Finding Joy

Hi family and friends, happy August!

    I can’t believe that time is flying by so fast and that August has already arrived. It feels like just yesterday I was packing up at Wheaton and heading here to Congo. Over the last few days I have been thinking a lot about the fact that I only have 7 more days here (out of 92). My mind is full of mixed emotions: excitement to see family/friends, sadness to leave a country and town I have grown to love, anxiety looking toward the adjustment back to American culture and lots of reflection on how I have grown and changed during my time here.

Daily life at the hospital 

     The last three weeks here had been filled with lots of joy and continual acclamation to the culture. I have started to wear the African skirts (liputa’s) more often, have begun to eat more kuanga, and I now run into at least 2 or 3 people I know when I bike or walk anywhere in town. I have begun to feel at home here! As I have adjusted to the culture, I have been thinking a lot about what is different about life here. I first off have come to realize that everything takes longer to do here. I feel like I am busy all day, but at the end of the day I have accomplished so little. In my mind, America is a culture of efficiency. I grew up wanting to do everything as fast as possible, in the best manner possible. As a culture we look toward success and growth in almost everything that we do. Africa is almost the complete opposite. People here are not worried about efficiency. They are focused on survival- feeding their family, working for money to feed their family/buy necessary things and staying healthy and safe. When I first got here, I clearly remember saying I would “be bored to death” if I lived here forever. Every day is the same thing and there is no goal to look forward to. I was wrong though; there is a deep sense of joy, community and relationships that come with this simple lifestyle. I am falling in love with it and I’m already worried about having to adapt back to a culture that can be so self-focused. My prayer is that when I go home I will carry this selfishness home and will look to serve the Lord and others as my top priority in life. I need to let go of my own cares and concerns!

The men greeting everyone after church 

One of the Acca villages 

     A great example of the joy found in a simple life was found for me when a group of us visited an Acca church in Bokota a few weekends ago. The Acca are a tribal, African group who have inhabited this land for thousands of years.  They tend to live farther out in the jungle and follow a semi-nomatic lifestyle. We drove the 8 miles to their village from the hospital and joined them in their Christian church service. I really enjoyed the music that they played and it was a pleasure to be welcomed so kindly into their church. My favorite part though was when a group of girls and I sang English praise songs to the Acca people afterwards. They are a people of music and rhythm, so they loved hearing us sing and clap. It was a time of great joy and praise to the Lord. Being in the village was also a reminder of the poverty that these people live in. We saw a number of children and adults who were sick with worms, malaria and other illnesses. Many of the kids didn’t have shoes and most of their clothes had holes in them. If you looked at this people purely from an external point of view, you may feel bad for them and the lifestyle they live. But don’t! Their sense of love for one another and God is inspiring. Their life is not easy, but their smiles and greetings show the happiness in their hearts.

View of the drive to the Acca village of Bokata 

They loved getting their picture taken

Some kids from the Acca village 

Playing games after Church 

     

The delivery room in Congo 

   The last few weeks at the hospital has been filled with lots of babies. My group ended up being on the maternity rotation for two weeks, which was a joy! I saw lots of deliveries and helped to catch the baby, cut the umbilical cord, weigh the newborns, clean them off, dress them and present them to their mother. I know everyone says this, but childbirth truly is a miracle. God created the body to perfectly create other people and it is simply amazing. Our time in maternity, also involved getting to know the patient families that were staying at the hospital. I really enjoyed two families in particular. One was the family of Baby Isaiah. 3 weeks ago today Isaiah’s Mom died during a C-section at the hospital. It was really hard for our group to witness this mothers death, as we were performing CPR on her at the time of her passing. What made it harder though was that the family had no interest in the baby that survived. They blamed him for the mother’s death and wanted to take the baby boy to the village to die. Thankfully, God provided a caring woman who was a friend of the mothers to take care of the baby. After not eating anything for the first 24 hours of life, this woman brought him back to the hospital where we were able to provide him with formula and treat his fever. The “adoptive mother” asked Elise, Olivia and I to name the baby. We thought about it for a while and decided to name him Isaiah, praying that he would grow up to lead a life following after Christ. Isaiah now comes to the hospital every Wednesday to get his milk formula, so I look forward seeing him each week. I am thankful that the Lord has provided such a wonderful woman to care for him, she really is a gift from God!

Baby Isaiah 

With Isaiah and his "adoptive Mom" 

Ruth on the day of her discharge (she is on the right) 

      Second, I have been blessed to get to know Ruth’s family. Ruth is a 13-year old girl who was in a motorcyle accident and has been in the hospital for 2.5 months. She just got discharged yesterday and the smile on her face was contagious. During my time here, she has held a special place in my heart and every day I would visit her, smile, shake hands and communicate some with the little lingala I knew. I didn’t know I was bringing any joy to her life, until her older sister named her premature baby after me. One day I walked into maternity and Ruth’s sister and her husband excitedly proclaimed that they had named their baby (people here usually wait 1-2 weeks to name their children to make sure they survive). I was then informed by just about everyone that they named the baby Lauren, after me. They were all smiles and laughter as I got really excited! For the next week, every time I came in the parents would point at me and say Lauren and then point to the baby and say “bebe Lauren”, smiling each time. Lauren reached 2 kg so she was sent home this week and I was sad to see her go.

Bebe Lauren

With Lauren and her Mom 

  

The Mom of Bebe Lauren 

 The Mom, Dad and the baby that I helped to deliver 

Hanging out in the bloc 

     



    During my down town, I have enjoyed taking pictures with some of the nurses, photographing life at the hospital, playing spoons with the neighbors, having people over for lunch and dinner and doing various activities around Impfondo. Last Saturday was a really fun afternoon. Kate, Sarah Beth and I visited the house of one of the nurses Sylvie. We were just expecting to say hi and then leave, but she had bought food to make us a whole meal. We had lots of fun sitting outside, talking and cooking together. She even bought all three of us fabric to make liputa’s. It was so generous! Later in the afternoon, I played badmington with Guylvie and some other visitors and then we all went swimming in the river. The river is no ocean, but it did fill my water need for a while!

Helping Sylvie make lunch 

An African lunch 

   As the days are winding down here in Congo, I would appreciate prayer for the following things:

- That I would live every day in the moment and enjoy all my final memories here

- That all the visitors heading home would stay safe in travel

- That I would remain healthy as I have been experiencing some type of allergic reaction that will only go away with steroids

- That I would begin to process and reflect all that God has taught me this summer

Thank you all for your continual emails, thoughts, prayer and encouragement during my time here. It has meant so much to me and I really thankful for my support system back home. See many of you in just a few weeks!

As the Congolese would say, BYE-OO

Lauren