Monday, July 18, 2011

Update on the young man taken to Maacha with serious injury

I am at the mission at Namwianga, but can occasionally get a text message through to the team, and they responded today that the young man taken yesterday to the hospital in Maacha has survived. He was given 2 liters of IV fluid on the trip. The prognoses for him is good. The medical opinion is that he would have not died had we not been nearby. Praise the Lord.

Even though I am not with them, I know the team is tired. They had to pack up the clinic at the end of the day, and tomorrow will have to leave very early to get to the next and last clinic site.

The next to last load of cataract patients started off today about 4pm for the trip to Namwianga Hospital. Dr. Monze from Livingstone is still doing surgeries. As of mid-afternoon they had done 97 total, with another 50 or so to go.

Again I am at the mission, and was hearing laughing from outside the house. A large group is standing around listening to Namwianga Christian Radio. I went into my bedroom and dug out one of the small crank-powered radios to test it, and after a few cranks heard my name mentioned. What timing. I have no idea what was said after that because it was in Chitonga, but as they say, any publicity is good publicity;-)

The crank radios were donated by the Church of Christ in Gorman Texas to give to churches so that they can hear Bible reading and programming on Sundays. The radios are very small, but have a big sound and will operate with just a few cranks for several minutes, and they also have a small solar charger built in. It is amazing how much the rural people at the clinics talked about the radio station, it is their only real source of news, educational information, and entertainment in their native language. (To the folks at Gorman, I will pack this one back up after I am finished to be distributed.)

I will try to make later posts, but they may stop abruptly. Apologies in advance for this, but it gets crazy as the team departs.

I think I will take a moonlit walk to the station to see if I can find out what Musopole said about me.

Have a great day.

Thanks for your interest in ZMM