything to the kids. I started out strong, but when Vimbai started to translate for the little ones, I broke down crying. They all gave me big hugs as I left. It was especially hard saying goodbye to Tafadswa. He was still in the hospital, so he didn't hear that I was leaving. He does not speak English, nor does him umbuya, so I did my best to tell him using my broken Shona. Apparently it worked because when I asked a nurse aid to translate for me, he said that he aldready understood, though Tafadswa was still is old smiling self. Umbuya told me to return soon before her grandson got too big. He needs me as his "shamwari"-- "friend."

We spent the weekend at Imire Game Park and saw lots of elephants, rhinos, and giraffe. It was a COLD weekend. You may not believe it, but there was not a time when I wasn't wearing at least 3 layers of clothes, wrapped up in blankets, or sitting in front of a fire. And this is in Africa!

I have been in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital city, for a few days now. Relaxing. Spending time with other TEAM missionaries. Watching lots of field hockey.

My flight home leaves on Monday. and then I will keep myself busy showing everyone pictures, getting ready for RA training, seeing family and friends, and heading back to Orange City.

Be looking for pictures to be posted shortly after I return home!
Thanks!


Be praying:
*that God can use my time left in Zimababwe, even though I am not in Karanda
*that my journey home will go smoothly
*that I can affectively tell my story once I return
*the God will continually be working in the lives of the other SOS members

Journal Entry

In all of the business of the weekend, I forgot to mention that our Dambudzo [the burn patient] died on Saturday. =(. No one knows the reason why. But our best bet is the she just gave up. Her father came to see her for the first time of few days ago. Maybe she was holding on until he came. My friend was saying that she went in for the dressing change on Friday and her eyes were "creepily wide open" and she kept saying that she couldn't do this anymore.

Oh man. She was a trooper. Granted she did the damage to herself... I couldn't imagine that much pain and think of all that mental depression and everything that went along with it. Like seriously. Wanting to kill yourself the waking to find yourself in that condition. Wow. It was a miracle that she lasted that long.

I think God kept her alive to set things right wither her parents and family and her in-laws. She was also able to hear the gospel. I am not sure if she was a believer when she died, but I know the chaplains talked with her often. I pray that now she is in heaven basking in God's glory in a new body that isn't damaged by burns.

I have never cut onions before...

I am not sure if it is the onions crying or if I am just appreciating the comments from everyone.

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Right now our medical school friends are over and cooking a Shona meal for us. Sadza. Beef stew. Rice with peanut butter = mupunga une dovi. and Madora (fried caterpillars). Yum!

I only have one full week left here before we go a game park. and then another week and I fly home. Ready or not!

This wasn't in the job description...

So to all of you who thought that I would be coming to Zimbabwe to work as a nurse's aide with Naomi. Yeah... apparently the job description extended FAR beyond that. Let me list for you all of the jobs I have had since arriving at Karanda.

*Nurse aide for Naomi in peads ward

------BUT Naomi for quite sometime SO:

*dress Dambudzo's burns 

*act as a self-appointed, low-talent clown and make funny faces at the older kids in peads ward (if I did it to the young ones... they would cry because I am a scary white girl.)

*substitute teach for two days for 3rd and 5th graders

*serve as a exam-giver for nursing students (twice)

*be a computer teacher for the new secretary who knows absolutely nothing about computers

*chef (as explained in my previous post)

*jungle gym for the monkeys-- i mean local kids -- to hang on. 

*photographer/videographer - for when the long term missionaries want me to document everything

and on and on and on!

It has been a great and fun experience to see how God's plans for me differ everyday. 

There are four medical students here who I have become quite good friends with. They like to introduce me to fun aspects of Shona culture. I have been learning how to balance different things on my head (ex:  20L bucket of water ---which i have NOT mastered--- and a big bunch of banana freshly cut from the tree). They have also made me try matemba, a small, inch-long fish, that is served dried or fried. These fish are 33% eyeballs. Eww. Fried they taste a bit like sardines. But dried, i can't get past the fact that I am eating eyeball. In a couple days they are coming over to cook us a Shona meal (I love Shona meals). This meal with include madora. A more common name for madora is caterpillars. Yeah that's right, in 2 days time I will have consumed caterpillars! 

But don't think I am the only one trying new foods. We had them over the other night for s'mores. When we were in Harare it tooks us 5 stores to finally find marshmallows. So we got to roast them and served them with chocolate and marie buscuits- which are the closet thing they have to graham crackers. Eating them reminded me of VCBC and all the smores I have eaten around that campfire. The medical students thought that they were "so delicious!"

