Typical morning 6 am wake up, 6:30 breakfast, 6:45 mtg , 7:15
departure arrive at the hospital after 8. Unlike yesterday there were no
patients waiting & we had no set up to do so for the first hour or so we
just sat & visited. Leigh is here are “Safety & Security” & I was
visiting with her -WOW!!! She has a
degree in marine & air engineering (yes she could design ships, submarines
& aircraft), got a job after college with the State Dept, ended up
designing the small submarine units for Military Special Ops teams & worked
with Seal Team 6 extensively, all of this as a civilian. Her stories were
amazing & a few years ago she & a few friends from Seal Team 6 started
a safety & security business that many government & non govt
corporations use & apparently the COO of Op Smile was on Seal Team 6 &
has them consulting on mission safety. Truly there are people from all walks of
life on these missions.
The 4 Missionaries that I talked to showed up at 9 am to
help with cargo – 2 in their white shirts & ties & 2 in work clothes. They
are in the Uganda Campala Mission which covers parts of Rwanda, parts of Uganda
& all of Ethiopia - 3 countries. The majority of the missionaries are in
Uganda & Rwanda where the church membership is large; in Uganda they are
opening their 2nd Stake (like a Diocese). Elder Thornton was the Zone
Leader & he has been serving for 23 months & goes home to Kamas Utah
July 5th. His companion Elder Dramudri is from Ghana & had
previously been in the Sierra Leone Mission & when it was closed due to
Ebola was transferred to this mission & he had been companions with our
good friend Cody Beckett so that was fun! Elder Burdette is from Oregon &
has 8 months left & Elder Robinson was from Utah (I am blanking on the
city) & has only been here 6 months. When the Sierra Leone mission closed they had 24
missionaries in Ethiopia but now they only have 12. There are about 800 church
members but based on where they live only about 250-300 attend church regularly
in the 5 branches here.
I introduced them to Molly, she said cargo wasn’t coming
until 9:30 so they helped get cases of water & then Jeanne an OR nurse who
is also LDS & from SLC did a “moms interview” with them & is going to
call their parents when we get back. I took some pictures to send their
families. They were so fun to talk to. We had a patient scale & they all
wanted to weigh themselves & were all a little bummed they had each lost between
10-15 lbs (of pure muscle of course according to them!). AT 9:30 we were told
the cargo would be here at 11 so they helped with whatever was needed, at 11
they said cargo would be here at 1 so I gave them 500 Birr ($25) & told
them to go get lunch & come back at 1 – they were excited &
appreciative
We only screened about 30 patients but it really isn’t about
the 3’s its about the people. Several of them were from a Sudanse refugee camp
in Gambala which was about 750 km away & took them 2 days to get there. Their
interpreter who brought them was a man name Bol – I talked to him & was
humbled & inspired by his story. He wore a suit & glasses & walked
with a cane. He had polio as a child in Sudan, as a teenager his family came
here & he was in a refugee camp, at some point he was able to leave the
camp & went back to Sudan where he went to University and got a degree in
Social Services. Then I am not clear why but her was sent back to the refugee
camp. As I understand it Refuge Camp life is very difficult but Bol despite all
his own challenges & education & feeling like he did not belong in the
camp was resilient & instead of being down or complacent he told me he
decided to be a “social worker” in the camp & help “his people”. He
especially watches over the women & children. I told him he inspired me
& he said he was only trying to show Gods love to his people and that it
was his honor to serve his people. He had coordinated the transportation of 6
people up to Addis & gotten some funding from organizations and from
individuals but the travel expenses were more than they had allotted & he was
trying to secure gas money funding this week in Addis to “take his people home” (to the refugee camp)
and they would all be fine without food for the 2 day trip. I couldn’t really
process it all??? I spoke to our coordinator to see if I could offer help as I
had resources given to me but I always need to check with Op Smile because if
word got out among others it can cause a difficult situation. They said I could
so later in the day I had the opportunity to pull Bol aside & tell him I
had funding for fuel & food & gave that to him…he bowed before many
times & thanked me – I told him it was from my wonderful friends & that
people all over the world appreciate people like him.
