Looking for Some New Recruits

by Jess Cropsey

As our team has grown, the needs at the hospital and the scope of our work has also expanded.  And so we find ourselves needing more help in certain areas.  We're hoping that you, our faithful readers, will help us cast our net wide and pass this information along to anyone who might fit the bill.  And please be praying that God would provide the right people to help us in these critical areas.  

CONSTRUCTION / ENGINEERING*

(Term:  1+ years)

*URGENT NEED

Responsibilities:

• Partner with our on-the-ground engineer (the highly talented Caleb Fader) to oversee hospital construction projects and renovations
• Assist with maintenance for hospital buildings, equipment, grounds, & vehicles
• Train local workers

Requirements & Critical Qualities:

• Prior experience in developing world preferred
• Resourcefulness, patience, & perseverance

Related Blog Stories:

Crate Fate

New Surgical Ward

New NICU

Containers

EVANGELISM & DISCIPLESHIP COORDINATOR 

(Term: 5 years)

Responsibilities:

• Develop hospital chaplaincy program
• Assist local chaplains with patient outreach at the hospital
• Oversee discipleship programs for medical students and hospital staff
• Assist with missionary team care

Requirements and Critical Qualities:

• Prior experience in pastoral care, discipleship, and/or counseling
• Language learning abilities (fluent French and some Kirundi important)

Related Blog Stories:

Divine Love

Learning Faith from Patients

A Day in Village Church

Child Life Specialists

Farewell First Students

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT / ADMIN & FINANCE

(Term:  2+ years)

Responsibilities:

• Track project construction income and expenses
• Assist with hospital project/team administration and logistics
• Find and apply for grants (optional)
• Create fundraising materials (optional)

Requirements and Critical Qualities:

• Some experience with basic bookkeeping
• Good organizational, social, and communication skills
• Prior experience overseas and/or with a NGO would be great!

Related Blog Stories:

I'm sure you're surprised to see no blog posts in this department!  :-)  While this unglamorous, behind-the-scenes work doesn't lend itself to interesting blog posts, it is critical work.  None of the projects (like the new surgical ward or the upcoming pediatrics ward) could happen without someone keeping track of things.  

BIOMEDICAL TECHNICIAN

(Term: 1+ years)

Responsibilities:

• Repair and maintain hospital equipment
• Train a small team of local technicians

Requirements and Critical Qualities:

• Prior experience in developing world preferred

Related Blog Stories:

The Gas We Pass

TEACHER

(Term: 2 years)

We are always looking for teachers to help us educate the many kids on our team.  There is a huge need for teachers on many other Serge fields as well.  

Related Blog Stories:
Kibuye Kids Clubs
Africa Class
The Brick Factory (field trip)
Gearing Up for School

6 months later

(By Alyssa)

I returned to Burundi this month after six months of "home assignment." I'm thankful for the sweet times with family and friends, the continuing education opportunities, the fundraising God enabled me to do, and the creature comforts of life in a more developed place. But I was definitely happy to return to my Burundi home! And I was enthusiastically welcomed back by the team:

Six months is a time period that feels both short and long. I wondered what Burundi would look like on my return. Well, except for some new traffic lights (!) in Bujumbura, things looked about the same - until I got to Kibuye! I thought you might be interested in what has changed here in just 6 months (lots of pictures to follow):

 The biggest change is the beautiful new surgical building which opened shortly after I left in July.

New minor OR for wound care, etc. - a huge improvement over the old space! 

Surgical ward with unique new bed design with privacy curtains

Surgical ward nursing station

And as we enter the season of respiratory infections, it makes such a difference to have this new oxygen concentrator. For the first time we have wall oxygen in the NICU and in other key places in the hospital - life saving treatment!

We're not quite ready to begin construction on this new 80 bed pediatric ward, but in the meantime, renovations of existing space have increased our bed count just in time for the rainy (malaria) season.

New temporary pediatric ward

Renovated pediatric room to open soon

 Now that surgery patients have a new building, internal medicine has renovated their old space - new ceiling, beds, windows, etc. Previously one of their patient rooms (for 5 patients) had no windows at all - which meant it was pitch black even in the middle of the day when the power was out! So this is a great improvement!

New internal medicine call room

New internal medicine work space and nursing office

 Physical therapy has a newly renovated space, too, complete with equipment for helping patient rehabilitation. 

And new patient showers and toilets

There are lots of solar panels around now including this one for heating water in the laundry. And more solar panels will be coming soon to improve our electricity! 

Infrastructure is absolutely essential! Here's our new water reservoirs hooked up to the second well  providing water for the hospital. These tanks hold 100,000 liters of water! 

Even the emergency department got a makeover with new curtains, paint, cupboards, etc. 

New isolation ward mostly for tuberculosis patients

Isolation ward

New landscaping by our second ophthalmology building which opened shortly before I left

 And the residential area is expanding, too. Above is Caleb and Krista Fader's newly completed house and below is Logan and Julie Banks' house under construction. 

But six months doesn't just bring many new buildings/renovations, but also brings new babies like these sweet boys. Francine (left) helps clean and cook for me 3 days per week, so I now have a pack n' play set up for her baby in my dining room - not that I've figured out how to assemble the pack n' play (I think you need an engineering degree for that!) 

 And all the kids have definitely grown - above the middle schoolers have kindly volunteered to teach preschool in the afternoons to these 4 year olds

And the guinea pigs have grown, too ;) 

It's fun to participate in chapel again at Kibuye Hope Academy on Fridays - though we're missing friends from last year and paradoxically also thankful to have new kids here this year

Medical students have definitely made progress. Above are four successful thesis presentations from last week. These students have come a long way as we've seen them from the beginning of their clinical years until now. They'll graduate next month! And in general, the quality of theses has improved over the last couple years. 

