well past the halfway of lectures... funny to think its been almost two months but it has. i feel at home here but also feel like me being at home was not far away as well.
anywho.... this week was a good one, lecture wise we had a man named Dr. Martin Panter. he has been involved in health care in East Timor for over 25 years and has many other works he’s done. he’s a very kind gentlemen, would be a lovely grandfather! (just to help you picture him a little better!) he arrived monday evening so lectures with him didn’t start till tuesday. so monday we learnt about fistula’s. which is where if a women is in labour for too long the pressure of the baby can cut off the blood supply to the bladder and the tissue dies creating a hole between the bladder (can also happen between the rectum as well) and the vagina resulting in constant leaking of urine out of the vagina. we watched a video based on the book ‘Hospital by the River’ where this couple has opened up a clinic (in Ethiopia) specially to offer surgery and help for women dealing with this problem. its a very common problem for the women there because of; the lack of skilled help during births/hospitals too far away/lack of money to go to a hospital/women not be educated on a ‘normal’ length of labour so then by the time they realize there is an issue, there baby has died and they are left with this fistula for life unless operated on. it was sad to hear there stories, many of the women were rejected from there villages, there husbands left them and they were shunned in public because of the constant leaking. they had no hope, no knowledge of this place that could help them unless they heard of it from a friend. one lady mentioned that it was either get this surgery or kill herself because she could not go on living this type of life alone from her friends and family. there was hope for the women in the movie though, two were healed through surgery, one had no fistula but because of prolonged labour her muscles that controlled her bladder were very weak resulting in no control of the urine. she was given exercises to practice to help build up the strength. for one lady (she was only 17 yrs old through, as lots of these girls are given in marriage at the age of 7 and pregnant by 13) her issue was that her bladder had for some reason become much smaller and had to have a ‘plug’ placed in her urethra (tube that urine goes down from bladder to outside your body) to help control the leaking. all very interesting and mind opening, bringing more importance to the job we as a school will be doing in Africa.
our lecture topic was health in developing nations. he spoke on HIV/Aids, STI’s, malaria, tuberculosis, and the need for people to not just go in, drop off meds and then leave but for people to be aware of the need in the area they are in, to observe how the culture does things, and from there assess what can be done to make life better for the people. an example, having the toilets dug away from the local well where everyone gets there water. because of course we would think that bacteria from the toilet can seep through the ground into there clean drinking water creating not so clean water therefore resulting in many illness in the village. but these things are just not thought of sometimes in a developing nation. also to have compassion on the people and see them as Christ would see them. to treat them as humans, part of our world, created by our creator just as we are too. with the corruption in governments and the ‘class’ systems in place most people are just seen as a something taking up space and have no value. but these people do have value. they were not created just to ‘take up space’. i am very excited to go and show value to the women that we will meet as well as the men.
other than lectures its been a good week, small groups monday night, an evening lecture tuesday night with Dr. Panter to make up for our missed monday lecture. wednesday is a free evening so i finished my homework and then wednesday got to make a few phone calls home and thursday was evangelism and then friday was our friday night meeting (church basically) and laundry!
we find out hopefully next week exactly where i’ll be for the second part of outreach as our team is splitting up. we were supposed to do a car wash this weekend to help raise money for outreach but miscommunication happened with the place who hosts us and so its been post poned, but our BAS is going to get together and go to the park for a bbq instead! i’m sorry i have to miss it cuz i have work duties.... but hopefully i’ll be able to go for a bit! (i couldn’t find anyone to cover my shift) i said i’d bring pickles! i haven't had them since home and every bbq needs a jar of pickles!
whoa longest one yet! hopefully you made it to the end! till next week!
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