Life at BMC

Welcome to another aspect of my life - BMC. I spend the majority of my daylight hours there, (and many of my sleeping hours are spent awake wondering if I remembered to do all that I needed to that day). I have been working there for almost 5 years now! I remember when I first moved to this small town 10 years ago just out of high school and within just a few weeks I had to bring a child that I was babysitting into the clinic to get stitches. Little did I know that I would become a nurse and eventually be working there! Only by that time they had moved from a small building into a huge multifaceted facility at the entrance of town.

I am so thankful for my job. As I was looking through one of my old journals from years ago, I ran across a page were I had written down several things that I wanted in a job. One of them was that I would enjoy going to work everyday. I can honestly say that at this point in my nursing career that I enjoy my job. It may not be what I want to be doing the rest of my life, but I enjoy the people that I work with and appreciate the friendships I have there. I work for and with some of the best doctors in the world. I have been so blessed by their willingness to let me globe trot over the years and they still welcome me back with open arms. Pretty amazing. Of course there are challenges, but my "people skills" are gradually improving and I attribute a good portion of that to day in and day out experience.

BMC has started a blog and I may contribute things to it here and there.

"Captivating"

Almost every night over the past few weeks, I have been reading a book entitled, "Captivating" by John and Stasi Eldredge. Generally I devour the books I read in long sittings, but I have had to chew on this one and just ingest a chapter or even a half a chapter at a time. Maybe because the issues that are addressed within this book lead me to a vulnerability level that requires a "processing time". I am only a little over half way through, but I hear the Lord speaking directly to specific issues and bringing understanding and encouragement.

This book reveals three core desires that God intentionally placed within women - the desire to be romanced and pursued, the desire to play an irreplaceable role in a shared adventure, and the desire to unveil beauty. Read an excerpt from the introduction:
"The message of Captivating is this: The longings God has written deep in your heart are telling you something essential about what is means to be a woman, and the life He meant for you to live...You can find that life-if you are willing to embark on a great adventure....Not to learn one more set of standards you fail to meet. Not toward a new set of rules to live by and things you ought to do. Something far, far better - a journey of the heart. A journey toward the restoration and release of the woman you always longed to be....(this book) is not about what you ought to do or who you ought to be. It's about discovering who you already are, as a woman. A woman who at her core was made for romance, made to play an irreplaceable role in a shared adventure, and who really does possess a beauty all her own to unveil."

Part of the chapter I read tonight was particularly articulating of the current and seemingly (unending?) season of my life - waiting. This was so encouraging: "As we increasingly become women of substance, women who offer true beauty, we find that our hearts grow in their capacity to love and be loved, to desire, to live. Our hearts are enlarged by Jesus. By that, we mean that we must be willing to be honest with Him and with ourselves about the true nature of our souls - our sorrows, our desires, our dreams, our fears, our deepest and scariest hopes. To invite Jesus to come and walk with us there....We do not always get what we want, but that doesn't mean that we no longer want...Living in true beauty can require much waiting, much time, much tenacity in spirit. We must constantly direct our gazes toward the face of God, even in the presence of longing and sorrow. It is in the waiting (with Him) that our hearts are enlarged. The waiting doesn't diminish us. As a pregnant woman is enlarged in her waiting, so are our hearts. God does not always rescue us out of a painful season. He does not always give to us what we so desperately want when we want it. He is after something much more valuable than our happiness. Much more substantive than our health. He is restoring and growing in us an eternal weight of glory."

Spoiled for the Ordinary

It is easy to be on an emotional high and graphically describe life when you are in a foreign country for a short period of time. Suddenly life takes on a new fascination, a deeper hue of color is seen from standing at a different angle. Even the dirt and bugs and cold showers come alive with purpose and manifestations of glory. You feel completely awed with the opportunity to experience life. However, once you are home, and the bags are unpacked, and the pictures have been oohhed and ahhed over, and the mundane of the familiar once again glares straight back into your face -the heart tends to make a nosedive unless you have made a proactive decision. I want to live for eternity one day at a time - embracing each moment as a gift from the Lord no matter how mundane and "unspiritual" it may seem. Knowing that if anything matters, everything matters. Living each day before the Lord, to His glory and satisfaction - whether I am holding HIV babies at an orphanage in Africa, or wheeling a patient out to their car, or scrubbing the church toilet for the zillionth time, or even sitting alone on my back porch believing the Lord for the desires He has put in my heart. I want my life to be poured out as worship to Him. I want the eyes to see in faith. I want to live with a fascinated heart, one that embraces life and is spoiled for the ordinary. I recently read a quote that seems to fit here: "When we look with eyes of faith, all the ground we walk on becomes holy ground, all the people and all the common sights and sounds and happenings become miracles." Herbert F. Brokering

And when I fail, and fall headlong into the nosedive - I want to run straight back into His loving arms.

