Well it’s Monday night now and quite a lot’s happened since I arrived. It’s incredible I’ve only just started the countdown of my eight weeks yesterday. There’s so much time, but the more Andrea and I talk about it, the more I realize we’ve got on my plate.
The internet’s pretty spotty here… Non-existent in fact. Word has it that it’s been down for the last week and half and no one really knows when (or even if) it’ll be back up. All I can do is hope, I suppose. I’m currently uploading all of these posts from Ficksburg which is a city on the border of Lesotho and South Africa where there’s… ah… civilization. Haha.
Anyway, after not having running water for a couple of days, Andrea and I managed to sneak a shower in when, on Saturday morning by work of God the water came back on and we had about two and a half days of running water!! Happy days!! Haha, This afternoon the water turned off again and Andrea and I will be forced to find water for showers elsewhere. What a life, eh? We’re coping though. We’re being super resourceful to limit the number of dishes we have to do for dinner. We ate straight out of the pot for dinner, haha. Don’t tell mom and dad..
Other pretty awesome stuff happened like taking walks with the whole gang with the dogs, and I got a gorgeous view of the mountains. It’s just absolutely impossible to take a picture and be able to capture how grand it is. The nights, too. Oh, it’s just gorgeous at night. The most beautiful moon you’ve ever seen on a most genuine midnight blue, speckled with little stars. Straight out of a Disney movie.
There’s a photo of “the gang” there. It’s Veronica (in the red) and her husband Kube (not in the picture), along with their three dogs. There’s Joyce (the small one in navy) and her husband Yair (the super tall one). There’s Deborah (next to Joyce) and her husband Daniel (behind her) and Eustice (the black one) and his wife, with their kid. So many couples! It’s honestly really sweet that they’re all here with their spouses and able to work at this hospital together side by side for however long they’re here. This place is really wonderful (minus the lack of internet and running water) and from what I’ve seen, it does really wonderful things for people. Makes me miss my people back at home. Can’t complain though, I’m having a great time here.
This morning (Monday) we made a presentation to the doctors during their morning meeting and they seemed really happy and enthusiastic about our projects. Presentation went well, didn’t trip over my tongue and I think we at least peaked their curiosity a little bit. We’ve got our work cut out for us, but several doctors have already approached us and we’ve set up several meetings to speak with the doctors and nurses, so hopefully our devices will be put to good use soon! I still can’t believe it’s only the first day.
On a completely separate note, I wanted to talk briefly about the Adventist religion (an aspect of Christianity) here and how it permeates these people’s lives on campus. The hospital is an Adventist hospital so most everyone is very religious. It’s really an incredible thing, faith. I’ve never been a particularly religious person so it’s fascinating to be living with people for whom this is their way of life.
For example, we started that morning doctor’s meeting with nearly an hour of song, prayer, reading, and discussion about the reading as it pertained to the doctors in the hospital. We opened and closed another meeting with prayer. It’s so different for me, but it’s honestly a very positive way for these people to live their lives. Though they’re highly religious and some of the things they say are a little alien to me, in the end the lesson and mission is the same: do good, be humble.
It’s nice – these people are positive looking people, they have a strong faith in God to do right by them (as long as they do right by God, of course). I think to some extent, too, I try to have faith in the workings of the world that things will work out in the end. That things happen because the world can’t make it easy for you, otherwise you’d be skipping through life, and how interesting of a life would that be? Boring. You’d have no stories to tell at dinner parties. The people here just call it God instead. The teachings that they learn themselves may be alien to me, but the take-away lesson are things that I’ve thought of before, and I think it’s nice that they discuss them with each other, and are able to build a community around them, rather than just me thinking about what’s good and what’s bad in my secret diaries.
Alright enough of that. The weather’s fantastic and I’ve got some more work to finish before the sunsets. (The sun sets so early here! But it’s gorgeous. Just perfect.) Here’s a cute picture of me and one of Victoria’s dogs. I love dogs. They make me smile.
