Faudhia Goes Home

Faudhia before discharge

Great news when we arrived this morning to begin our second week at Mazimbu! Fuadhia has shown marked improvement every day since her surgery and was well enough this morning to be discharged!

And then Doug began the big surgery for the colostomy reversal. We thank you for your prayers because all in all, it went as well as could be expected—it did not take longer than Doug had anticipated and he did not encounter any complications during the surgery. So now our prayer is that Salumu's pain will be manageable and that he will recover without suffering infection.

Our translators are invaluable to our mission and we could not do our work without their help. But as our work has shifted from the front desk and triage over the the surgery part of our work, we do not have as many patients that need the help of a translator to talk with us. So today we had to say goodbye to three of our translators, Juliana, Sarah and Magreth. All three have worked with us in past years and we look forward to seeing them again in future years.

From left to right, Sarah, Eileen, Juliana, Glennis and Magreth

From left to right, Sarah, Magreth, Cindy and Juliana

Will doing another emergency repair on the Bovie, with Cindy and Glennis looking on

Soldering the Bovie

We were able to leave the hospital at 5:30, which meant we arrived back at LJS at 6 pm. Although dinner is served at 6, several of the team enjoy walking the short distance off campus to a local duka where we can enjoy a beer. This is a small, local storefront owned by Rosemary, who lives in back with her family. When we arrive, we walk behind the duka and shout “Habari” until the family waves to let us know they will be right there to help us. Chairs are brought out for our comfort and we can watch the local life around us. It is very relaxing.

Beers after work

Rosemary's duka

Tomorrow will be a long day for us again—the team will be assisting Dr. Swai, who is doing a gynecological surgery on two of our patients. And we have three more procedures in addition to those two. Since it will be a late night, we are planning dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, the Oasis. Which means we will not be posting to the blog tomorrow night. But we will catch up with you on Wednesday.

Benedictor, our first patient tomorrow morning