So, I was going to tell you a bit about the hospitals here.
We’ve had a tour of 2 private hospitals, which is what I’ll start with. I won’t go into much detail.
A large room houses between 10 and 12 people; rooms can house men and women together; beds are literally back to back, no curtains to separate them. Linens may or may not be provided. It’s very dirty and smelly. AIDS patients are beside malaria patients who are beside anal hernia patients who are beside…. All food and drink has to be brought in by family/friends. If this does not happen because of lack of family or funds, the patient literally does not eat. Family/friends are also the caregivers. Nurses and doctors primarily administer drugs etc.; equipment is almost non-existent. Beds are probably at least 50 years old. People, I think mainly care givers, lying on the ground outside. Laundry spread out on the ground to dry.
Camping tents are the overflow - I’m very serious. When we had a tour there was a surgery in progress, and the door was not completely shut. This was a normal `house door`, no double or triple doors leading to the O.R, just a regular door off the hallway. The person that was giving us the tour opened the door further, and there, splayed on the table was a patient undergoing surgery, open to gross contamination.
There was a high pile of broken beds stacked up against the one wall outside, not far from the `tent ward.`
The government hospitals are much, much worse. The one where Divine stayed and died in was almost unbearably filthy. No linens are provided. The walls are so splattered with ``stuff`` that has run down that it seriously almost looks like a wallpaper pattern. Every Band-Aid, every needle, every dressing, absolutely every single thing that the patient needs for the treatment of the ailment they are suffering from has to be bought by the family/ friends. Again, caregivers of the sick tend to almost all needs. There’s a big metal barrel cut in half just outside a cluster of rooms that serves as the needle/blood transfusion/empty IV/food scrapes disposal. It reeks.
Emergency service - The day Mama Queen was brought in and died she had to wait about 5 hours before she was seen by a doctor; this is completely normal. There is much that I could say, but won’t.
One thing I ask of you, the reader. Please don’t whine and complain and get angry about our western medical system when things don’t go as you wish they would. And please don’t whine and complain and gripe about the high taxes that you pay, because a large part of the taxes you pay goes toward your medical coverage. You have no idea how blessed you are. Thank God for what you have.
BurundiHappenings.blogspot.com
Posts
All Comments
Monday, July 26, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Mama Queen is dancing for the King
Happy Canada Day!!!
Take time to thank God for our wonderful country.
Much has happened in the last few weeks.
We got to spend some time with Sara and Peter Ndaruhutse, children of the late David Ndaruhutse, founder of A.R.M. - African Revival Ministries. Sara is 20, lives with her mom in Kigali, Rwanda and she studies in Uganda in communication. After completing this she’s planning on going to Bible college in the UK. I didn’t spend much time with Peter, so I don’t know what he’s studying. They both love and serve the Lord.
School’s out - hooray!! Colton did absolutely phenomenally well; he received 7 academic awards. With school being out I also get some breathing space, which I needed. Isaac’s schedule will be very full in a few weeks as he has a lot of things to fix/install/build for both schools.
Since the beginning of the school year I’ve had a daily stream of mostly girls, some boys, coming to my room during recess, just to chat. We have two 20 minute breaks, so that’s a lot of time I’ve spent with them. On average I’d have probably 6 -8 girls, (some grade 3, mostly grades 4 - 6) per break, sometimes up to 15. I often struggled with this; I had so much work to do and wanted to work through the breaks, but I had to keep telling myself that relationships are more important than working through break. Many of these girls are Muslim/Hindu. One year 5 girl accepted Jesus as her Saviour, and said she would not tell her parents. She came back the next day, very distraught, saying she had told her parents and that she couldn’t be a Christian. In this religion the father has full rights to kill his family if they convert to Christianity.
This particular girl, Bhagyashree, was hard for me to always love; nosy, serious chatterbox, etc. She loved to tell me about their Muslim festivals and beliefs, ceremonies and rituals. So after listening to her I would tell her what Christianity is. This particular time she informed me that they were in the middle of this 2 day festival where the father lights a big fire in the back yard and walks around it 4 times, after which their sins are forgiven. I reminded her that only God/Jesus forgives sins. I told her if she ever wanted to accept Jesus as her personal Saviour and wanted to have someone pray with her, or if she had questions about that or anything pertaining to Jesus, she could ask me anytime. Immediately she said she wanted to accept Jesus!!! I was soooo excited!! I had been praying for her for a long time, and now I got to witness this miracle.
Please pray for this precious girl and her year 3 sister. These kids that come from Muslim/Hindu families are so confused. Some have told me that at school they pray to Jesus, and that they believe in Jesus, but at home they pray to their false gods and idols. We have an almost 25% Muslim/Hindu student body. Naida, year 6, is really struggling; her dad is laying on the pressure at home, and she is torn.
