Lushomo

So, I'm back at Riverside after spending two weeks at Lushomo. Liz and I have visa stuff to take care of Friday so we're in town for the weekend.

Lushomo is great. The day we went out we held two bush clinics. Darby introduced me to the whole administration of shots, vitamins and worm tablets thingy. So, I got to stab a few screaming kids. Then, I learned how the card system works and took some blood pressure readings which was really cool. After that, we started getting settled into our new home.

Liz and I share a little room with two beds complete with mosquito nets and a dresser of sorts. The house is nice. Surprisingly modern. They don't have electricity, but they have a generator that they run about once a day or once every other day. They have a TV, and every evening we sit down to watch the news and the hope channel (Adventist TV). The shower is a cement building with a tub that has a hose running in the side. The toilet is another little building with a rectangular shaped hole. We call it "the pit."

The family we live with is wonderful. Ernest and Christine are the parents, their oldest son is married and I'd put his name down but I haven't learned it yet because its a hard one. He and his wife have two kids: Nana (the nickname for his approx 2-3 yr old daughter) and Smart (little boy, just over a year old). Then there is their other son, Chile. And they have a daughter but she is off at school.

Sundays we paint the new buildings for the Bible school that will be starting up in July (maybe). Monday-Thursday we go visiting the villages just up over the ridge (we are up in the mountains, in kind of a pocket with ridges all around. So we hike up over the ridge to visit). Friday we don't have a set job. Its kind of like Sundays are back home - slow day. Saturday we have the job of teaching Sabbath school.

When we go visiting what we basically do is come up to a hut, or someone working in the feilds and visit with them. If they have any medical issues we'll try to help, then we'll give a short Bible study. Some are church members that just need encouragement, others are not and we are teaching them (so far, everyone is asking us to please come back and share more). It's kind of awkward, because neither of us have had any training for this sort of work, but its good. We are learning and enjoying the visits.

So far, we are studying with Abishy, who's wife just recently died from an infection she got when she had her stillborn child. He is eager to learn more and has told us he wants to come to church and he wants us to keep visiting. His neighbor (who also happens to be related to him) just recently gave birth to a dead baby. When it came out, chunks of the baby's skin was missing when it was born (meaning its still inside). He told us about her, it had been a week since the baby had been born and her infection was really bad. So, we had to arrange transport to the hospital and pay for the hospital visit because they weren't able to get the money together. We have also been able to clean up a little girl's infected toe and show her how to care for it, and begin giving Bible studies to a large family. We have another family we need to start with when we get back.

So, that's what I'll be doing until the end of march. The last week of march I'll head out to a town a ways away where there will be a big crusade. What they want me to do is pitch my tent there are week early and go around and invite people in the community to come to the crusade, giving Bible studies if need be. Then, the crusade starts in April, and they want me to give a health presentation of sorts each evening. Godfrey (the Bible worker who goes out with us when we visit) told me that there could be as many as 600 people! Yikes!

Then, of course in May I'm back at Riverside taking over Darby's place in the clinic. So that's kind of the situation right now. I'm sure there are important details being left out... I'll probably post again before I head back out.