Join the triumph of the skies......

After our adventure to Cotonou it sure feels good to be back in our Bembereke home. It is hard to explain the degree of culture shock we experienced going from rural Africa to an African city, but needless to say it was quite unexpected! During our pit stop in Parakou on our way to Cotonou Charity said, “I didn’t know we were becoming African hicks!” We successfully submitted our visa papers (thank you to all of you who were praying!), and also enjoyed some time exploring the city and visiting with some friends. we travelled back by taxi, and due to the car breaking down the journey took 11 hours rather than 8, but at least it was much more comfortable than the bus.

This evening I sit by our ornamental fireplace, filled with candles for Christmas, and having lit the candles and listening to Christmas music, I finally have that Christmas feeling! The anticipation is building to experience Christmas Beninois-style, which no doubt will be different in many ways from the Christmas that I have grown up with. Our festivities will commence tomorrow evening as the entire village gathers in the hospital’s Salle de Fete to celebrate. Martha, Katrin, Charity, and I will be contributing to the program with our rendition of Hark the Herald Angels Sing....

To all of my friends and family, wherever you are, however you will be celebrating, I wish you all a very merry Christmas!!

A bit about the work

This past week I worked 6 morning shifts (7AM-3PM) in a row. These mornings always begin with a healthy dose of the cereal mix that Charity and I have concocted from corn flakes, oats, dried coconut, raisins, roasted peanuts, cashews, honey, and homemade yogurt. I take a shortcut to walk to work, a small path through the forest that goes behind the hospital, and this takes only 4 minutes or less now that the mornings are cool and I jog to warm up.

First I greet the night staff and then I receive “le transmission” – a report of the patients whom I will be responsible for that day. This could be the patients on the north (24 patients + 16 overflow), the south (27 patients + 16 overflow), or the reception (receiving the patients who are admitted that day). In Canada, as a comparison, it is typical for a nurse to be accountable for about 5 patients on a shift. It used to be that as I walked up the walkway to the pediatric building that the hallway would be lined with overflow patients lying on mats on the floor. Ever since the Minister of Health’s visit a couple of weeks ago that the overflow patients have been moved from the hallway into the rooms. They still lie on mats and the rooms are very crowded now but at least the babies are protected from the cold and it is actually a lot more manageable for the hospital staff.

After the transmission I go into each of the rooms, greeting the parents and announcing “under the arm” in Bariba. At that direction, the parents pull thermometers from the bottom of the sacks stowed under their assigned bed and I place a thermometer under each baby’s armpit. After recording the temperatures, I give antipyretic medication to any babies that have fevers. For any patients that have malnutrition or gastro-enteric diagnoses I weigh them using a scale that I hang from a hook in the ceiling (picture a jolly jumper).

From 8-8:30AM, all of the staff in the ward gather together for a meditation. We sing a few songs, read a Bible passage, and pray. The doctor usually arrives shortly after 8:30AM to visit the patients, although when he doesn’t show up (he may have been called to a more urgent situation) one of the chief nurses must make the rounds instead. I accompany the doctor as he assesses each patient and writes the orders for that day. We are also joined by a pastor, who often acts as a translator as well.

The time after the rounds is busy filling the doctor’s orders, which could take several hours to do. If the babies are dehydrated from vomiting/diarrhea or are malnourished, we insert IV catheters into the veins to run IVs of glucose or we insert naso-gastric tubes (a tube that goes through the nose down the esophagus and directly into the stomach). We feed breast milk to the premature babies through the N-G tubes using syringes. Inserting IV catheters is no easy feat on a baby (the veins are so tiny), especially the African babies because the skin is darker and thicker. There are many times when we must poke the baby in each hand, each foot, and finally the head before we successfully access a vein. It is very painful for the baby but it is necessary to be able to give medications or blood transfusions. Often it is up to the nurses to decide if the baby requires an N-G tube or an IV. In order to decipher whether the baby has vomited or had diarrhea recently I have learned these words in the Bariba and Peuhl languages. As I may have mentioned before, my attempts at these languages often make the parents laugh, so we share a light-hearted moment, and then a kind mother from across the room offers to translate. If I have to call a baby’s name, something similar to the game “Telephone” commences as parents begin repeating the name from room to room. Actually, my preferred language here is “hand language” but I’ve also learned that a lot of the signs that might seem intuitive to us are not the same here!

A shift rarely passes without the death of at least one baby. The cultural reaction to death is so stoic that one can almost be oblivious to its occurrence. The child is wrapped in fabric, the parents are handed the bill, and then they leave to bury the body at home or in the cemetery behind the hospital (it is often too expensive to take the body home since the parents must pay for an entire taxi unto themselves because no one would want to ride along with a dead body). An occasional loud outburst of grief from a mother is a somber reminder that the death of one’s child is absolutely devastating. When the parents bring their children to us, it is usually as a last resort, and it is disheartening when everything we try fails to restore health. The following verse has become meaningful to me.

