Day 2

The day began at 1 am with a knock on the mission house bedroom window with an urgent call for Dr. Kari. The six month old son of Edy the woman who cooks for the mission house had collapsed and his body had gone completely limp. Edy thought her son had just died or was about to. She called Missionary Joan who rushed to help while Nurse Ann knocked on Dr. Kari’s window. Edy cried aloud, praying for and thanking God for her son. But almost as quickly as baby Jeremiah had collapsed, he revived. Edy’s anguish turned to relief and thanksgiving as the baby began looking about and jabbering.

After a couple more hours of sleep, the team awoke to the second day’s challenges. Dr. Kari and Anesthetist Barb joined two of the Zambian operating room team to complete successfully two surgeries. They tended to other patients the rest of the day, scheduling additional surgeries and preparing for those scheduled for tomorrow. Ann continued to work with other local nurses, getting to know their routines, but also providing key pre-op information and a good role model for other nurses.

Diane spent much of the day helping two of the office staff learn more about Excel spreadsheets to help with their accounting workload. Glen made the bone-jarring, dust eating trip back to Livingstone again, this time to meet with prospective suppliers and contractors for the planned water and sewer renovation project. His meeting yesterday with Mr. Khondowe in which he reviewed the ‘final’ plans for the new water and sewer distribution system and new water treatment plant had gone well and he was eager to find supply sources – preferably in Zambia if possible – and a contractor who could assemble and manage local labor for the project. Glen was pleased to find a supplier in Livingstone who is also an engineer who will double check his plans and who assured him we can get all the materials necessary locally, except for the water treatment plant we knew would have to be shipped. He also met with a contractor with an excellent reputation for getting work done on schedule who seems like a good candidate to manage the project, although Glen still thinks it will be prudent to have one of our own people on site for the duration of the project. While in Livingstone, he picked up a few other supplies we need for the work ahead. He had a good day.

Bud, Mark and Larry worked primarily on trying to finish the wiring in the new operating theater. They had some successes and a few set backs. Bud and Larry had both brought walkee-talkees to facilitate communication when people are scattered about the hospital site and these worked very well. But the electrical work was of the ‘two steps forward, one step back’ variety. But they got somethings accomplished while also developing plans to wire and install a float based auto start/shutoff for the pump that fills the water storage tanks and to remove the brick wall separating the old and new operating rooms.

Early this evening, Pastor Chikobela stopped by to greet us and visit. While introducing newer members of the team, Larry chatted with Pastor Chikobela for quite awhile, particularly about the plight of AIDS related orphans in the Zimba area and approaches being tried or that might be tried to help them. Mark wisely asked Mr. Chikobela if he might videotape the conversation and Mr. Chikobela agree. The discussion was very fruitful. Mr. Chikobela is directly involved in several activities to not only reach these youth for Christ, but also to provide them with healthy opportunities to earn food, resources needed to continue their education, and to main their self-respect. It was a very promising meeting.