The news of the past two weeks is that our household has been increased with a new baby. He cries and plays and eats a lot. He is also quite cuddly and loves to be close to us. Although I’ve seen several small children I would like to bring home (see above) this baby is a kitten – not a child (don’t worry, mom). :) He was born November 6 to Dr. Bateta’s cat and he looks like his momma. When we got him he was already litter box trained although he will eventually be able to go outside too. We have named him “Hobbes” and he is clever and wily just like his namesake of the comic strip. He chases anything that moves and loves to stand ">in between my feet when I’m cooking in the kitchen. This adds up to him being the definition of “under foot” and has gotten kicked, stepped on, and had his tail closed in the refrigerator door multiple times. We have been feeding him the small dried fish that are sold in the market – he can’t get enough of them. They have Whiska’s cat food too so that is a treat for him too. Overall he has become very snuggly and quite good company and entertainment. We are hoping he will be a good mouser and catch whatever is running around in our ceiling.
Other News:
Water Project – last week everything worked out last minute for Wes Lutz to fly down at the end of his trip to Gimbie hospital in Ethiopia and spend a few days looking at our water system and the project in progress. He is an engineer and works in a family business installing pumps and the electrical system going along with it. He and his wife have a passion for missions so we thought he would be invaluable as some leadership and consulting on this project. He was able to provide some good guidance and advice while he was here and he has gone home to discuss with his wife the possibility of coming back for an extended time to oversee the project. We are all just thankful to God for his hand in arranging the circumstances to make the visit work out.
Malamulo Hospital – this is malaria season so our hospital has been overflowing with children and adults both who have been sick. The government put a kink in our process by deciding the Central Medical Supply where we get much of our drugs and IV solutions closed from January 10 to March 5!! Suddenly we had to figure out how to purchase enough stock to keep us from running out before they open again. That put a big strain on our financial situation but thankfully we were able to scrape up the money. A common method is “rob Peter to pay Paul” – not preferable but seems to be our only option. The other big issue happening is the enormous debt for past errors that we owe the Malawi Revenue Authority. They have called a few times threatening to seize our assets but only because it is a hospital they hesitate. We owe about $150,000 USD for past things that happened and they fined us for. The difficulty is that people don’t like to donate money for debts but would rather donate for new projects and something more glamorous. It seems like a 500 lb gorrilla hanging on the back of the hospital that keeps us from getting ahead.
We have a new matron – Mrs. Kamwiyo – and she is such a blessing! She has started an ethics committee, meeting regularly with her staff, managing the housekeeping staff, and setting up training for the nursing staff. It is so nice to have someone capable and energetic in that position.
Other Facilities – this apparently seems to be the season of challenges both financially and personnel. I think because of my position I end up being a “sounding board” for many of the challenges that the leadership are facing. Often I don’t have any ideas or any way to help but I still feel bad for the stress they are facing. Please pray for the personnel at both the SDA clinic in Lilongwe and the SDA hospital in Blantyre. I am finding that greed and materialism knows no boundaries. Those in leadership at those institutions need strength and wisdom to know how to handle the challenges they are facing.
Mission @ Malawi – in November a few people from LLU came over to do a planning trip for the large student group coming over to Malawi in June. I have offered to help coordinate things on this end and be in touch with Emelly who is the main coordinator on that side. The background of this trip is that all 12 of the SDA colleges and universities in the US have decided to fundraise for the Malamulo College of Health Sciences. Their goal is $100,000 and they are close to $20,000 already. As part of this focus they are planning a large mission trip of about 5 people from each school estimating 60 people to come over the end of June for two weeks. The group will then be split into 5 locations around Malawi doing simple maintenance, clinical, and evangelism at each site. As you can imagine this is a huge logistical challenge especially when the person coordinating everything is in California. Hence my offer to help – I’m not sure if I am in over my head with this but hopefully it will work out smoothly.
Life in General - We got to watch the Innaguration this week live on CNN at a hotel in Blantyre. There was a group of Americans getting together and Cristy was invited so Don, Gail, & I tagged along. It was certainly a historical event and for some reason being in a foreign country makes me more interested in those moments and makes me feel patirotic.
Sue and Kelvin and 2 yo Lilee have moved into an apartment in Blantyre near the SDA hospital since he is working full time on their new ICU. This weekend I took them up on their offer of hospitality and am staying with them for a couple of days. I was getting to the point where I needed a break from everything so thought this would be a good opportunity. It has been nice to rest, eat yummy food, and just generally have a change of scenery. I’m continually thankful for good friends.
We are counting down the weeks until Cristy’s parents arrive in March. We mark the weeks – we are at 8 ½ now and we agree weeks are better than months – they change faster. This last week we also finally got our Christmas packages which was fun. My mom had individually wrapped many small gifts along with a variety of other goodies like packets of mayo, candles, soap, note cards, and other fun things. It is nice to feel loved and remembered. I have posted a photo of Cristy working on the ward with some patients. She will be featured on the flyer that the Loma Linda University Auxilary is making for a vespers in March. They are committed to raising $50,000 to help the Operating Rooms here at Malamulo.
1 comment:
Elisa - good to hear from you. Char forwarded an email to us that described some of your challenges. You are in our prayers as you work through the tax issues. You are a strong person and doing God's work, so we know you will succeed! You are our favorite missionary.
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