Living in the fields and bushes of Africa has its ups and downs, as you can imagine.
Ups: There are not very many distractions, so it’s a great time to read, write, and listen. The sky is breathtaking, the clouds and stars. Eating by candlelight is quite soothing. You have to work for your water, and so you stay in shape. Running along a dirt road between tobacco fields in the rain is liberating.
Downs: No electricity. Flies. No immediate medical attention.
Sunday, after we left Kusungu I started to feel achy and cold. Nasaeu hit really hard and I felt super weak all of a sudden. We had to take a flatbed truck two hours back to the village. Thank God I was able to sit in the cab part, and lie back on the headrest.
When we got to the house, I could barely stand up straight. My entire body ached. I vaguely remember getting to my bug hut protected mattress and lying down. But the next morning I felt just as bad, and all the symptoms of a sick person. So my team leader decided we needed to go to the hospital to make sure it wasn’t malaria, and to figure out what was going on. That night another one of my teammates, Amanda, got sick too. So Wednesday morning 4 of us and a translator headed to the hospital.
See Joy to the World Ministries actually has a fully functional clinic. It’s quite large, well built, and ready for use… only thing is.. there is no one to run it. The clinic is only about 20 feet from the house we’re staying in. But what good is a clinic with no doctors or nurses or medication? SO instead our trip to and from the hospital ended up taking close to 10 hours!
<>
We flatbed trucked it to Santhe, a town where we could pick up a mini van to the hospital. Only thing is that there are NO vans that run towards the clinic in the morning. So instead we ended up jamming ourselves and 6 other people in a 5 passenger car…. That’s the back door…open..
You see where the gear shift is? 
They put a man in there! and started to drive. But I protested and had to be firm with the driver that we would get out if the man on the gear shift, whose feet were dangling near the peddles, didn’t. At first the driver kept driving, but I had to pull out my NYC attitude of persistence, and he finally let the guy out…
About an hour into our ride, the car broke down. So the driver goes into the glove compartment and pulls out a bolt, and starts banging on something inside the hood, I’m guessing the battery, to try to create a spark. We waited outside the car, just in case he sparked something that didn’t need to be sparked.
We finally got the car started, and he decided to drive off the cement rode and take the “shortcut� through the dirt roads and villages. Our translator later told us that it was to avoid the traffic police and a ticket.
We FINALLY, 2 ½ hours later made it to the hospital. It took about two more hours to find out that I had dysentery. Which comes from feces.. GROSSSS… so either it was the tons of flies we swat off our bodies and food everyday, or a handshake from someone fresh out the outhouse…GROSSS..lol..
Either way, I got this pretty awesome Malawi health passport! I will treasure it forever.
I’m feeling way better, thank God.
But what’s my point? Besides the fact that I LOATHE flies, and that I wish I brought fly swatters on the race with me? This could have ALL been taken care of in an hour, or two the most, if that clinic was open!
And it got me thinking…�What do the people of the village do when they are sick?� They don’t have the strength or money to make it to the hospital. I barely had either of those two things. If the clinic was open, they would be getting health care, and I’m sure for free since it would be a part of Joy to the World Ministries.
Doctors, nurses, anyone with health backgrounds.. you are NEEDED. There are villages around the world that are in desperate need of your service. Dzuwa is one such village. All I had was a small case of dysentery. But there are diseases and sicknesses that are life threatening that the people in these villages face, with NO medical attention to be given.
To some this is just a gross story about poop and flies.
To some this is a call. A call for those in the medical fields, to maybe, broaden their horizons, and give their gift of healing to the needy around the world.
To others this is a confirmation. Maybe you’re wondering whether you should go into the medical field… GO! If God has given you a like and desire for things dealing with medicine.. .that’s a special grace… not everyone has it. I CERTAINLY do not. God gave you those desires for a reason.
They need you.
The world really needs you.
Agenda: Love,
Bethsaida
