Today is church day, so one culturally consistent thing between Africa and America (and pretty much everywhere). We went to both services this morning, to see what they were like. The first service, from 9am to 11am was all French and Lingala. They sing hymns in Lingala and preach in French. Henri, the eye surgeon, preached this morning. It was a lot of fun to be a part of for sure. They're singing especially, with a boy banging a drum in the background, was a cultural treat. The second service is the English and French service, and Joyce preached for that one, telling her story of how they ended up in Africa and talking about how one will never be "ready" to go be a missionary, you just have to go. They sang songs that you would commonly hear in a contemporary church service, and went back and forth between French and English on verses and choruses. I think I will be helping out with that next week, as long as my voice is better. I still can't sing and am coughing consistently throughout the night, making it difficult to sleep, so hopefully I recover by next week.
We went to the Wegner's house for lunch afterwards, and we met Amanda as well, who is a nurse here for a 1 year stint. We talked a bit about how Make A Change International started and what our goals are, and I welcomed any suggestions for us as we develop our organization. I look forward to partnering with this community as we move forward, and I know this will be a wonderful connection to maintain. Soon after we finished we were alerted that a boy had collapsed and was unresponsive. He was in the pediatric ward being treated for a respiratory infection. We ran over and Dr. Keong was already starting chest compressions. We put in an IV and I drew up some epinephrine. Zach and another hospital worker continued to bag for ventilation. We pushed the epinephrine, and continued compressions. Nothing. I took over compressions and we pushed another round of epinephrine. They don't have a lot of crash cart meds here, and so they do what they can. Aspiration is common and the boy had puke all over him. We could technically intubate, but have to way to really ventilate, so they don't do it. We had to call it at this point as there was nothing we could do. Dr. Wegner noted that we usually lose one pediatric patient a week, and sometimes more adults. By the time they're on the ground and you're doing compressions, he said, it's unlikely we can get them back. The hardest part of any third world country is when your hands are tied by limited resources, and this is yet another case. We do the best we can, and practice the best medicine possible in the circumstances. We will see a lot of death over the next couple of weeks, and the one glimmer of hope I see through that is at least each of these patient's is placed into an environment surrounded by Christian doctors who at least present them with an option for some hope. Many of the patient's families were at the church service this morning, and I'm sure it's of some comfort. Death is more expected in a place like this than in America. If you brought your child to the hospital for a respiratory infection you would unlikely be assuming they would die.....but in the Congo, death is common....
We spent the evening at the Harvey's house, where they do a bible study and worship of sorts each Sunday night. Being Palm Sunday, they had Palm branches for all the kids and they read through related scripture. They asked if I would play In Christ Alone and How Deep the Father's Love for us on the piano, and they had the chord charts so that was no biggie. Later they asked if I'd play a song that I didn't know, so I told them to start singing and I followed along and made it work. They asked if the next couple weeks I could keep doing the worship, which I'm more than happy to do. Next week being Easter, I'm going to meet with Becky (Dr. Harvey's wife) to discuss songs that they want to do and all for the holiday. I brought some stuff too, so maybe I can teach them some of my favorite worship songs as well. Jason and I each shared a bit about our testimony and how we ended up in Africa, and they prayed for us and our success while we are here.
Tomorrow is day 1 of typical hospital work, and we have chapel at 7am, morning report after, and then rounds. From there we shall see what the day holds. They have worship practice at 4pm, so depending I may be able to help them with that as well. Tonight when I got back to my room I turned the key and it got stuck. So, I took the door apart and found that the tumbler had crumbled into a bunch of pieces....so I need to find a way to fix the door too. I'll let Henri know as I think he's their "handyman," so maybe he'll have extra door parts? Lots of firsts here. Anyway, a more solemn day with everything, but I assume that over the next few weeks there will be lots of sadness experienced, but I will try to keep the blogs more light and lively and filled with the excitement of things going on as well. Everyone has a fantastic attitude here and it's definitely not as maybe depressing as I've made this post seem. I hope you had a great Palm Sunday, and stay tuned for all that will happen in this coming work week.
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