One year 3 girl told her teacher and myself that she saw men with turbans and a huge snake in her room. One of the men had touched her on her head and she was transported to their temple, and the man touched her again and she was back in her room. Recently all the kids got a bible from Gideons and this girl, Angali, brought it back at her fathers’ request. He had specifically forbidden her to read it at school, and threatened her that he was posting “a man” demon, by the ceiling of her classroom to watch her, and if she read in the bible this “man” would tell him. These are only 2 stories; there are many more; please pray for these children that every word they hear that come from the Fathers’ heart will take root and will with time bear much fruit. I fully believe that the Lord has them at the King’s School for a purpose.
We as staff are very aware of the spirits that could be brought into the school by these kids and parents, and we corporately pray against them very diligently.
There is a King’s School grad (2007) that was helping out since January that also has spent a lot of time in my room. She comes and tells me things that are going on at home, she cries, and I just pray, “Jesus help me.” I pray with her, listen to her and love and affirm her. I asked her if I could blog about her situation so you, the reader, could pray.
Evangeline is going to be 20 in October, and her father treats her like a little child. In fact he compares her with her 7 year old sister. She is not allowed to socialize, she’s in a prison. Her mom and dad have been separated for a number of years; mom lives in Nigeria. Dad is a pastor of a local church here. Dad beats his girls regularly. Evangeline says she far rather would have his physical abuse than his verbal abuse. Her last physical beating was when she was 16, but he’s threatening to start beating her up again. One sister is doing her A levels (grade 13 equivalent) in Uganda, one sister is going into year 9, and one into year 3. Evangeline also became a Christian recently (March); she hasn’t told her dad yet, she says he would use this against her. The spiritual abuse is awful. Evangeline failed her A levels in Uganda; it’s a 2 year program.
These girls are docile, yet carry a lot of anger and hurt in them. Often when he beats the girls he does it in front of the sisters. He says they are evil and wicked, and that they are dangerous.
Even though Evangeline is treated like a small child, she’s expected to raise her sisters and manage the home, as well as work full time; on top of this, she tutors some kids. Since starting work as an assistant at the beginning of the year she has not been able to keep one single franc that she’s earned. Not one. Her dad takes it all. I could write much about this situation, but I won’t. Please pray for this friend and her family; and pray that I will be a good friend to her.
There are other teachers that come into my room, tell me their problems and cry, though crying is very un-African. I guess they saw me cry when Ramona was sick and died, so perhaps they know it’s okay to cry around me. All I can do is listen and hug them and pray with them. I’ve wondered though what Jesus is doing in and through all these people coming to my room.
Two days ago we had 3 people speak over us that Isaac and I are spiritual parents. They know nothing about the above relationships. Two of them just flew in from the UK a week and a half ago, and one from South Carolina. We were praying together, and God showed up pretty powerfully.
The spiritual parents thing totally resonates with us - towards the beginning of our time here in Burundi, I had three dreams about adopting someone. I never felt it was a physical adoption; I’ve wondered about these dreams, and we believe God has revealed to us what they meant. Please pray into this with us.
We’ve met some pretty incredible people in the last 10 days - people that we fully believe God has brought into our lives for a huge purpose. Some are local, others are not. It feels like we’re on the cusp of something new.
Divine….. sweet, precious Divine….dancing in heaven, worshipping Jesus together with my daddy that died when I was 2, with my incredible niece Ramona and my beautiful friend Charlotte….
Divine was diagnosed with breast cancer 2 yrs. ago. Shortly after she got pregnant, unplanned. One week after Bearnu (girl), was born she had a mastectomy; one week after this, she started chemo. in Uganda, as Burundi has no cancer treatment. She was doing pretty good till about three months ago. Her other breast started showing very rapid signs of cancer. Her lungs started filling up with fluid. She had an excruciating lung puncture. By now her breast was literally being “eaten” away by the cancer. She was refusing another mastectomy. Her wound/scar from the mastectomy started leaking lots. Both sides had to have daily dressing changes, due to lots of awful drainage. The last 5 days she could not lie down because she couldn’t breath, and because of being in agony. She hardly slept a wink in this time; exhaustion hardly touches what she felt I think.
Early Monday morning the 21st, Deo - her husband, and Alli took her to the hospital. Alli kept me informed all morning while I was at school as to what was happening via texting. Nothing happened all morning medically, hospitals here are almost enough to……….. more on that later.
Finally at about one in the afternoon she was seen, and was put on I.V. An exhausted Alli went home, and Deo went home to organize meals to be brought to the hospital. They were told that she first had to have a blood transfusion before they could do another lung puncture. At about 3:00 P.M. Isaac, Colton and I arrived at the hospital. It was awful; she was not fully “there”, her heart was hurting her so bad, she was fighting to breath. I held her head as she sat in her wheelchair, too weak and tired to hold it up herself.