The missionaries called because they were running late…but
so was the cargo. When they got back they were all in work clothes & said
they had gone & “treated themselves” & stuffed themselves with some
good Pizza at Island Breeze restaurant with the - they were so happy. Cargo did
finally arrive & they with some of the men tam members unloaded about 75 boxes 7 carried them up to
the 2nd floor of the hospital which really was 3 floors up? They are
going to come back on Friday & help us pack up. It is so great to see the
way the Church is “worldwide” & the service of these young men.
We got back to the hotel about 3 pm & Pres. Biru was
going to be here to meet us at 4:30 (but I was told by the missionaries no one
here uses sur name so that all call him Hap Tu). I totally crashed asleep when
I got back barely woke up at 4:15 – I hadn’t slept well last night I must have
just been exhausted after my travel because last night the bed truly felt like
a piece of plywood & I could not get comfortable – hence the unplanned
nap!. Hap Tu was in the lobby at 4:30 & when I asked yesterday how I could
help some church members here he said he would think about it & pray about
it & we could talk more tomorrow. He brought Abanezer with him, a young man
who is 19, working 3 jobs & trying
to save money go on a mission. His
parents are deceased & he & his younger sister live with their grandma.
He wants to serve God to honor his parents but he also helps support the family.
He was very soft spoke as many Ethiopians are & VERY HUMBLE…I KNEW 100% he
was the person I should help for a couple that had given me some money before I
left. Laney & Jeanne were there &
I got very emotional as I told him what a great young man he ws & that
there were people in my ward at home who wanted to help him go on his mission
by giving him the $$ to buy a suit if needed (depending on where he will go) or
pants & shirts & ties & shoes. He was so so grateful & Pres
Biru told him this was the answer to the boys many prayers & his faith about
being able to serve. It was a powerful moment. Abanezer then left & Pres
Biru took the 3 of us on a little tour of Addis up by the US embassy & shared
some great info with us about the people of Ethiopia. He is currently employed
by the church & has been for 8 years but says he soon needs to get back to
his own business (he has a several rental car business which I understand
is a major industry here). He travels
thru Ethhiopia, Uganda & Rwanda on church work & is the church liason
with all branches of the government her & says the church quietly send
millions of dollars of humanitarian aid annually to the countries of Africa
& he oversees that. He drove us by the US embassy & took us to see Zina
Winchet a woman he met who is blind & a widow with 2 daughters & created
organization for other disabled women to assist them in learning skills to support
themselves. She was recently assisted by a Catholic woman from Ireland who is
here with her diplomat husband. After listening to all she does she truly is
like the “Mother Teresa” of Ethiopia and she is the brightest most positive
person – she does not see herself as disabled only blessed by Jesus to do his
work. I was in awe of her. She has 3 rooms each with 2 beds so she can have 6
women at a time. She has a room of clothing & toiletries (much like good
will) so they can have a “fresh start” when they come to her, she feeds them
& cares for them & then teaches them skills to bring in money to
support themselves & her 2 daughters were delightful. She also has a Braille Typewriter which I had
never seen & recorded our names. The women in her organization recently did
a “fair” & sold nearly all they had but she showed us some of their bead
work & we were able to make some purchases & donations. Her yard was
full of about 100 old metal broken chairs that Pres. Biru said weren’t there
last week & she told us – they were a donation & what God provides we
accept. It was truly an amazing visit & I was so honored to meet her.
We had to be at the hospital at 6 pm for set up so Pres.
Biru dropped us there. He is clearly a very busy man, a business, a wife &
2 children, and church work but he was so kind & gracious to make time for
us today which was a treat for us before we start the mission.
Setting up the Recovery Room was a challenge because the
hospital was still doing their own surgeries but we did what we could & got
organized. It seemed like any other set up – organized chaos there was a hospital
patient in the recovery room with an Ethiopian nurse, we all noticed he seemed
to have occasional breathing problems & the nurse would adjust the oxygen.
I didn’t think much of it & did go look at the little boy a few times. By 8
pm we were pretty much done & thinking we would all leave in 30 min. I was
just outside the room in the hallway…everything changed about 5 min later when the child in
the room stopped breathing & the Ethiopian nurses was unsure what to do. At
that point Aziza one of the other Recovery Room Nurses stuck her head out of
our room & called for help. I will post about that separately in case anyone
who only wants to read “the good positive stuff” wants to skip over that post.
All I will say her is I got back to the hotel at 2:45 am – it was a very long
night.
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