"How He Loves Us"

Spring Cleaning

Ahhh, it's finally sorta warm. Might snow tomorrow, cause it is Idaho, but today has been a lovely 72 degrees. The slight tan I got in Uganda has suffered greatly this last week and probably won't have a chance to recover due to the forcasted amount of hours scheduled indoors at work. O well, as one friend pointed out, at least I HAD been in the tropics while she was still shoveling snow.....
Anyways, I love spring cleaning. I look forward to it all winter - opening the windows and doors so the fresh air can permeate every corner of the apartment, moving the furniture to vacuum up all the hibernating dust bunnies, even rearranging the closet so the short sleeve shirts are within closer reach (the long johns are still at the forefront cause ya never know til at least July.) I didn't get every thing done, but I did feel satisfied with the day.
However, I hesitated to completely unpack my suitcase from the trip. Yes, I have been home for over a week, but I haven't completely adjusted to being back. I didn't want my time in Uganda to be written in disappearing ink. I wanted the reality of the people and that place to stick with me. Maybe keeping the bag partially packed was a tie to that reality. Nevertheless, the clothes are washed now and I received an email from Grace. (Hehe, I guess washing the dirt out didn't erase as much as I had subconsciously thought it might.) The reality is to stay in the love of God and continue in fellowship. Perfect love casts out fear, so there is no room to be afraid of "losing" what the Lord gave me in Uganda. "For I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day." 2 Tim 1:12

Jet Laggin

Being wide awake at 3am has its advantages. Its a great time to scrub the tub and mop the floor, but it doesn't allow for much motivation the rest of the day. I'm jetting lagging bad. Maybe I can keep my eyes open til 9....

Back Home

Hot showers are amazing! I had considered collecting all the red dust I was covered in and potting a pineapple or an avacodo tree, but somehow I don't think it would do well in this FREEZING cold. I was still covered in Uganda last night went I arrived home around midnight after 48 hours of traveling. I had a long layover in Amsterdam so I took the opportunity to take a tour through town. Holland is beautiful and the tulips and daffodils are just starting to bloom. It was kind of an overcast and rainy day in Amsterdam, but it was great to get out and walk and see the flowers, windmills, and lush green Dutch farmlands.

It is good to be home. I had to think twice before I brushed my teeth with fresh water flowing from the tap. I take so many little things for granted...

Werabe

Good byes are always hard, even when you know it is only a temporary goodbye. I leave Uganda in a just a few short hours - boy, time has flown by. I am so thankful for the opportunity to come and not only have an experience, but to build and grow in relationships that will last far beyond the last crayon being used, beyond the new shoes wearing out, even beyond the new school being built that will influence generations to come. Life and the people that make up that life are such a gift. People are messy, maintaining and cultivating a relationship is work, but the reward far outweighs the cost. I have learned so much by just observing Paul and Pam. They are skilled at working through misunderstandings, miscommunication, and deception at core levels. They genuinely love people, and they are amazing to watch as they engage the Ugandans through the love and truth of Jesus Christ.

Day before yesterday, on a second trip to Bukeeka, Paul, Pam, Robert, and I were walking up the road and up ahead of us was an old Jaja (grandmother) walking toward us balancing a large pole on her head. She was still a distance off, but she must have seen me pull out my camera to capture a great shot of African culture (and balance). She immediately put one hand on the pole and came at us waving her finger at me and shouting something I couldn’t understand. This was the first time I had ever had someone not want me to take a picture,(well, except for The Bridge, but that is a different story), and I immediately lowered my camera out of respect. I assumed that she did not want her photo taken because she presumably a Muslim. However, Robert interpreted and said that she was demanding money for her photo to be taken. Paul handed her a couple hundred shillings but she remained irate, continuing to scowl and wave her finger. My first inclination was to walk off and let her remain in her own little greedy, grouchy world. But Paul, recognizing that something deeper was going on, gave her a couple more coins, but she was not appeased. Pam encouraged her to be thankful for receiving the money but Jaja stood with a pout. Muttering, she stood still for half a moment as I snapped a shot but she was obviously not pleased. She continued to squawk in her native tongue and at that point Robert realized what she had no understanding of coins. In her mind, coins had never been associated with payment. Robert said that she was asking for money, and money to her was paper. Paul pulled out a paper 1000 shilling and she said “ah hah!” and smiled and instantly posed with a huge grin for her photo along side Paul. All along she thought we were holding out on her, while in fact, it was her own paradigm and that was keeping her from her blessing. By pushing through in this interaction, we had been blessed to finally understand what she was thinking and she had been blessed with a little “pocket change.”