Every day we experience something of the death of Jesus, so that we may also know the power of the life of Jesus in these bodies of ours. 2 Corinthians 4:10

While I don’t think this verse is necessarily referring to physical deaths, I think it does help to explain what has been happening in my heart as I’ve been reminded to turn my focus to the things that have eternal value. Death is a terrible fact of life, but it is also possible to turn these encounters with death towards LIFE. Each moment of my life I can consciously choose to LIVE in the power of God. As my own life intersects with my patients’ lives there are many precious opportunities to share the LIFE I have in Christ with them too. LIFE IN CHRIST. That is what lasts for eternity.

Please pray:

-          For the staff in the pediatric ward, many of whom are fatigued and discouraged

-          That I would be an encourager, especially to the female staff

-          For the parents of the patients, that they would come to know the Lord through the hospital ministry and for the pastors who work at the hospital

-          For boldness to grab a translator and pray with the parents

-          For the leaders at the hospital who are preparing to make big decisions about staffing changes that will happen in the new year

Bonjour! A Kpu Nan do! On baali jam!

Already it has been 4 weeks since I last touched the sweet Canadian soil. It was a Thursday night that we arrived in Cotonou, travel weary but in great spirits. Praise God for the incredibly smooth journey we had! After literally wrestling for our baggage in the airport we were greeted by Alex, a Beninois taxi driver, holding a sign that read “Any et Chartly”. I have decided spell my name “Aimee” (Em-eh) which is much easier for the Beninois to pronounce. Everyone we meet makes a joke that our names Charite and Aimee have similar meanings. I have quickly discovered that the people here love to joke and laugh!

After spending a night at the SIM guesthouse in Cotonou, we drove with Martha (a Dutch nurse who has worked at the hospital for 30 years) and Dorothy (an American who does Bible translation in west Benin) to the SIM base in Parakou – a seven hour trip north. The main road that weaves through the country from the south to the north is dusty and marked with the biggest potholes I have ever seen. Drivers must be on constant alert to swerve around potholes and oncoming traffic. Honking is constant because it is the signal used for, well, pretty much everything. We passed many transport trucks loaded past the brim with goods, and also saw one flipped on its side. Somehow I managed to sleep most of the trip – I must have been really jetlagged – but it is actually a really terrifying experience and I am not exactly looking forward to the trip back to Cotonou in December to get our visas renewed. We have learned that “zemi-johns” (motorcycle taxis) are plentiful and will take you wherever you want to go for not too much money. They are the most common (and most thrilling!) mode of transportation here.

In Parakou we were greeted by Clara, the Benin-Togo SIM director and Benjamin and Christine Hageman, a missionary couple. Each year Benjamin teaches at the Bariba Bible School that is close to Bembereke from June to December and then he teaches at a Christian college in New York for the remainder of the year. Benjamin and Christine took us under their wing, treating us to delicious meals and delightful conversation in their home. The warmth and generosity of the SIM staff in Parakou helped to ease the transition to this new culture and have been a tremendous blessing to us. Christine couriered us to several stores and with her French and her bargaining expertise she helped us purchase some staple food items to get us started at our new home. Two such amenities are hot chocolate and grenadine syrup (it can be mixed with water) which are the standard drinks to serve your African guests.

The road from Parakou to Bembereke is the worst bit of road we have seen yet and we travelled by African taxi - an ancient station wagon packed to the brim with passengers, baggage, animals, and anything else you can think of. We are told that we were fortunate we had only 10 passengers in a 7-seat station wagon, since a typical load is 13 or more. Our suitcases rode on the rooftop. We calculated that our total journey from Toronto, Canada to Bembereke, Benin took a WHOPPING 24 HOURS!

Our home in Bembereke is nestled amidst a magically lush forest. It is the end of the rainy season so every where we look it is green, and so far it is not too hot. We are told that our home is the nicest of all the missionary houses, and to us it feels like a castle! Charity and I each have our own bathrooms complete with showers (albeit there is no warm water). We even have a guest room! Deborah is a Fulani woman from the village nearby who will work for us on Mondays and Fridays. She will bake bread, do our laundry, wash our vegetables (in bleach!) and clean our house. This is a way for her to earn some extra money for her family of 7 (5 sons and her husband who is the hospital secretary). 

There are six missionary staff working at the hospital including Charity and myself (all of the other hospital staff are Beninois!). Anja, is a nurse from Switzerland who is 21. She is here for 4 months and the three of us have become fast friends, often visiting in the evening and cooking meals together. Katrin and Martha have been here for a number of years (Martha for 30!) and they have wonderful wisdom to share with us. Beatrice, in her late 20s and also from Switzerland, was married in February to a Beninois pastor named Manasseh and they live at the Bariba Bible School five minutes down the road where Beatrice has just started as a student. Katrin and Martha spent our first weekend here in Togo for a wedding and because they didn’t want to leave us on our own we stayed with Beatrice and Manasseh in their quaint 1-room home. They only have 2 hours of electricity each day! They introduced us to their friends Caleb, who is the pastor of the Bariba church we attend, Caleb’s wife Aissa and Aissa’s younger sister Yapenno. We learned to make Swiss bread, played Extreme Uno and volleyball, and visited a traditional Fulani village.

