June 29th (Friday)

Today is slightly different as we didn’t end up going to the hospital to help with clinic as Ruth asked for us to give her a hand in the “Mall”. The Mall as they call it, is actually a big warehouse with shipping containers lining the sides. There is 3 on one half of the warehouse and 3 across from them. The other half of the warehouse is more open and there is one other container against the end wall with one across from it. The middle area is where there are tables for sorting out the contents of the boxes and then there are piles of boxes everywhere. We went at 7:30am to help. We went through all the baby clothes boxes that hadn’t been opened yet. Around 10:15am we went to Kariba to join the missionary nurses and doctors for tea. There was leftover cake and peanut butter cookies from Alison’s and Dr. Lipsi gave us another good though provoking devotional as we sipped our tea. He told us he had been reading through Ecclesiastes and how Solomon can’t understand the things “under the sun” and what is the point of them (“vanity of vanities”) But he (Solomon) ends the book with the conclusions that it means nothing without God (The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13) Then Dr. Lipsi compared it to Revelations 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labours, for their deeds follow them!” It was quite a nice little devo over tea.

We then went back to help Ruth until lunch time. Joey stopped by to make sure that we were coming to his and Kate’s house for lunch. We went back to our house to go to the washroom and drop off some things first. We then walked the length of the mission property to their house as we live on opposite sides of the mission.

We joined Tom, Phil, Garret, Dr. Lipsi, Joey, Kate, and Owen for a very good meatloaf, mashed potatoes, coleslaw and homemade bun dinner! Kate also made some delicious lemonade but this time with black cherry added to it and it was so good and refreshing. I love eating at their place. We always sit out in their screened porch/patio with an incredible view of the Zambezi river. After an enjoyable dinner we had local fruits (pineapple, guava, and some other fruit) with a crumble and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

We then were heading home but crossed paths with Tiffany on the way and she told us we should try and go do the lab tour and also there may be a maternity emergency if we wanted to be involved and help with it. We thanked her and continued on to our house as we wanted/needed to do a few things before going to the lab. As we were walking in front of Alison’s she came out and told us of the possible things that may be happening at the hospital and if we wanted to join her at the girl’s dorm for a bible study and we said that would be neat and we would get back to her. We wondered if we were going to meet anyone else along the way. I jokingly said maybe Dorothy. But as we were passing Dorothy’s house she was sitting outside and waved hello as we were passing by.

After we did what we needed to do at the house we went to the lab for our long-awaited tour. When we got there it looked fairly empty but then after we knocked this cute elderly man who was missing more teeth than he had came and greeted us. He said the guy who runs the lab went home early as he had bad knee pains but that he could show us around instead. So he showed us a few of the machines and equipment and explained what each tests they did, he got to the microscope and we asked if we could see a positive malaria and TB slides. It took him a little while to find them and Eric the clinical officer came in asking about some results during that time. Eric then began quizzing us about the types of gram stains and the difference between a wet and dry sample on a slide. We had no idea so he just had to tell us. He then left after getting his results and went on his way.

Shortly after Kate came rushing in and asked for a blood crossmatch to be done STAT as someone was bleeding who arrived by ambulance. It was someone who had a PPH (post-partum hemorrhage) So we were able to observe the process of cross-matching and then we followed the one unit of blood as it went to the patient in the theatre. We assisted setting up the patient. Dr. Mwansa then asked for another pair of hands and I volunteered. As I was putting on my sterile gloves we noticed that I was not really in proper attire. So, Fiona ran and got me different shoes as well as an apron to cover my dress so that it wouldn’t get blood splattered. I held the 2 retractors trying to avoid the women’s swinging legs even though they were suppose to be tied securely to the stirrups and so I was standing at an awkward angle trying not to step into the blood that was on the floor as Dr. Mwansa was removing the retained products from the woman’s uterus. Fiona actually changed into scrubs and I switched out with her just as Mwansa was finishing, haha. Then we were trying to put and IV cannula in that was actually patent so that she could get the units of blood and oxytocin. The patient resembled more of a pin-cushion than anything as both Kate and Dr. Mwansa were struggling to find a vein that would work. They were finally able to get a site and then the fluids were infusing properly so we brought the patient to the maternity ward.

We then went home and were relaxing for a bit before trying to decide what to have for supper. Fiona started cooking the beets and then we got a message from Kate inviting us for supper and a movie at 7pm. So we didn’t end up going to the girl’s dorm this week and we went for a lovely supper of a baked mac and cheese casserole, coleslaw, and the buns from lunch. Tiffany and Mwansa were there as well but had to leave during the movie (Moana) to go to hospital as the premature twins were in distress (when they came back we found out that they didn’t make it). Alison joined us as well when she was done at the girl’s dorm. We then returned home and were happy to go to sleep and knowing we could sleep in a little bit as it’s the weekend!//