After a
general hiatus, I have decided to write a posting .
Lindsey tells me that I shouldn't write about too much medical
stuff, so I will begin with an update on some recent interests and hobbies.
Today we went to the
market and we bought some meat. In
the past I would simply tell the butcher what meat I wanted and he would cut it. Today I decided I would do it myself. Lindsey was
sure that they wouldn't let me do it. I
understand, however, that being a crazy white man allows me some special
liberties. I also have the right
nickname. I am known locally as "Chinja-chinja" which
means something like "Cut cut". So we showed up at the market and headed
for the meat stall. I generally
kick off the interaction by pointing at the beef carcass and asking what animal
it is. I think this is kind of
funny, but it never really gets much of a laugh.
After haggling over a price, I asked if I could cut my own meat. They really didn't seem to mind and they let me
go for it. The meat is sold in two
basic cuts. One is called
"melange" and is a mix of
muscles, fat, ligaments and bone shards. They
hack this stuff up with a machete. This
is to be avoided. What they call "filet" is
actual meat, but they don't really seem to distinguish between the various cuts
of meat. Armed with a sharp knife and
a diagram of cuts (downloaded from the internet), I started my work. Truth be told, it has some similarities with
surgery. A knowledge of anatomy is
helpful. The most tender cut of meat
is the tenderloin (the psoas muscle, actually) which runs along the inside of
the flank. In this general region is
found the sirloin as well. You
want to stay away from muscles that the cow uses for locomotion.
Anyway, I divested two cows of their psoas muscles and we walked
away with about 6 kilos of some very fine meat.
Cleaning the meat is much simpler when you harvest it yourself. Cutting your own meat is just one of the perks of
living in a place like Nyankunde. 
I am trying to raise
bees. I've got some protective
equipment, a smoker and a nice hand-made mahogany hive.
The only thing I'm lacking is bees.
I've been enticing them into the hive with honey, sugar water and
leaves from a lemon tree. This
works until the sugar water runs out, and then they leave.
How do I convince them to stay? I've
been racking my brains for the past month. I
have visited a long of wacky internet sites. Everyone
assures me that they will eventually set up shop in the hive, but I may not
have the necessary patience. Yesterday
I went to the radio station and asked them to announce that the doctor was
looking for a swarm of bees. So
far, no luck. Why bees?
Why not? Bees are
amazing creatures. Honey is
somewhat miraculous. We've been
actually using it at the hospital to care for difficult wounds.
It would be fun to make our own candles.
Mostly I just enjoy having these little hobbies.
It helps to pass the time, and it's always a learning experience.
I've been working on
constructing a solar food dehydrator. It
is nothing fancy; just a box with a glass lid.
I have painted the inside black and cut holes in the ends to
increase air flow. Lately we have
not had much sun. I haven't
succeeded in drying anything, but I've managed to grow some fairly impressive
mold on some tomatoes and plantains. This
week I'm going to try drying (or molding, depending on the weather), some
mangoes. The alternative is that they start rotting on our front lawn.
Our peanut field is
almost ready to harvest. We
have a huge field of peanuts! I
have no idea how much peanuts we will harvest, but I'm hoping for a lot! We use a lot of peanuts.
We eat them, we make peanut butter, the parrots eat them. Actually we only have one parrot now. The more interactive of the two flew away. This has been a bit of sore topic.
It involved me making a bad decision regarding sitting outside on
the porch with a parrot on my shoulder. Yes,
I had been warned that the bird might fly away, and sure enough, it did! I guess it didn't like me quite as much as I
thought. Anyway...
peanuts! Hopefully we
will harvest them this next week. The
whole farming thing just blows me away. You
just put this stuff in the ground, and it grows.
Also growing on our
little estate, is passion fruit, corn, tomatoes, beans, carrots, greens, chard,
spinach, lettuce and peas. And
yes, coffee! I have about twenty coffee
plants which are just starting to grow beans. I'm
not sure whether this will provide enough coffee to keep us caffeinated in the
morning, but I'm sure going to try. It
may not be good coffee, but you better believe that I'm going to drink it. We've been planting fruit trees.
So far we've got lemon, orange, pomegranate and papaya. Unfortunately it seems that all the papaya trees
are male. Who knew that a papaya tree
could be male or female! Did
we just have some incredibly bad luck, or did someone intentionally sell us a
bunch of male papayas? It's
not such a big deal. Truthfully
neither one of us actually like papayas. Maybe
they are better dried. Anyway,
these are all years away from producing fruit, but one of these days this place
is going to be like the garden of Eden!
I could go on about
various hobbies, but I need to at least say something about my patients. Recently I have started to understand something
about the darkness. A few examples. A young girl was attacked at night in her own
home. Her throat was cut, nearly
down to the trachea, and she was thrown down the latrine.
No one seems to have any idea why.
She seems to be a single mom, and has a cute little baby but not
enough milk to feed it. Far
as I can tell, they are feeding it dilute corn porridge.
Another example. An
old lady came in after being burned in a fire.
Apparently they had some beans stored up in the roof and it caused
the house to collapse, then ignite on a cooking fire.
Her husband was killed in the fire.
She was very badly burned. For
several days I tried in vain to get her family to give blood, or at least to
help her eat, as she could not feed herself. Later
on I was informed that she was suspected of being as sorcerer and that everyone
was just waiting for her to die. Eventually
she did die. Another example. A young mother was abandoned with her newborn
baby who had spina bifida and required a big operation.
Lindsey has a ward full of malnourished children, and nearly each
one comes with its own tragic family situation.
It makes me understand that there is some terrible stuff going on
here. There is breakdown of the
family structure, substance abuse, violence, abuse, abandonment and evil of
every kind. Sometimes it just makes me
not want to ask, because when I do the stories are so heartbreaking that I can
hardly bear it. I probably
don't even know the half of it.
Medical care is needed,
but the problems go so much deeper. Something
is definitely rotten in the state of Denmark. I
could call it societal breakdown, dissolution of traditional family values, but
in my darker moments it just seems like evil. Maybe
we're seeing a skewed population in the hospital, but this is a society with
some serious problems. My
prayer is that the hospital can be an agent of transformation.
There are profound spiritual problems here and I hope that we can
be a source of spiritual as well as physical healing.
On another note, we're
in the final lap of this whole pregnancy business.
We are looking forward to the arrival of a little person with
excitement, joy and perhaps a little trepidation.
Feel free to pray for us!
Warren