Today we went on more home visits to different HIV victims and  orphan caregivers. Usually we go to 5-8 houses. Today we went to 3. At the 3rd house we went to we met 3 ladies. The mother, her daughter, and the grandmother. The grandmother is the 1st out of 5 wives of the man who owns the big homestead. Her daughter, who is elderly as well, so I will call her "umbuya" out of respect, is deaf & mute and also has what is basically a fancy "peg leg." But umbuya was the sweetest old lady ever. To communicate with us, she would just move her arms around in some sort of unofficial sign language (I could not understand anything! But the chaplain could and that is all that matters). This woman is usually very stingy with everything - she would not even allow her own daughter to enter her house, they daughter lives with the grandmother. BUT! on this very day, Umbuya took us on a walk to her "garden" - aka her jungle of banana trees and papaya trees. She gave us 3 big bunches of bananas and 5 big paw-paw(papaya). We walked them almost all the way back before she stopped along the road and made us set now the fruit. We were to drive the truck back to the spot to pick them up so the other wives did not see that she was sharing with us. HA! What an experience it was! That took up a lot of time, so we headed back to Karanda instead of visiting more people. 

I am also very involved in the Kids Club here. This is a time when AIDS orphans can come and eat a meal and play with other kids. Whenever it is time for Kids Club and those kids see me walking to the area, they yell "Ellen! Ellen!" -- which I have started to accept as my name. Lynn, the 1st grade teacher, and the owner of the computer that I use, has picture of kids club on here, so I want to post some: 

This is Tafadswa. He was sick in peads ward for sometime. Would make faces at him and color with him. We became good friends. 

Vimbai & Chantelle are a couple of the girls. Vimbai loves to play with me and Chantelle once peed on Miss Lynn. =)

That is all for now. It is past my bed time!!

Please be praying for me as I have been sick with a cold and/or sinus infection for a week or so. Also Naomi is ill again. 

For the healing of Dambudzo's burns, and for the healing of her spirit.

For other SOSers who are starting, in the midst of, or wrapping up at their locations.

Please keep your encouraging emails and messages coming my way. They are blessings to me!

Wife training.

Before coming to Zimbabwe I could not cook a thing! --- unless it came in a box and only required a cup of water. But all that has changed. Here is a list of things I have cooked in the past 2 weeks:

*white cake from scratch

*beef and gravy dish

*squash soup

*potato chips

*chicken and rice

*speghetti

*carrot bread

*rice pancakes

...and on and on.

So far my experience in Zimbabwe could be described as quality wife training!

------------

Naomi is feeling better, so I have been able to spend more time with her. She is proving to be a good friend and a lot of help as I adjust to this new culture. But although she is healthy and back at work again, I am not spending as much time with her as I thought. I have the freedom to move around to the different areas of the hospital and spend the day in the ward that needs/wants/accepts me. For example, yesterday I spent all day in the maternity ward. That was an awesome experience. The sister in charge wanted to teach me lots of things. She taught me how to draw blood and give shots, and even let me do some. I also wrote some discharge papers. And watching a delivery was hands-down the best part about the day. 

Our burn patient, Dambudzo, is doing well. Her swelling has got down a whole lot! She bends her legs and can move her arms with ease. and she is always talking up a storm. Now that I know a little more of the language, I can communicate with her a bit. I know God has her in His hands and I will be able to see her recovery progress during this next month before I return to the States. 

Some of us missionaries are going into "town" (aka Harare, the capital city) tomorrow to celebrate Naomi's birthday, get groceries, eat pizza, and renew our visas. We are invited to the US Embassy on Saturday for a 4th of July party. That should be fun and festive! =) 

Please pray:

-that our trip to Harare is safe.

-that my relationships with the locals grow stronger.

-that I can be an encouragement to the long term missionaries at the hospital.

-that God will make known His calling for my life.

-and that He will be glorified in all that I do.

 

Thank you all again for your encouraging notes and emails!

Blessings via internet.

Ah! God is good! I woke up this morning feeling very homesick for everything: my family, my boyfriend, my friends, NWC, and even Swaziland. To my great comfort and joy and tears, I look online to find emails and comments from my sister, Kameron, his parents, Andrew, staff and friends at Northwestern, and my dear Kittie from my team in Swaziland. Thank you so VERY much for your love and prayers. God is using them to bless me. =)

--------

Masikati (good afternoon!)

Daswera kana maswera'wo (I spent the day well, if you spent the day well.

Since my last post...

*Naomi, the nurse I am working with has been sick for almost a week, so I have not been able to spend much time with her. 

*Dambudzo, the burn patient, is doing much better! She can talk and she can see! Haha! Funny story. She opened her eyes on Sunday, and I am not sure if anyone asked her if she could see. So the other day I asked the nurses and they put me in front of her face and asked what she saw. "White girl" was basically her response. Ha! 

*I made friends with a kids in the peads ward named Tafadswa. I taught him a typical American handshake and how to say "What's up?" "Not much." He LOVES to do that. And although he pretends not to know any English, on our way back to the hospital after playing with all of the Karanda kids, he started yelling out drill marching orders like: "Attention!" "Forward march!" "Salute!" Silly boy.

