Coopers in the Congo: Pomegranates at last!

May 28, 2017

Have you ever waited a long time for something? Then in the waiting, you forget about what you

were waiting for....until that something happens. You may wonder what I am talking about...Well I am talking about waiting for my pomegranate tree to grow and produce fruit! After about 4 years, my bush finally produced its' first fruit! It was so sweet and special...partly because I forgot all about it! It is funny to eat it and say, "I waited four years for this!" There must be a life lesson in here somewhere. I am just glad I planted the little seedling and now we can enjoy the benefits.

We took a little trip to Bogoro Falls to celebrate Mother's Day and our wedding anniversary. It is an absolutely stunning landscape looking out over Lake Albert separating us from Uganda. We took a little hike up a riverbed to the falls and enjoyed splashing around a bit. It is always fun to find a little adventure. We are grateful to God for seven years of marriage and pray for many more.

Bogoro Falls

“Give us this day our daily bread.” This morning I was reminded that the Lord is sufficient for our everyday needs, and how desperately I need to be fed. We can't go without food for very long. I was reminded that the Lord wants us to go from strength to strength and to not wear ourselves out. Like the prophet Elijah, the Lord invites us to rest and have our needs met. Lately I have been reminded of how human I am. Working faster and seeing more patients during malaria season is tough! It is hard to see 50 patients as a part-time pediatrician and feel like you are doing the best you can for each. It is hard to walk by little bundles after the children die from severe anemia or malnutrition. I do it almost every. It is not fair and my heart breaks every time. It can be a tough balance between work and home and I am so grateful for our nanny Maziga who helps me. Emmanuel teaches me so much about love, patience, consistency, and gentleness and I pray that this will make me a better doctor.

Learning a few things about elephant grass

It's planting season

Challenge of Caring in Remote Locations

I am caring for a very special young girl named Jemima with nephrotic syndrome (a kidney disease where you lose protein in the urine) that I think has been caused by tuberculosis. She has been in the hospital for the last 4months and has become dependent on steroids to control her disease. Her medical regime is just too complicated to follow at home, so we wait for a drug called “tacrolimus” which was special ordered from India. I hope to receive the medication this week and start it in hopes of tapering her steroids slowly. This drug has made quite the journey, as it is simply not available in central Africa.

I contact a nephrology and critical care colleague about this patient.

A colleague in Ohio special orders Tacolimus from India with plans to hand-carry the drug into Congo. We hope that it will arrive in time.

My colleague’s children get sick and have to delay their flight to Congo by 3days, during which time the drug arrives.

Flight from the USA to Kinshasa

Lindsey contacts about 6 people with various connections to Kinshasa. Samaritan’s Purse agrees to help coordinate the transport of this medication.

Since there is no official mail system, UNHCR contacted to carry the drug across the Congo from Kinshasa to Bunia.

Pray for Jemima-for this drug to arrive and for recovery from nephrotic syndrome.

Life at Home

These last few weeks we have had personal health issues. Warren was sick with malaria for about a week. It is about the sickest I have ever seen him. For the first time, I had to put an IV in my husband and administer IV medications. Then this last week Emmanuel took a nose-dive off a chair fracturing his clavicle. As he usually does he kept asking me to kiss the injury, but it just kept hurting. After about a dozen kisses I told Warren, “ I think he broke his clavicle.” Sure enough, a greenstick fracture with point tenderness. Poor guy. It has slowed him down a little, but not too much! Now I am just hoping that he doesn’t fall again.

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Emmanuel has started preschool with other kids of employees of our hospital. He is learning words and songs in French everyday. This is good for his social development to play with other Congolese kids everyday. He is already using some new words and counting in French. It is interesting to hear him choose to say certain words in French or Swahili, even if he knows the English word. Language learning is a fascinating process. We realize that he is learning on his own curve and how important it is to be intentional about language learning. It is more difficult for kids hearing multiple languages, but then they are really learning several languages at once. Some days a giraffe is a giraffe, other days it is a twiga. Some days a cow is a cow, other days a ngombe.

Prayer Requests

We continue to care for the needy population of Nyankunde and know that this is where God has called us to be.

Pray for us to find our daily hope and strength in Jesus Christ. It can be tiring and not so glamorous.
Pray for the rehabilitation of one of our hospital wards to be complete soon and for the staff working so hard and at great sacrifice.
Pray for our new administration as they provide leadership and accountability.
Pray most of all that the name of the Lord would be glorified in and through our lives.
Pray for surgical coverage towards the end of the year/early 2018.
Pray for our teammates as they return to the US for fundraising and family time.