A Week to remember or should I forget it.

It's Friday and I'm glad it is finally here. We started the week with problems with the electricty on campus. Our clinic cannot run unless the power is totally up and running on all phases but we were without a phase. Therefore the X-ray man, Lewis was constantly at my door begging me to perform a miracle and get his power back up. Lewis is by far one of the most faithful workers I have in the clinic. He loves his work and is really good at it as well. He never misses a day of work and practically refuses to take a holiday. Anyway, because we were without power/x rays many patients came which we were unable to help.

One patient was a lady who was in a Semi truck brought her daughter who had broken her leg.
I was surprized to see her truck the first day when she pulled up. Never did I imagine that her driver would pull off the road, on to the grass and break through our septic system.

Yesterday afternoon the power problems were fixed but I had a new problem or challenge, it was this very large truck stuck in our septic system. We asked a truck who had delivered bricks to help us get the semi out of the hole and he did so. Now our only problem is the repair of the hole and the students from the college were in the hole today with masks and gloves to start the repairs.

The week had started with a sweet little girl who's father works for one of our doctors, coming in with a burnt leg. The poor little thing didn't even wimper when the doctor was looking at it. I was told that that was because it was third degree burns and the nerves are burnt off. It was horrible to see. We sent her to a specialist, I'll let you know when I find out what they were able to do for her. It's hard not to let some of these cases get to you.

Finally we have been searching all week for blood for a young man who has aid and will die if he doesn't get a transfusion. Even if people have the blood to give they are not always willing to give it and you cann't force anyone to give their blood. The blood bank keeps sending us the wrong blood which is also making me a bit wacky.

All in all, God is working in the lives of my staff. I'm encouraged by what I see in their attitudes, especially the attitudes of the cleaners. They came together on tuesday and helped me clean up the storeage room which was infested with Rats or at least things were covered with little black rat gifts. We had pizza for lunch and then drew names for the mattresses which the rats had made nests in. Somethings better than nothing I guess. Those who's names weren't drawn were really un happy and said I should make up for their losses. So, would you feel bad if you hadn't won a rat nest mattress? Sometimes the things we deal with are so un real it blows your mind.

Thursday I went home and decided to make a big pot of soup and feed all the neighbors, I think some people slept better that night. You cann't solve all the worlds problems but you can at least bless a few. Have a great week and enjoy all the pictures that follow this entry.

Twas The Day After Christmas

Twas the day after Christmas.
My neighbors the Indian Family
had taken me to Cape Town for Christmas.
The South Africans call the 26th Boxing day.
We went to Table Mountain and then headed
for the the Cape of Good Hope.

The Cape of Good Hope is a wild life reserve,
and because it was a holiday
there was bumper to bumper traffic with
two toll booths on the way in.
At each booth there were big signs
that read: It is prohibited to feed the
baboons, as they are very dangerous animals.
I didn't want to feel one, but wanted to get
close enough to take a good picture of one.

We walked up to the top of the Cape,
took lots of beautiful pictures and
tben waited to for our driver and
Mr Mittal as they walked down a long
plank walk way on the rocks which allowed
you to stand inbetween the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

As we waited sipping our tea, the sun began to set.
It was beautiful. And we knew we would have an
hour or more before it would be dark.
We walked slowly down to catch the bus
that would take us to the parking lot
reading aloud the signs which read:
Baboons are extremely dangerous it is against
the law to feed them as they are in their
natural habitat.

Once we arived at the parking lot, we stood
in a circle talking about the Cape and it's beauty.
At the corner of someones eye they spotted a
very large baboon and about the same time heard
someone yell, watch out for that baboon.

Our driver yelled at us and said head for the
car, he's coming toward us. Instantly we all
took off running. Mrs Mittel and Mega ran to
my side of the car and jumped in.
I ran toward the other side and jumped in as well.
But the Mittels are Short so their side of the car
didn't have as much leg room as mine had and
so I had to jam my legs in and slam the door
at the same timmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
The door swung back open and instantly the
baboon was on top of me. I could hear everyone
screaming, and my mind SHOUTED HIM THE NUTS AND
FOOD YOU HAVE IN YOU HAND. My heart had leaped up
and wrapped itself around my neck or something because
I wasn't feeling much of anything nor did I see the Baboon.
Most of what I know was what the others told me about
what had happened. They said he was pulling on my
hair and they were hitting him with water bottles and
whatever they could find to try to beet the Babboon off
of me. Once he was out of the car, people came
from all over the Parking lot to see the damages.

I look my body over and discovered blood running down my leg.
There was also a large piece of glass stuck in it.
So I pulled the glass out and then several men stepped
in and started to administer first aid. They called
the Reserve office and who sent down a first aid kit.
It was pretty clear that the leg needed a doctor or at
least it needed stitches. I'm thinking of carrying a
suture set with me so I can save money. If you can
upolster a chair you can stitch up a leg.

It was tough finding a doctor or any clinic opened on
Boxing day but there was a Muslim clinic opened so what
to do, but go and let them sew up my leg, hoping Osama's
brother isn't my doctor. Not that I know of any brothers
of his who work in South Africa.

The Doctor came in and announced he had the flew
and didn't want to be there but he would do what he had
to do. I wondered if he might have the bird flu, not really
but I wasn't thrilled about his honesty.

He put in three stitches but I forgot to take out the camera
until the last stitch, I hadn't gotten a picture of the baboon, so
why not the process of haveing stitches put in. I'm getting more
and more brave these days now that I'm working in a clinic.

The best part of the stiched up knee was that the Mittels made me
sit in the front seat for the rest of the trip, so I was able to get lots
of great pictures.

When I told some of the Clinic Staff about my baboon experience
they started laughing, saying : you were boxing with a Babboon on
Boxing day. Hope you had a great Christmas.

On our little trip, I bought three Francine Rivers books and got the
whole family reading. I'm praying that God will use those books to speak to them.
Blessings to you all.Michelle