At about 4:15 they finally started the transfusion, and they made her lie down. She begged and begged to sit up because she couldn’t breath, and her heart hurt her more when she laid down. As weak and tired as she was, she tried to get up time and again, and the family members that were there literally held her down. I coulda’ decked them. I realize they were just trying to help, but it was so incredibly hard to see. The family didn’t seem very compassionate at all, using harsh tones, etc.
Alli came back shortly after they started the transfusion. At about 4:30 Deo came back. At about 4:45 they put a hose by her nose with oxygen coming out of it. Divine was begging for help, every little while trying to get up. Close to 5:00 things got horrible, and 5 - 7 minutes later she died. She suffocated….. you can’t imagine…. the look on her face, her eyes…..
She leaves to mourn her passing her husband Deo, 6 beautiful children: Queen, Destine, Caleb, Esther, Dedi, and little Bearnu, and lots of family and friends, which we are blessed and privileged to be amongst.
Please pray for Deo and the family.
And please remember to pray for us as well
Take time to thank God for our wonderful country.
Much has happened in the last few weeks.
We got to spend some time with Sara and Peter Ndaruhutse, children of the late David Ndaruhutse, founder of A.R.M. - African Revival Ministries. Sara is 20, lives with her mom in Kigali, Rwanda and she studies in Uganda in communication. After completing this she’s planning on going to Bible college in the UK. I didn’t spend much time with Peter, so I don’t know what he’s studying. They both love and serve the Lord.
School’s out - hooray!! Colton did absolutely phenomenally well; he received 7 academic awards. With school being out I also get some breathing space, which I needed. Isaac’s schedule will be very full in a few weeks as he has a lot of things to fix/install/build for both schools.
Since the beginning of the school year I’ve had a daily stream of mostly girls, some boys, coming to my room during recess, just to chat. We have two 20 minute breaks, so that’s a lot of time I’ve spent with them. On average I’d have probably 6 -8 girls, (some grade 3, mostly grades 4 - 6) per break, sometimes up to 15. I often struggled with this; I had so much work to do and wanted to work through the breaks, but I had to keep telling myself that relationships are more important than working through break. Many of these girls are Muslim/Hindu. One year 5 girl accepted Jesus as her Saviour, and said she would not tell her parents. She came back the next day, very distraught, saying she had told her parents and that she couldn’t be a Christian. In this religion the father has full rights to kill his family if they convert to Christianity.
This particular girl, Bhagyashree, was hard for me to always love; nosy, serious chatterbox, etc. She loved to tell me about their Muslim festivals and beliefs, ceremonies and rituals. So after listening to her I would tell her what Christianity is. This particular time she informed me that they were in the middle of this 2 day festival where the father lights a big fire in the back yard and walks around it 4 times, after which their sins are forgiven. I reminded her that only God/Jesus forgives sins. I told her if she ever wanted to accept Jesus as her personal Saviour and wanted to have someone pray with her, or if she had questions about that or anything pertaining to Jesus, she could ask me anytime. Immediately she said she wanted to accept Jesus!!! I was soooo excited!! I had been praying for her for a long time, and now I got to witness this miracle.
Please pray for this precious girl and her year 3 sister. These kids that come from Muslim/Hindu families are so confused. Some have told me that at school they pray to Jesus, and that they believe in Jesus, but at home they pray to their false gods and idols. We have an almost 25% Muslim/Hindu student body. Naida, year 6, is really struggling; her dad is laying on the pressure at home, and she is torn.
One year 3 girl told her teacher and myself that she saw men with turbans and a huge snake in her room. One of the men had touched her on her head and she was transported to their temple, and the man touched her again and she was back in her room. Recently all the kids got a bible from Gideons and this girl, Angali, brought it back at her fathers’ request. He had specifically forbidden her to read it at school, and threatened her that he was posting “a man” demon, by the ceiling of her classroom to watch her, and if she read in the bible this “man” would tell him. These are only 2 stories; there are many more; please pray for these children that every word they hear that come from the Fathers’ heart will take root and will with time bear much fruit. I fully believe that the Lord has them at the King’s School for a purpose.
We as staff are very aware of the spirits that could be brought into the school by these kids and parents, and we corporately pray against them very diligently.
There is a King’s School grad (2007) that was helping out since January that also has spent a lot of time in my room. She comes and tells me things that are going on at home, she cries, and I just pray, “Jesus help me.” I pray with her, listen to her and love and affirm her. I asked her if I could blog about her situation so you, the reader, could pray.