*I filled in yesterday and today for a teacher who teaches four 3rd and 5th grade students at the Karanda Primary School. Yesterday was a blast because it was a new experience. Today was not so fun. Not for any particular reason, though - I just heard God saying that I was not meant to be a teacher. 

*Cali and I get up at 6 every morning (our alarm clock go off at six... we don't get out of bed until 6:30!!) to go for a walk. The sunrise is so beautiful! Once we got up with some other short-termers who were here at 4:30am and climbed a water tower to watch the sunrise. Amazing!!

My time here is just beginning. I have just over a month until I go home.

Please be praying...

**that I make the most of my time in Karanda. 

**that Naomi will get better

**that God will continue to comfort me and the rest of the SOS team while we are away this summer.

Thanks again to everyone!

Mangwanani shamwari! (Good morning friend)
Darara kana mararawo. (I slept well if y0u slept well)
---
Actually I did get 10 hours of sleep last night - still trying to make up for jet lag.
---
I am doing well here. I enjoy Zimbabwe, though I don't think my brain will get over that I am not in Swaziland. Sometimes words or greetings come out that are Swazi words instead of Shona words. There is also a song that the kids sing here that is the same song as one in Swaziland, but of course it is in a different language. It will take some time to learn the words and stamp them into my memory.

Cali and I have been at Karanda hospital for 3 days now. Her days are spent gathering, organizing, and trying to fix broken medical equipment. I will see her running aroun outside to and fro all the time. I think she is making progress! Yesterday she was locked in the library where she works. Haha! She was hidden by stacks of boxes that people piled in there yesterday, and when the man who locks the doors peeked in there and couldn't see anyone, he locked the door. He did shout "Is anybody in here." ... but in Shona, so Cali had no idea that she was supposed to get out. Luckily there were people standing utside of the window, so she had a lovely conversation with them (aboout the weather, Zimbabwe, the US, and of course Barak Obama) until they asked why she was talking to them through a window. My nurse friend named Bote was around to unlock the door for her. Bote told me the story later and she was laughing and laughing and laughing.

The Shona people have a hard time pronouncing my name, apparently. They all call me "Ellen." So one lady gave me the name "Ruvarashe" which means "Flower of God" so it matches my Swazi name.

My days are spent with Naomi in the pediatric ward. The day I arrived a patient was brought in with 40% of her body burned. She is not a kid but that ward has a private room so people are not gawking at her. The story is that she was requested to go somewhere that and he father would be ashamed of her, so she poured parafin all over her clothes and lit herself on fire. (To shame your father is a HUGE deal, so don't think that she had some sort of mental breakdown.) That was 3 days ago. Since then we have kept our eyes on her 24/7 and she is stable. Everyday we wrap her burns with lots of gauze, which takes 2.5 hours. Please be praying that God puts his healing hand on her and delivers her from his pain and loneliness.

Working in a hospital like this brings a lot of sadness. Yesterday especially. Here is an entry from my journal last night:

God have mercy. Please be the kind of God who allows babies into heaven. This baby was never allowed the chance to proclaim your glory. I pray that she is in heaven now drinking utof a well that never runs dry.

While we were in with the brurn patient trying to get fluids into her, Naomi popped her head in through the door and told us to get out in the ward. This infant, just under 4 months old, was rushed into the peads ward. Skinny little thing. Weighed less than Emma Mei did when she was born. Arms no wider than my finger. Temperatue of 205. Dehydrated. No meat on her bones. Tiny, tiny veins so no way to get an IV going. Feet to cold and too small so the pulse-ox would not read. There was nothing to do. We gave her to her umbuya (grandmother) to hold until she stopped breathing. Mercy. I held this baby's feet to warm her up. All the while she was trying to pull her own. Shame shame.

All of this tragedy- burn patient and dying baby- in only 3 days. Only God can give me the strength to make it 5 more weeks!

Today is saturday, so not much work to do today. Go in to help with the burn patient. AWANA will be starting "just now", maybe I will see what the kids are up to.

Fun words I want to stamp into my vocabulary:
*just now - means anytime from now until when i leave to go home
* the loo - bathroom
*trolley - shopping cart. medicine cart. drink cart on the airplane
*jersey - sweater
and the list will surely grow!

Cali is making french toast that will be ready just now, so I better go help.

Go in peace.

IT IS SO GREEN HERE!

At least in Harare.

WE have been in the capital for 2 nights.
*Played volleyball pretty much right when we landed.
*Orientation
*language learning
*eating traditional meal (sadza= corn mush. veggie sauce. meat sauce)
*drinking LOTS of tea.

Tea is very important here. I was not aware. I drank 4 cups before lunch yesterday. Is it OK to refuse if they as if you want a cup? Not sure... so I always accept.