I am sharing this because I realized that I, being a typical American, quite often don’t think I have the time to spend working through issues with difficult people who are not on the same communication wave as I am. But through this small example, I saw my own impatience and lack of skill, mirrored by Paul and Pam’s willingness to pursue root issues and help people come out of bondage. I witnessed such examples over and over. I am so thankful that the Lord revealed and exposed my heart, for I know that my attitude and perceptions have been changed. I am praying that the Lord will teach me to be skilled in my encounters with people. I have plenty of opportunities to practice everyday.

Thank you, Paul and Pam, and Abdu and Betty for welcoming me into your home and for sharing the past three weeks of your life with me and for your friendship. Thank you Uganda for welcoming me wherever I went and for your beautiful smiles - they are forever etched on my heart and I will see you again. Thank you everyone at home for releasing me and even sending me to Africa, and for your prayers while I am here. My life has been blessed and is richer because of all of you.

Uganda Heath Care

Being a nurse, I am very interested in observing health care in other nations - especially third world countries. Since we have done most of the visiting and distributing supplies among the villages, I have been able to visually assess the obvious sickness and disease rampant in especially the children, and yet much of it can be prevented by educating and implementing basic personal hygiene and proper nutrition. I also had the opportunity to today to visit the local hospital and a few of the outpatient clinics in town. I am so used to HIPPA regulations in the US that I intentionally left my camera at home and unfortunately didn’t capture any visual explanation of what I experienced. (There is no such thing as HIPPA here, btw. I could have taken pictures.)


Paul explained to me as we entered the hospital grounds that each building (known as a ward) houses specific disease states. For example, there is a TB unit, HIV / Aids Units, Labor and Delivery, Pediatric, Theater (Surgery), etc. They are long rectangular cinder block buildings. I didn’t count, but I would guesstamate around 10-15 of them. Most had multiple rooms that contained 6-8 beds. I learned that the patient had to provide their own bedding, often their own mattress, their own meals, and their own nursing care. There are nurses around that may administer medications and there is a doctor that makes rounds, but there is no dietician, social services, etc. During my visit, the sidewalks and grounds surrounding the buildings had many people sitting around, sleeping, eating, preparing meals, and doing laundry. These are the patients’ family members who come to live at the hospital to care for their loved ones.

The nursing staff at the hospital greeted and welcomed us and inviting us to tour the grounds unaccompanied. They were a breath of fresh air in an otherwise less than hygienic environment. I believe they genuinely care for people and have the desire to improve the care and quality of their facility.

We walked through the L & D ward where I was struck by the vast difference to what I am accustomed to in the US. There were two large rooms filled with pregnant women whose sagging bellies were only matched by the sagging mattresses. Most were laying in the beds, some with IV’s, some with newborns, most with family members sitting at the end of the bed, on the floors, or even napping in the bed with the patient. The water in the basins was dirty, the IV’s lacked IV poles, dirty dishes were laying around. I don’t really know what protocol is in place, I just know I am far away from home and I wouldn’t want to have a baby here, or get stitches, or even receive an injection.

We visited an outpatient clinic where they test and treat malaria - which is the biggest killer in Uganda, along with HIV. This clinic was clean and seemed to have a decent lab, but I was again astounded when I watched the lab techs draw and test blood without wearing gloves. I have the understanding that they wear gloves when gloves available - but that is not the norm. I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that Uganda is such a high risk area - HIV, Ebola, Hepatitis, malaria, etc, and yet they don’t even have access to some of the most simple things proven to help stop the spread of disease. My purpose in sharing my experience is not to expose anyone, just to bring to reality what people are dealing with in third world countries.

More Photos - As Promised!