The hospital is much larger than I expected and a very bustling place. Each unit is a separate building and the buildings are linked by concrete paths. The patient rooms, which are filled with 6-10 beds open to a courtyard. The outside walls are lined by still more patients who are lying on mats. “Les gardes de patient” – the family members who stay and care for each patient – gather to prepare food and do laundry in the courtyards. It is not an uncommon sight to see patients sharing their beds with 1 or 2 family members as well. Meals are shared from the same bowl and are eaten with your hands (usually a porridge-y substance that is dipped in sauce). Everywhere we go we are greeted by “good day!”, “how are you?”, “how is your family?”, and “how is your work?” in French, Bariba, or Fulani, the languages that are most common in this region. Did you know that there are actually 50 languages present in Benin? We have met quite a number of people who speak 5 or more languages! At the same time few of our patients will actually speak French at all because the patients come from rural areas and also from Nigeria, Niger, and Burkina Faso. What I hear is that patients choose to travel the great distance because they heard through the grapevine that they would be treated well at this hospital. Our hospital is not the biggest but here the patients will receive quality care and the staff is genuine, compassionate, and God-fearing.

For two weeks we have been orienting to each service in the hospital in this order: the dispensary, children’s clinic, laboratory, eye clinic, evangelism, TB clinic, pharmacy, HIV/AIDS clinic, operation block, maternity ward, surgical ward. At the dispensary which is a quasi walk-in clinic/emergency room/triage area, the nurses consult with at least 50 patients daily – assessing, diagnosing, and prescribing treatment. Only in the most complicated situations does the patient go on to see a doctor. We saw accidental injuries (broken bones and bur ns), a lot of malaria cases, cardiac problems, and GI problems caused by stress or parasites. The eye clinic was one of my favourite places to visit. Paul, the eye “doctor” is actually a nurse trained in eye care. He is one of only four people in the country trained to diagnose eye problems and perform eye surgeries! There is a group of pastors who work at the hospital, diligently sharing the Gospel with patients, and each Friday students come from the Bible school to play music and preach. In the operating rooms, the surgical team prays with the patient before each surgery and every morning all of the hospital staff gather for a meditation; we sing, read a Bible passage, and pray together! It is such a great privilege to be participating in the Lord’s work here, serving alongside my Beninois brothers and sisters in Christ!

1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

Please pray:

-          For Charity and I as we have officially started work this week - for courage, competence, understanding, and compassion

-          Against discouragement with learning French (at times it feels like it is coming too slowly!)

-          For relationship building with the young people in the Bariba church community and with the staff in the pediatric unit where I am working

Greetings from Benin!

It has already been 18 days since I left Canada and for most of you this is the first you have heard from me! I have not been able to access the internet until now. It was a surprise to discover that here in Bembereke access to the internet is next to impossible and it is a funny site to see us walking around our house holding up our laptops. On a good day we are lucky to find one spot where we will have reception and even then it takes at least 10 minutes to load a single page! There is a certain amount of frustration because it will be difficult to keep in contact with you as much as I had hoped but I will be trying to make frequent blog posts and to occasionally send emails so you will know how I am doing out here in “the boonies”! I have a mailing address so this is your opportunity to send me snail mail!! (It takes about 4 weeks). I am including my contact information below so that you will be able to contact me. Please send me your contact information so that I can send mail/call you too!

Amy Sawatzky

HEB UEEB/SIM

B.P. 28

BJ-Bembereke

Rep. du Benin

West Africa

Amy’s cell phone #: 00229-96-34-94-03

I will post a real update soon, but in the meantime please pray for:

-          -Swift learning of French but also to learn some Bariba and Puehl so we can communicate with the patients the majority of whom do not speak French at all

-          -For good relationships with the hospital staff

-          -For a smooth transition as we officially start working on Monday, Oct. 17 (I will be working in the pediatric unit and Charity is in the medical unit)

One sleep!

As children we always quantified our countdowns by number of sleeps. Did you do that? Tomorrow is the BIG DAY. we fly from Toronto to Paris and Paris to Cotonou for a total of 14 hours on a plane! 
A lot of you know my plans for the next year but to catch everyone up to speed... I am being sent by Serving in Mission (SIM) to rural Benin where I will be working as a nurse. I am so excited to use my nursing skills in a place that bears an immense burden of disease and desperately requires more health care workers. Not only that but as a Christ-follower I am called to care for widows and orphans in their need (James 1:27) and to help heal the sick (Luke 9:2).

I'm not totally sure what the internet situation will be like over there but I am hoping to use this blog as a way to give updates of my experience overseas! Stay tuned!

Blessed

Last weekend we held a Ben(in)efit concert tour - one show in Ottawa and a second show in Burlington - to raise funds for our trip. Eight incredibly talented musicians formed an ensemble specifically for this occasion. They were such a hit! I highly recommend checking out their music: Stevie and Didi, Jonny Melo, and Tokyo Speirs. This fundraiser is one example of countless times throughout the process of preparing for this trip that I have felt overwhelmed by the generous support that has been offered by my family, friends, and even strangers. Thank you! Thank YOU.