Today we will go shopping for our food for when we are at Karanda.
We leave for the hospital tomorrow morning.
Internet is expensive! and loads very slowly.

God bless you all!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

My flight out of Chicago is at 10ish pm. That is in one hour!!!!! I can't believe this is the day I leave for Zimbabwe! Crazy!



Briefing this week has been a ton of fun! but draining -- I am pooped! There were are about 10 short term missionaries all going to different locations. Although we won't be a team serving together in the same country, we bonded as a team and became family to one another. The sessions we had were very similar to our SOS meetings at Northwestern, not so much training for our assignments, but learning about different cultures, etc.



Last night we went to "Little India" in Chicago. Learn some Hindi language and walked around. Cali (the girl traveling with me to Zimbabwe) and I spent about 20 minutes in a Hindu dress shop looking at all the different styles of sarees. We talked with a 20 year old girl who left India to come to Chicago just a month ago. She is very lonely and is looking for friends. She seemed happy to talk with American girls her age. She wanted out cell phone numbers so we could hang out often, not knowing we were just visiting. I would have liked the chance to become her friend.



We spent the rest of the evening downtown Chicago at the Big Bean and and Navy Pier. I love Chicago! Especially the big bean. Maybe I will live here one day!







Today has been a busy day getting ready to go... but now I am about to leave. To God be the glory!!






I need to go.. but guess who i saw today? Take a look:







The Barbster!!!


It has taken forever to post this. First the internet went out at TEAM in CHicago. Then the computer booted me off at the Chicago airport. Then no internet at a missionaries house. Now I can.

What did Zimbabwe?

Let's see. What did it weigh?

carry-on: 25 lbs.
checked bag: 40 lbs.

===under the limit! score!


I made it here to Chicago safely. My friend Jac from high school is kind enough to let me crash in her dorm room until my briefing starts on Tuesday. I meet up with TEAM in Wheaton, Illinois - which is about an hour or more from Northwestern University, so I get to take the train! (EXCITED!).

Last night was the premiere for all the big video projects the film students have been working on all year. Jac was very much involved in that, so we attended. It was fun to get dressed up and meet all of her college friends.

Soon we will be going down town Chicago to check out the sights. (Like the big bean!) Plus the beach is right on campus, so maybe we'll go play in the sand. But it raining... and probably will keep raining for the next couple days. Lame.

God bless everyone!

What not to pack.

I am pretty much done packing. Woo hoo! It is a very stressful task, maybe even more stressful than finding an SOS location!

Pack what you need --- but don't overpack!
Batteries. all sizes.
Toiletries [or in my case doyletries].
underwear.
toenail clippers.
crystal light to-go packets >so your water doesn't taste like metal.
pens.
sudoku.
liquids in 3oz bottles.
all the proper documents. passport copies. immunization records. insurance. emergency contancts.
finding places to store cash.
and on and on and on and on.


Saturday. That's only two mornings left. How is that possible? Time flies.
and it hasn't hit me that I am going to Zimbabwe. I mean... yesterday my boyfriend was teaching me how to shoot a semi-automatic 22 rifle [i hit the bulls eye and knocked down, like, 10 pins]... and in now I am leaving home. Crazy!
Though I suppose I won't get to Zimbabwe for another week.
I am going to fly to Chicago on Saturday to visit my good buddy Jac from high school.
Briefing with my organization begins on Tuesday.
Fly out of the country on Friday.
SOOOOO.... it is completely okay that I don't feel like I am going to Africa... because I won't get there for many days.

I also spent some time adding some playlists and audio books to my ipod. It will be a long plane ride. I have Kite Runner some Jane Austen to keep me company. =)

Tomorrow will be spent sifting out unneeded item in my suitcase, and buying last minute necessities.

Please pray:
*I can make the most of the time with my family.
*I remember the reason I am going on an SOS.
*Safe travels in airplanes.


Maybe I will send another update from Chicago before I leave for Zimbabwe.
OH! and. I received an email today from TEAM saying that the internet connection in Zimbabwe is very very poor... so I probably will not update very often. but I will try. so don't check this blog everyday or anything. =)

Love you guys!
God bless!

P.S. Check out the picture of me shooting the gun. Just call me Sally Shooter!

Zimbabwe or bust!

Only one more week to go! Woah! I am feeling many emotions tonight as I think about what that means.

Soon, I will be in Zimababwe. Now granted I will be in Chicago for about a week for briefing before I actually get there... but yeah. Zimbabwe. I am very excited to go back to Africa and see a new country.

Stress. This past week I was on a solo road trip across South Dakota to visit friends and family before I leave the country (very fun and much needed!) BUT there is much to do before Saturday. Although I am worried that I won't be able to accomplish everything... I know that God is with me, and by His will alone, He is going to get me to Zimbabwe. He is my strength!