Hello! The weeks here at Kibuye feel like they are zipping by, probably because I have been doing and learning a lot. Let me tell you about a few of the things I’ve gotten to see and do at the hospital:

The times at the hospital eye clinic and OR immediately stick out as significant (not that I haven’t enjoyed the times in other departments, but those two places are where I feel like I’ve spent the most time). Dr. John Cropsey runs the eye clinic, and I’ve been to see him once on a day where he does procedures and once on a day where he sees old and new patients in clinic. The procedure room was light-hearted, dedicated, and efficient, but it also seemed like a place where vision was being dreamed up and carried out. The people working with John were: a Congolese med student at Hope Africa University who knows he wants to do ophthalmology, and whom John wants to use to help grow the eye ministry to Congo; and a Burundian who is currently doing residency training in China and who hopes to work with John after finishing residency this summer. As they worked together, it was as if I could see the expansion of eye care at Kibuye and beyond into surrounding regions growing before my very eyes. Wow, so amazing!!! It was also really intriguing to watch cataract and glaucoma surgery. Eyeballs can definitely be just a tad bit gross, but thankfully it was not nearly as squeam-inducing as when I watched John operate 4.5 years ago. In typical fashion, John also plugged ophthalmology to me throughout the whole time, so I left not just inspired, but also excited and interested in the field! In addition to doing cool procedures that directly continue Jesus’ ministry of helping blind people to see, he also gets to interact and follow up with patients in more of a long-term relationship, as I saw in clinic. As a side note, it really disoriented me when the resident started speaking with me in the few words of Chinese he’s picked up while there (residency is conducted in English). I’ve never heard an African speak Chinese before, and it appears my languages have gotten somewhat be befuddled. But there you have it, I have now uttered words in all 4 languages I know, which is rather cool if you ask me.

The OR is normally run by Jason Fader, an amazing surgeon who works constantly and who got me interested in medicine when I watched him operate a few years ago. However, for the past few weeks, a surgeon from Saginaw, Michigan, came to give him a respite. This surgeon grew up in the Congo as the missionary kid of a Japanese-American surgeon. She has felt God’s call to practice in the U.S. for now, but she has the liberty to travel overseas for one month each year as a service to long-term medical missionaries. She was my next door neighbor, so she, my roommate, and I spent most nights hanging out or eating together. After long days in the OR and being on call all the time, I was often surprised at her willingness to share about her life, to cook for us, and to bake some of the most delicious chocolate chip cookies I have ever tasted!!! So while Jason vacationed, I gained a dear friend and someone else to look up to as I begin medical school. Anyways, I also loved watching her in the OR, as I love watching all of the doctors here in their element. She was able to get to know the med students and OR staff quickly enough to run a very lively OR indeed. They even tried to get me to dance, and if you know me, sometimes I just can’t help it.

Anyways, even more exciting than dancing, even more exciting than watching her, was the day the med student classes were turning over and there was no one else in the OR (usually there are 4-9 med students) and she was like “hey, do you want to assist?” and I tentatively but excitedly said yes!!!!!!! When you assist, you scrub in with the surgeon and do things like wipe blood, suction fluids, hold body parts, hold instruments, and cut sutures. I was tentative to scrub with her because it felt so luxurious to be an American student, barely out of undergrad but replacing people who actually knew what they were doing. And yeah, it was a privilege that I am infinitely grateful for. Thanks again friend, if you read this! Anyways, the three cases I was present for that day were: 1. a lady with varicose veins, which are kind of like a baggy, over-stretched balloon, in her leg. While she pulled out the unnecessary vein, I tried to wipe blood. Yup, it was kind of bloody, even though only a few small cuts were made, which was kind of sad, because I’m always just a bit sad when anything grosses me out. 2. A pregnant lady came in from the ER with a large flesh wound on her leg. She was spitting, struggling, and in pain, so multiple people, including me, were helping her to stay still. An interesting interaction, where connection was made only through holding her neck and head still, a touch that was necessarily forceful but hopefully at least somewhat gentle too. A person’s a person, even if they’re laying completely naked on the operating table. 3. The surgery I actually fully scrubbed in for was a lady who had a bowel obstruction around the pylori sphincter area. I definitely haven’t gone to med school yet and don’t remember the name of the surgery, but it involved connecting the stomach and small intestine in a different place to allow another passageway for food. This was the procedure where I saw what a complicated dance surgery seems to be. But maybe I’d get used to it!

As for news about life with the team, last Monday was Chinese New Year, and my roommate and I got to host a Chinese New Year Party for the kids. We wrapped jiao zi (dumplings), read stories like The Little Girl (a book by Uncle Phil Wong about adoption and fatherly love) and Tikki Tikki Tembo, wrote some characters, set off lanterns, ate noodles for long life, learned how some Chinese characters can be connected with Biblical stories and themes, and gave out hong bao (red envelopes that often contain money). I was excited that the kids were so engaged in learning about yet another culture. I also realized that I enjoy sharing with others the parts of Chinese and Chinese American culture that I feel connected to, but I don’t like to feel as if I have to represent aspects of a culture that I don’t identify with. Sometimes it’s kind of hard for me to separate out what those things are before a situation happens, but in this situation it felt very natural, because I feel connected in my innermost being to Chinese food. Please pray that these kids (and me) would continue to embrace new cultures, as well as the culture they are living in, and be excited about the cross-cultural interactions they necessarily have.

Chinese New Year

As always, thanks Heather for the picture!

Science with the preschoolers

Taking Jonah up to the hospital lab to look at mushrooms, mold, and flower petals under the microscope. We used some high quality saran wrap cover slips

writing affirmations at the Valentine's day sleepover

beautiful jiao zi; super fun to make them for the first time with our househelper

Because today is Valentine’s Day, here’s a song called the Love of God that I associate with this team because apparently the Wendler family’s relative wrote it:

The love of God is greater far
  Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
  And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
  God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
  And pardoned from his sin

O love of God, how rich and pure!
  How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
    The saints’ and angels’ song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
  And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
  And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
  Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
  Though stretched from sky to sky.