Thursday, July 3, 2008

Day 10

The x-ray was posted to allow one of Dr. Kari's colleagues in Battle Creek to give her a second opinion.We’ve had a day or so of poor/no internet service so we weren’t able to load the last two blog entries as promptly as we would have liked. The days are relatively full of work-related activity, even if it’s only walking back and forth to the mission house, the tool and storage shed, the worksite, etc., trying to locate individuals, tools, materials, water, and other necessaries. The evenings are occupied by dinner, cleanup and devotions, so getting quiet time to write the blog is somewhat sporadic.

Today is Wednesday. We recovered from the party and resumed work on our projects. The medical team performed several more surgeries today. One was a fairly complicated hysterectomy made more challenging because of fibroids. Diane was invited to observe the surgery. Glen recalls that when they were first married, Diane once passed out when he cut himself and it began to bleed. Nevertheless, Diane worked up the courage (since her son Kyle had observed a surgery two years ago on the mission trip to Zimba) to scrub, gown and watch the procedure. To Glen’s amazement, there was no fainting. Diane found it fascinating and has a much different appreciation for the work of surgeons, and the rest of the surgical team. A mission trip changes people in unexpected ways.

With the additional wire picked up in Livingstone yesterday, the construction team was able to finish running wire and conduit from the junction box to the water tanks and up the side of the tower and tank to where the float switch mechanism will be installed. We went back and glued all the conduit couplings, sealing the wires in a waterproof casing. The remaining problem was getting to the top of the tanks to install the control mechanism and insert the float into the tank. The extension ladder we have is 26 feet long, the top of the tanks is about 30. We had been expecting to be able to drive the hospital’s lorrie (a truck with a flat cargo bed) as a platform or stage. We would drive the lorrie across the lawn, park it beside the tanks, and then stand the ladder on the truck’s bed. While we were still laying the last of the conduit, the hospital sent the lorrie to a distant city to pick up construction supplies for the 5-in-1 building. It wouldn’t return until late afternoon. We took our lunch break to consider the options.

After lunch, Glen laid down to rest (as several of us do occasionally), dozed off, and awoke with a wholly formed plan how to get the ladders to reach the top of the tanks. We would build stilts for the ladder.

We constructed the stilts out of 8’ 2x6 boards, secured the lower 4 feet of the ladder inside the top 4 feet of the boards, leaving an additional 4 feet of the boards for the ladder to stand on once raised. The ladder was nailed into the board structure. Then we added crosspieces, and rungs for the lower 4 feet. When we raised it up, it was both solid and more than long enough to reach the top of the tanks.

The rest of the afternoon for some of the construction team was spent watching Glen work on attaching the float switch mechanism and holding the ladder to make sure Glen didn’t descend faster than he would find comfortable. He was not finished when the afternoon ended but it can be accomplished tomorrow.

The medical team invited two of the Zambian clinical officers they’ve gotten to know to join us for dinner. As usual, the meal was great, the conversation lively and the humor dry. We enjoyed talking with our guests and learning more about the medical system as it relates to the hospital.

After dinner, as has been the case for several evenings, Purity came by to visit. She is the 14 year old young lady Diana S. and Ann had befriended during our last trip in October. She is a delightful girl with a terrific smile and personality. She is active at school and on the worship team at church. She especially loves Christian music and dancing and it takes little encouragement to get her to dance for a crowd.

No comments: