On Our Way Back Home!

I should have written to you yesterday but we were 17 hours returning from the bush! We got in last night around 1 am and we just all went to bed. We traveled in 2 vans, leaving Kifosso at 8 am. Around 8:40 one van broke down - a broken bolt on a rear axle, so most of us piled into the other van while some stayed with the stuff and we limped along to the nearest town because that van was having trouble with the fuel line. so to shorten the story, we waited 6 hours in the town of Koury for both vans to be fixed, and then carried on. After 2 flat tires and numerous stops at check points we finally made it home, long after dark and over a very dangerous road for bandits. Fortunately I guess, it was Ramadan, so most people were celebrating and not cruising the highway. We felt very protected by God. So we are now a few hours away from leaving. We went shopping this afternoon and bought ice cream. We are all anxious to get home. It's been a very tough 2 weeks, much harder than last time, with 3 people dying, 2 of them little ones, but also many coming to the Lord.

Bye for now. I'll write from Paris. Love to everyone!

Back in Bamako!

Looks like this will be my last time to email until after the bush. Only Madeleine has a computer here and it is slow. Our flight to Bamako was on time and it was so amazing to have a window
seat ans watch the map on the tv to identify where we were. We could see the coast of Africa with the Atlantic beyond it. It was incredible! I saw a long row of windmills in France which made me think of you and God's hand in our life. There was a nice Italian man beside me who didn't speak a lot of English but we managed to converse a little. I stayed back today while the rest went to buy dresses and had a vary interesting chat with Pete and his wife, the missionaries who run this house. He is fascinating.

All afternoon we packaged pills for the pharmacy and now we are getting ready to travel in the morning to the bush at 5 am, assuming the nationals will be here on time. We are going to a very dark place, I guess, but their last 2 weeks were great, so we will go in God's strength.

In Paris Nov 2010

We are safely in Paris where we met the rest of the team, 2 from South Carolina and 1 from Long Beach, California. Emily and I are SO disappointed not to be able to take our tour into Paris but we just have to suck it up. I'm sure there is a good reason why we can't. We arrived here at 12 noon, alomost 4 hours late, and we leave at 4:10. I actually have enough euros left from last time to email. There are still some colored leaves here and lush green and golden fields, from what I could see from my center aisle seat. It is a bit overcast, but still very sunny and 60 F, so it is a very nice day.

I actually slept on this flight, from what I can estimate, about 5 hours, so I was very thankful for that. I woke up to them nudging my elbow with breakfast. That is a miracle in itself. Emily had 2 empty seats beside her on the plane and I had 1, so we weren't cramped.

So Emily and I just got back from cruising the stores in the airport. Stuff is unbelievably, grossly expensive, but pretty to look at. Murray bought a laughing cow, a stuffed toy that laughs and rolls around. We are going to put on our dresses so that we will not offend anyone when we land, so I hope it is not cold on the plane.

Back in Civilization - Sorta

Hi, everyone!  It's so wonderful to be back in Bamako tonight, to receive emails from family and friends and to let you know I'm fine. We left Boura this morning about 7:15 and arrived here 11 hours later, hungry, thirsty , dusty and tired. Where could I start to tell the story? One of the team put it well when she said that it seemed like stepping into Bible times because the people wear long robes, cook on a fire outdoors and ride donkeys. But there were also the ever-present cell phones and quite a number of motorcycles. It was wonderful to have supper waiting for us and a luxurious shower afterwards. I am SO looking forward to boarding the plane tomorrow night for home, but I was still sad to say good bye to new-found friends, especially the children. I expect the next time we see each other again will be in Heaven. I used to think that the music in Heaven would sound like a choir from some great London cathredral but now I think there'll definitely be a section for the rich deep tones of the African men and the high-pitched women. So I'm going to say goodnight for now and I will post my stories in days to come, when I get home.  Love to you all, Janet

ET Call Home

Janet called from the 'outback' and missed us but left a voicemail message with an update, so I'm updating the blog with her latest report.

She's doing fine, feeling like she's getting a cold though, which can mean the onset of Malaria so they are treating it as such. She says that it's very hot and dusty but the food is great. She hasn't been sleeping very well which doesn't surprise me since they are all sleeping on the ground in tents...takes awhile to get used to that.

The first day there they treated 60 villagers for various ailments then ramped up to 80 over the next couple of days. They are working from 8:30 - 5:00 each day and not expecting to have any time off during their two week stint except for this Sunday. They may travel to Burkina Faso (the country south of Mali) to go to church on their day off.

Janet is enjoying working with the people on her team as well as the Malians. I expect she's going to experience the same culture shock that I did when she comes home. It's hard work over there but everyone appreciates the simplest things that you do for them. It's so easy to make a difference and that feels good.

Last Internet Update for a While

Today was busy with being orientated, packing to go to the bush and going shopping for our dresses. We get up tomorrow at 5 am to leave for Boura ( spelled it wrong earlier). It will take us all day to get there and on Mon. we have to approach the village elders for permission to set up, even though they have invited us. It’s protocol, which is very important here. We will have a triage area, a pharmacy and a malaria treatment room. We are seeing a few mosquitos, but reminding each other to take our malaria pills.

The food is delicious here. A lady from Wisconsin cooks for us and when we leave we take an African man with us to cook. We are getting to know each other and I know we will be close at the end of this.(all of the team, I mean ) J

The city here is insanely busy with a population of a few million. The streets are very similar to Mexico, shops crammed together, lots of fresh fruit and all kinds of different things. I saw some goats grazing lazily at the edge of the main street with traffic whizzing by. Your eyes just cannot take it all in at once. There is a strong smell of exhaust in the air and dust on everything.

Kids are playing noisily under our window – they’ve been there all day and a few times a day, if the noise outside is not too loud, you can hear the call to prayer at the mosque. We have a very skinny dog here ,not because he is unhealthy, but the breed is thin, whose name is Bobby.

That’s all I can think of now. We’re heading to bed. The last 2 nights I have not slept, between the plane and the first night here, so I need to rest. I have a little anxiety for the week ahead but please pray for God’s grace for me to handle it.

Lots of love to all.

Blessings, Janet

I'm in Africa!

Hey, Greg and everybody!  We made it safe and sound to Bamako, about 15 mins. past the scheduled time. The airport was a mass of bodies, going every direction, shouting back and forth. Most of the African women were dressed in their best in gorgeous traditional dresses and the men in whatever you call their outfits. Somehow we made it through there in record time, with a couple of pastors who navigated all the red tape for us. Then we climbed on a very rickety van with piles of luggage on top and came to the "Baptist House". A very tall and friendly pastor greeted us so graciously and warmly, we had a lunch, and now we are ready for bed. It  was weird to take my clothes out of the luggage and they were warm, just like I had had them in the dryer. It was 30 degrees when we arrived at 8:45 pm. Tomorrow we  will go to the market to buy a African dress, the van has to have repairs in the afternoon, and early Sunday morning we will start our long trek to our final destination. I will buy a sim card tomorrow so I can call home. It seems, for this country, it is easier for me to call home than vice versa. Pray for us as we start our clinic on Monday. I'm told I will be doing triage. There is quite a substantial malaria outbreak here right now, so I'm grateful for the malarone. Love to all! I'm having a blast already. Janet

Farewell to Paris

I just have a 1/2 hour before we board the plane for Bamako so I just wanted to say hi again. I guess this flight is only 5 hours so that's a piece of cake. Apparently on Sunday when we go to the bush we are going furthur than the last place they visited which was a 14-hour drive. In that 14 hours they made 28 stops, either for police road blocks or because the vehicle broke down. They said the police have little huts along the road everywhere and barrels set up and they just stop you to check your papers all the time. The other 2 ladies have met up with us, Jean Anne from Codys and C.J., from New Hampshire. The plane to Bamako has 100 empty seats, so they are allowing us each to take a whole row so we can stretch out. The Air France guy said that numbers are down a lot lately for flights. I took a few pictures in the airport here for you girls of the Prada shop and a few others. You can buy a watch here for as little as $20,000 or a pair of shoes for $700. I guess I won't be doing much shopping here. We were all pretty tired this afternoon so we curled up on the floor for a short nap. We are supposed to get there tonight around 8:30, I believe - 4:30 at home. It is clearing up here now and the sun is trying to come out. So that's all. My time is up.

Ah, Pairee

I'm here, safe in Paris. It's 4 degrees and raining, kinda foggy. We were an hour late arriving because we spent an hour de-icing in Montreal. I tried to sleep but I may have had 1/2 hour. The airport is of course, enormous. We took a bus to a different terminal and then I started to find out how to tour the city. I went to the information desk and they were very helpful, but it was too daunting for me. I would have to take a train from here, to a bus line and then to the bus that does a 1 1/2 hour tour. All in all I would have about 1/2 hour leeway before I had to be back, so I chickened out. Was very disappointing, but me, alone, with a map of Paris? Probably not a good idea. Not the end of the world. The flight here was quite nice. We received a menu, if you please, with 2 choices for dinner - beef bourgignon or salmon. I had the beef. There was an upper level in the plane, the biggest one I've ever seen. We all had aisle seats which was good because the rows were as tight as usual. I think I tried about 12 positions in which to sleep. The person beside me must have thought I had ants in my pants! So we now have 7 hours to kill before we leave. I was filled in a lot more by Naida on the trip to Montreal about what to expect in Mali and I am more excited than ever to get there now. They have a bathroom right beside the tents for night-time trips to the loo and solar garden lights to help us see at night. There are no snakes or rats, so that's a load off my mind! So that's all the news for now. I thought of many of you during the night and said prayers for you. I'm off now to grab a snack and a Malaria pill. 

Bye-Bye.

One More Sleep

Tomorrow, Thursday January 28, 2010, I head for Mali on a two week medical mission. I don't know what to do next - finish packing, go get groceries, clean the house... This morning I woke up thinking of bugs, spiders and snakes. Ugh. Focus, Janet! For now I will try to remember the verses that God showed me one day in Psalm 121. "The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun will not harm you by day or the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm- He will watch over you life. The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore." Yes. He is my hope. I cannot do this without Him.