Evangeline is going to be 20 in October, and her father treats her like a little child. In fact he compares her with her 7 year old sister. She is not allowed to socialize, she’s in a prison. Her mom and dad have been separated for a number of years; mom lives in Nigeria. Dad is a pastor of a local church here. Dad beats his girls regularly. Evangeline says she far rather would have his physical abuse than his verbal abuse. Her last physical beating was when she was 16, but he’s threatening to start beating her up again. One sister is doing her A levels (grade 13 equivalent) in Uganda, one sister is going into year 9, and one into year 3. Evangeline also became a Christian recently (March); she hasn’t told her dad yet, she says he would use this against her. The spiritual abuse is awful. Evangeline failed her A levels in Uganda; it’s a 2 year program.
These girls are docile, yet carry a lot of anger and hurt in them. Often when he beats the girls he does it in front of the sisters. He says they are evil and wicked, and that they are dangerous.
Even though Evangeline is treated like a small child, she’s expected to raise her sisters and manage the home, as well as work full time; on top of this, she tutors some kids. Since starting work as an assistant at the beginning of the year she has not been able to keep one single franc that she’s earned. Not one. Her dad takes it all. I could write much about this situation, but I won’t. Please pray for this friend and her family; and pray that I will be a good friend to her.
There are other teachers that come into my room, tell me their problems and cry, though crying is very un-African. I guess they saw me cry when Ramona was sick and died, so perhaps they know it’s okay to cry around me. All I can do is listen and hug them and pray with them. I’ve wondered though what Jesus is doing in and through all these people coming to my room.
Two days ago we had 3 people speak over us that Isaac and I are spiritual parents. They know nothing about the above relationships. Two of them just flew in from the UK a week and a half ago, and one from South Carolina. We were praying together, and God showed up pretty powerfully.
The spiritual parents thing totally resonates with us - towards the beginning of our time here in Burundi, I had three dreams about adopting someone. I never felt it was a physical adoption; I’ve wondered about these dreams, and we believe God has revealed to us what they meant. Please pray into this with us.
We’ve met some pretty incredible people in the last 10 days - people that we fully believe God has brought into our lives for a huge purpose. Some are local, others are not. It feels like we’re on the cusp of something new.
Divine….. sweet, precious Divine….dancing in heaven, worshipping Jesus together with my daddy that died when I was 2, with my incredible niece Ramona and my beautiful friend Charlotte….
Divine was diagnosed with breast cancer 2 yrs. ago. Shortly after she got pregnant, unplanned. One week after Bearnu (girl), was born she had a mastectomy; one week after this, she started chemo. in Uganda, as Burundi has no cancer treatment. She was doing pretty good till about three months ago. Her other breast started showing very rapid signs of cancer. Her lungs started filling up with fluid. She had an excruciating lung puncture. By now her breast was literally being “eaten” away by the cancer. She was refusing another mastectomy. Her wound/scar from the mastectomy started leaking lots. Both sides had to have daily dressing changes, due to lots of awful drainage. The last 5 days she could not lie down because she couldn’t breath, and because of being in agony. She hardly slept a wink in this time; exhaustion hardly touches what she felt I think.
Early Monday morning the 21st, Deo - her husband, and Alli took her to the hospital. Alli kept me informed all morning while I was at school as to what was happening via texting. Nothing happened all morning medically, hospitals here are almost enough to……….. more on that later.
Finally at about one in the afternoon she was seen, and was put on I.V. An exhausted Alli went home, and Deo went home to organize meals to be brought to the hospital. They were told that she first had to have a blood transfusion before they could do another lung puncture. At about 3:00 P.M. Isaac, Colton and I arrived at the hospital. It was awful; she was not fully “there”, her heart was hurting her so bad, she was fighting to breath. I held her head as she sat in her wheelchair, too weak and tired to hold it up herself.
At about 4:15 they finally started the transfusion, and they made her lie down. She begged and begged to sit up because she couldn’t breath, and her heart hurt her more when she laid down. As weak and tired as she was, she tried to get up time and again, and the family members that were there literally held her down. I coulda’ decked them. I realize they were just trying to help, but it was so incredibly hard to see. The family didn’t seem very compassionate at all, using harsh tones, etc.
Alli came back shortly after they started the transfusion. At about 4:30 Deo came back. At about 4:45 they put a hose by her nose with oxygen coming out of it. Divine was begging for help, every little while trying to get up. Close to 5:00 things got horrible, and 5 - 7 minutes later she died. She suffocated….. you can’t imagine…. the look on her face, her eyes…..
She leaves to mourn her passing her husband Deo, 6 beautiful children: Queen, Destine, Caleb, Esther, Dedi, and little Bearnu, and lots of family and friends, which we are blessed and privileged to be amongst.
Please pray for Deo and the family.
And please remember to pray for us as well
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)