And finally, team life is both different and the same each season. As I said above, we both miss teammates who are now in the States and are thankful for new and returning ones. There's a new book for book study and different special imported treats (thanks, Miller family, for the cheese and crackers!), but the general rhythms remain the same. It's a joy to walk through the ups and downs of this Burundi life together! 

The Marathon

(by Greg)

I do not like running.  If someone has told you that I do, they are either misinformed or a liar.  I feel quite confident that God did not create my body to run.  I believe He created some bodies to run, just not mine.  I more enjoy a nice stroll.  I also appreciate a comfortable chair.  

Nonetheless, in Burundi, I try to run two or three times each week, in a vain attempt to stave off death.  I have yet to find a 24 Hour Fitness in Kibuye.  I run with teammates, teammates whose bodies I suspect were in fact created to run, and I am happy for them.  And I enjoy our time together.  However, I would enjoy it more if we were not running.  

As I have been huffing and puffing my way up and down the hills of Kibuye, I have had a lot of time to think about the difference between a marathon and a sprint.  If you asked me to do one or the other, I would choose the sprint.  I like things to get done fast.  I like a finish line that I can see.  But the work we have entered into in Kibuye is not a sprint, it is a marathon.  While there are projects that take place over weeks or months (eg. a new surgical ward, the installation of an oxygen concentrator), the big changes we are working toward will take place over years, decades and perhaps generations.  We are here working for transformation in healthcare in Burundi and gospel transformation in the lives of our students and our community.  For these, it is much more difficult to see a finish line in sight.  

Working toward this sort of long term vision runs counter to all my natural instincts.  I went into anesthesia, partly because I like to see the beginning and end of a project in the course of a day.  I did not choose internal medicine, in which you might prescribe a blood pressure medicine for a patient with high blood pressure, then see them again in 3 months and maybe slightly adjust the dose, then see them again in another 3 months.  No no, I certainly do not have the patience for that sort of work.  When presented with a patient with hypertension, I want to squirt something in their IV and watch as the blood pressure falls over the course of seconds.  Much longer than that and I am prone to lose interest.  

I realize that in my own power, I cannot run this marathon.  I have to rely on the strength of another, someone who can provide me with the endurance and patience I need to get out of bed everyday and labor toward goals with no end in sight.  Without faith in Someone guiding me, leading me, reminding me of the hope I have in Him, I would likely throw in the towel.  Thankfully, I do not do this work alone, but instead am surrounded by a team who can remind me why we are doing this and who we are doing it for.  And I get to run each day with Someone who has the strength and the endurance and the vision to accomplish these goals, Someone who has the stamina and the steadfastness to get to the finish line.   For now, I just need to keep my eyes on Him.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. - Hebrews 12:1-2

There is no fast food in Kibuye

By Michelle

Hello Everyone! I thought I’d give you a glimpse into what life is like here on a daily basis when it comes to food preparation. Julie wrote a great post on this topic (Kibuye Kitchens) but I'll touch on some different elements. 

Food shopping:

There are no supermarkets in Burundi and the only “store” closest to us is in Gitega. While our food choices are limited, we are thankful to have food and to eat on a daily basis. Sadly, with many of those in our community this is not the case. 

Each week we place a produce / food order that looks like this:

I have found that meal planning is a must when one is limited to getting food once a week. If you run out of something midweek, you usually can borrow from your neighbor. But on the plus side, this gives us women a chance to communicate on a daily basis. 

The food arrives in a basket like this. 

There is a market behind the hospital that has a few options such as eggs, tomatoes, avocados, onions, pineapple, and carrots.

Gardening: 

The food options here are seasonal. If something is not in season, then you wait until it is. The last few months we had lettuce in the garden: 

But now that it’s been used up we need to wait until more grows before eating salads again. It definitely teaches you to be patient and to be thankful for what you have!

Extras:

Milk is delivered a few times a week: When it arrives you need to cook it for a period of time, then let it cool and strain it before putting it in the refrigerator. The availability of fresh cow milk is a recent luxury for which we are very thankful. 

In Gitega we can can buy bags of flour, sugar, and rice. If you want any kind of bread product, you or your house helper needs to make it from scratch. There's nothing like freshly made bread!

The cheese we can buy comes in wheels and is made in Congo. It's not always the best quality but we are thankful to have cheese! 

It is very difficult to buy meat other than goat meat in our area. There is a butchery in the capital that has more options so we have found that if one has the freezer space it's best to stock up and eat sparingly.

Our team has put together a cookbook that uses mostly the limited ingredients we are able to get. Check it out! There are some gems in there!

Kibuye Cookbook

Speciality meals: For Christmas, Carlan and I made a lasagna with cheese we had made from scratch, freshly made pasta noodles, sauce from scratch, and herbs grown in our garden. It took a lot a work but it was worth it!

Kibuye gourmet: Fried Termites. For those with a strong stomach there is always something new to try.

Conclusion: Each time we buy food, we are thankful for the hard work of many that had to grow, pick and transport this product by manual labor:

Beautiful Burundi

(from Eric, with help from everyone)

Burundi, like anywhere else, is a mixture of brokenness and beauty, of glory and shadow.  And this blog has told its share of tragedies.  Today, however, we'd like to honor the goodness and the wonder that is around us in Burundi, country of a thousand hills, country that reflects the glory of its Maker.

So here's a feast of photos that we've collected over the years.  There are two focal points here.  The first is the beautiful green landscape.  The second is the beautiful people of Burundi.  Over the years that we have been here, the people of Burundi have been examples to us of joy, love, enduring forgiveness, hard work, undying hope, intelligence, and great kindness.  We have seen faith and self-sacrifice that we pray that God will enable us to emulate.

Voilà!  Beautiful Burundi: