When It Rains, It Pours...Containers

by Jess Cropsey

We are still in the thick of dry season and it hasn’t rained in over 3 months.  Jiggers (sand fleas that burrow into your toes) have been plentiful and there’s lots of dust to go around.  But it has been “raining” shipping containers!  Four different containers will have (likely) arrived before the real rains begin, with #3 making it up the hill on Friday evening.  This one held medical supplies generously donated, packed, and shipped by World Medical Mission (branch of Samaritan’s Purse).  

Originally, the container was scheduled to arrive on Friday morning, but there has been a fuel shortage in the country for several months and there was no diesel available on that day for the truck coming up the mountain, so it had to be transferred to a lower-quality truck which happened to have fuel.  It made it to Kibuye late at night on Friday and unfortunately the driver attempted too wide of a turn in the dark (no street lights here!) and it got stuck.  

So on Saturday morning, John & Caleb eagerly searched the man-cave for items that could be used to free the beast.  Armed with an enormous sledgehammer, a metal tread, chain, tow rope, and the Old Lady (the eye clinic land cruiser), we headed off to see what could be done.  

You'll often find thorns like this on the back of trucks to prevent bikers or passengers from trying to get a free ride up the mountain.

After 20 minutes of scheming and getting things in place, it was decided to call in some reinforcements (namely the nearly 300 workers that are employed at Kibuye on a multitude of construction projects).  

Here is the first round of workers on their way to help out

Some were delegated to push on the tilted side of the truck, others rode in the back of the Old Lady to add some more weight providing more traction, and others pulled the tow rope from the front.  George & I were responsible for documenting the event (a very important, but slightly less dangerous job).  

Much to everyone’s delight, the plan worked like a charm and the truck was on its way to the unloading zone.  Click here to watch a quick video of the momentous occasion!

John was bursting with pride for his baby and her great strength.  This will go down in the history books of the Old Lady, even topping the time she jumped the fancy vehicle from the US Embassy.  Reportedly, she had to tow the truck 7-8 more times throughout the day when the truck dropped off heavier equipment at other locations.      

The photo below shows the container at the unloading zone, an almost-completed maintenance area with different container bays for welding, wood shop, & vehicle maintenance.  In the background (far left), you can see the new laundry area under construction as well.  

Lots of great stuff was unloaded that day -- orthopedic surgical equipment, incubators, warming tables for newborns, anesthesia machines, tons of surgical instruments, backpacks loaded with goodies for graduating medical students, a hammer mill and drying bins for the new Busoma plant, and much more!  

Surprisingly, we also discovered a mysterious box of rings (apparently priced to be sold for $220 each on some cruise line).  Not sure how or why those ended up on the container or what in the world we're going to do with them!  Finger splints (since they appear to be too long for the typical finger to bend)?  

We are extremely grateful to the many folks at World Medical Mission who packed this container and for the people who gave financially to make it happen.  We’d also like to thank a generous ophthalmologist who donated his office equipment to the eye clinic after retirement and folks at Langhorne Presbyterian Church (PA) who packed it all into three enormous 1,000 lb+ crates (one shown below).

  
We really appreciate the very long list of people who gave in various ways to serve Kibuye Hope Hospital by sending this container.  The equipment will be invaluable in helping us improve the quality of care for our patients. 

Song For the Dry Season: Banga Hill

(from Eric)

The dry season is now fully advanced here at Kibuye.  The rains stopped sometime in late May, and have yet to restart.  The red dirt has become red dust.  The banana leaves next to the hospital road are colored copper by the powder tossed up by passing taxis.  The sky is hazy, and the leaves of the eucalyptus crackle like paper instead of their normal rustle.  

We wait for the rain.  We wait for green and growth.  We wait for the air to be washed out and the sky to return to its normal brilliant blue.  It should come within the next few weeks.  So I guess we'll just have to be patient and trust that maybe the dry season pushes the roots down deeper.  Maybe the foundation gets stronger.

We arrived in Burundi in August of 2013, and we moved to the hillside community of Banga, to study Kirundi for 3 months. It was dry then as well.  People told us stories about decades ago, during the war.  They told us that Banga had been hard hit, in a way that dovetailed with the end of the dry season, with the coming of cleansing rain.  I'm not in a position to verify their stories one way or another, but the imagery was striking, and so I wrote a song.

It's about rain washing the haze away.  It's about rain washing bloodstains away.  It's about the curious Christian truth that blood can actually wash stains away.  And through it all, we cry "Lord, send your rain."  It's been coming often to mind these last few weeks, as we wait for the rains to come.

Banga Hill

(click below then select track #9 to listen, download for free)

Here at the end of the dry season

I sit on the veranda and watch the sun

Sinking behind the hills ten miles away

as every tiny farm soaks up its rays

and when the rains come

they say I’ll see twice as far

as this dusty haze is washed away.

They say that it wasn’t so many years ago

the war came and cut the fleeing down

the hillside ran with blood for days and days

until the rain came and washed it away

Now they’re left with the pieces

of a life that’s left behind

a life maybe to somehow find.

Lord, send your rain, fall on all where we are

Though thirsty, we have run all from your well - on Banga Hill

It’s Friday morning and the people climb

up the hill into the church next door

A song is raised in beauty and in strength

the bread is broken and the cup is poured

it’s blood spilled out

that is somehow like the rain

it washes away all the stain

Bless the rain, falling on us now

the worst and the best, the hatred and love

on the old, and on the young

and let it fall on us, for we are all 

on Banga Hill

(5 Sept 2013 - Banga)

Gearing Up for School

by Jess Cropsey

I have been amazed to see on Facebook so many kids already going back to school!  As a teacher, I cringe at the thought of going back to school in early August, but I’m sure there are many happy parents.  :)  

Here at Kibuye, we have a particularly long summer.  We wrapped up in mid-May to send off our beloved teacher and get ready for a Serge Conference in Spain.  Despite our early finish, Kibuye Hope Academy’s 4th (can you believe it?!) school year won’t start until late September while we await the arrival of 3 new families (Banks, Baskins, Nimmons) and a new intern.    

One of my projects for the summer has been getting our new school ready to go.  This beautiful building was completed in late April and we finished off our final two weeks of last school year there, but it was a little chaotic.  We added quite a few new items with the arrival of the last container, so that all needed to be sorted.  I am pleased to write that it is pretty much ready to go!  

When our family was back in the USA for a few months last summer, we discovered that the school where John & I graduated from high school would be closing its doors after four decades.  Calvary Christian Academy was the place where our romance began many years ago and just for kicks I'll include a graduation photo. 

I was thrilled when they graciously offered for us to take anything we could use in Burundi before their sale opened to the general public.  We are really grateful for the beautiful desks, chairs, filing cabinets, tables, books, school supplies, and various other items that they donated to our little school.  They also sold us 3 really nice student desktops for a great price so that we can have one computer in each room.  Go Cougars!  We also gave some of their old jerseys to the local soccer team, so we often get to see a Burundian CCA Cougar running around Kibuye.  

I would also like to give a huge thanks to Caleb Fader & Tony Sykes (with EMI) for helping supervise this project and the many Burundian construction workers who did such a nice job.  And a shout-out to David, the architect with EMI, who gave some suggestions to improve our layout and make it a really wonderful space.  

The school building is set right in the middle of the large space where the majority of our residential homes are, so it’s a quick commute for everyone!  The Watts’ kids have already timed it — less than 10 seconds from their front door to the school (at a run, of course).  

Carlan designed our awesome school logo and he & Michelle painted a beautiful sign for our school when they were here for a brief visit in June, with space left on the book to later fill in with a school verse chosen by the kids themselves.  (Can you see the shape of Africa in the green part of the tree?) 

  

There is a wide hallway at the main entrance with little cubbies and coat hooks for each student (18 “enrolled” for next school year).  The belfry (which does not in fact house a bell) lets in a lot of natural light.  There has been some discussion about adding a rock climbing wall here, but I think the kids may meet some resistance to that idea.  Off the hallway, we have three classrooms, a bathroom, and a small storage room. 

This is the largest of the rooms and will be the main classroom for our 5 kindergarteners as well as larger combined classes like music, art, Kirundi, etc.  We included a sink here for science & art classes.   

In this same large room, we have an awesome reading loft in one corner, built by the multi-talented Dr. Jason Fader.  The kids LOVE this space!  We also have some bookshelves that function as the team library, with both adult & kids’ books available to be “checked out”.   

This classroom will be for our 6 second graders.  

The third classroom will be a combined classroom for six 4th-7th graders, who are together for all their classes except math.   

Because I like to organize things, I had to include this photo of our storage closet.  I know some of you will understand how beautiful this is.  A big thanks to teammate Nicole, a kindred spirit when it comes to organizing.  And I would be remiss to not also thank my husband for indulging my endless requests to build shelves (shown here) and hang chalkboards, bulletin boards, curtain rods, etc.     

We have a great schedule set up for our TCKs (third-culture kids) and are incredibly thankful that God provided Scott & Lindsay Nimmon to join our team to help lead the education of our kids.  Many of the moms are also heavily involved in the teaching schedule, so you can pray that we would work well together.  Scott & Lindsay are currently at a cross-cultural training course and have purchased tickets to arrive in Burundi on September 11th.  They still need an estimated $1800/month in financial support to serve here at Kibuye.  Please pray that God would supply the remainder of their support and if you would like to help, please click here. 

I'm super excited for a new school year to start!  

Go _______!  (school mascot yet to be determined...)

   

The Treasure Trove of Other People's Random Left-Behind Stuff

(from Eric, with multiple photo credits to George)

One of the lesser-known (but nonetheless reliable) aspects of rural missionary life is the vestiges of random stuff that has been left behind by other missionaries.  Seriously, you wouldn't believe the finds that are possible.  When we arrived at Kibuye, there had been no longterm western missionaries for several years.  Years later, we are still uncovering things left behind by uncertain characters from Kibuye's missionary past.

Why are there so many interesting finds?  I can think of several reasons:

1.  Missionaries have a tendency towards being conservationist/thrifty types, which translates sometimes into saving things to the point of hoarding.

2.  Getting rid of things is much harder than you would think.  There is no Goodwill to drop things off at.  In fact, if you drop things off at Goodwill and then they don't sell at the Goodwill store, it is entirely possible that they will end up in Burundi.  Yes, there is plenty of need, and we can give things away.  But personally giving all this stuff away takes enormous energy and it can be easier just to store it.

3.  Supply chains in Africa are very unpredictable.  Almost every food, commodity, and medicine runs out sooner or later.  So better store up just in case.

4.  Visitors bring things for "others" to use.  They are never the "others" that use them.  Kibuye was only visitors for several years before we came, so it was kind of a one-way valve.  We're happy to be the opening of the other side of that valve.

Here now some of the great finds of Kibuye's missionary past.  Where did these things come from?  We have no idea.  Who left them?  We can only guess.  We prefer to maintain the mystique a bit.

Category 1:  We Will Never Use This.

This "New Plastic Crystal Chandelier Lamp Fixture" dates from I don't know when.  Maybe 1960 guessing by the font, and the way "Plastic" seems to be the selling point more than "Crystal".  In the box are all the requisite pieces.  Never used.  Still "New", in fact.  Why was it never used?  Why will we never use such a treasure?  Because we already have it's twin, proudly hung in Chez Watts, with an LED bulb in the middle.  Truly, it is a treasure.

Category 2: We might just use this.  But...Wow.

George found this just a few months ago, hiding in a storage room.  Noting the 25 cent coupon is cool.  Noting the expiration date is even cooler.  Now, as far as we can tell, the house that the storage room belongs to was built around 1981.  This begs an interesting question.  Did it come from an older missionary house?  Did someone donate it years after the coupon's expiration?  Did someone donate it precisely because the coupon was expired?  Did someone ship it and it got lost in shipping for a long, long time?  We will never know.

Category 3: Oh yeah, we'll use this.

A spontaneous kids' dance party breaks out with a scenic backdrop.  Note the leopard (? I think) skin on the wall.  Where did that come from?  Was it legal?  When I was in college, my roommates and I hung a 1970's portrait of a middle-aged man with a combover on our living room wall, with a brass nameplate that read "Winston Porter".  It was not so much beautiful as it was thought-provoking and conversation-starting.  I think the parallel goes without saying.

The spear is cool, but only as an afterthought given its neighbors.  The ancient telephone has survived remodeling, as I think we can all agree that it should.  It is a curious device, going nowhere that we can tell.  It has an unexpected electric light on the bottom that serves the now-functional purpose of informing the inhabitants of the room whether the power is on or not.  Like the tinfoil, the phone serves as an internal anachronism.  It's a telephone circa what?  Maybe 1940?  The building is old but nowhere near that old.  So why was a 40-year old telephone installed into a new missionary house?  For precisely the same reason that it will stay.  Because it is awesome.

Category 4: I can't believe we get to use this!

And then sometimes you strike gold.  Just last month, in an effort to clean a storage area out totally in order to renovate it into a guest apartment, we found a large movie screen, totally new, presumably purchased decades ago for rural movie screenings.  We busted it out, ran some extension cords outside, and hosted a neighborhood movie night.  Quite the sight for our Burundian neighbors, as well as our kids.  We have since repeated it, and I'm sure it will be used again.

Child Life Specialists at Kibuye

By Alyssa

For the last few months we've averaged 60-70 kids on our pediatric service (including malnutrition and neonatology) and another 20+ kids on the surgery service on any given day. One thing I've lamented about the situation for these kids is that they didn't have any stimulating activities available to them. The kids with leg fractures, for example, stay in traction for 4-6 weeks. They feel pretty well but have nothing to do but lie in bed until their bones heal. And one consequence of severe malnutrition is apathy. The most malnourished kids just lie still with no interest or energy to interact with the world around them. Emotional and sensory stimulation (i.e. play therapy) is one of the necessary steps in the treatment plan for them recommended by the World Health Organization - arguably just as important as feeding them, keeping them warm, and treating their infections.

What I've always loved about children's hospitals is the way they go out of their way to make kids feel welcome and cared for. I remember being a 10 year old in the hospital myself and being amazed to find a playroom with so many crafts and toys and activities to help pass the long hours.

Well, I'm excited to announce that we now have Child Life at Kibuye!

Susan and Judith (in the above 2 pictures) visit the 6 different hospital rooms with pediatric patients every afternoon and spend hours going to each bedside to provide attention and care. They provide educational play for all ages, and the kids just light up when they enter the room. It's made my job easier as the patients are less afraid of foreigners now - even scary ones with stethoscopes! And the malnourished and orthopedic patients have especially benefitted from this special attention and love. 

So what is "Child Life?" I'm happy to report that this description from the Boston Children's Hospital webpage actually describes what Judith and Susan are doing with our patients here in Burundi:

Child Life Specialists enhance a patient's emotional, social and cognitive growth during a hospital stay, giving special consideration to each child's family, culture and stage of development.

Using developmental interventions and play, they help patients and families adjust to and understand the hospital and their medical situation. Child Life Specialists:

• Help patients develop ways to cope with fear, anxiety, separation and adjustment to the hospital experience
• Provide consultation to the health care team regarding developmental and psycho-social issues
• Provide preparation and individualized support before and after medical procedures
• Facilitate developmentally appropriate play, including medical play, at the bedside, in activity rooms and in clinic areas
• Initiate tutoring services

 But, we have a special added component to our child life program that Boston Children's probably doesn't have. Because who understands child life better than children themselves?! The missionary kids regularly participate in coming to the hospital to play with the inpatients or give eggs to the kids in the outpatient malnutrition program. And of course all the patients and parents love to see them coming!

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14

Maracuja Madness!

by Rachel

Burundi is a country obviously known for its bananas (if by obviously I mean we mention it a lot to people).  We are also able to get pineapples, oranges, and mangoes in season.  Apples are available as expensive imports from Kenya, and occasionally we'll find a watermelon or some gooseberries as well.  It's not a huge variety (and boy do we miss berries of all sorts) but it's good.  One of the available fruits that I haven't yet mentioned is something I had never tried before our arrival in Burundi: the passion fruit.  It's also known locally as "maracuja."  The fruit is slightly larger than the size of a golf ball and when ripe has a deep purple exterior.  The inside is an orangish-yellow pulp with black seeds.  To eat them, we cut them in half and suck out the inside, or use a spoon to scoop it out.  It's a little bit tangy/tart and a little bit sweet, along the lines of citrus.

Ben demonstrating the inside of a passion fruit

 When we moved into our house, now just over 2 years ago, a number of plants were planted in our yard...mostly saplings, but some flowers and vines as well.  Passion fruit is a vine that tends to wrap around trees for growth.  We were hoping to get it (and some bougainvillea) to grow on the brick walls around the housing area, but so far it hasn't attached well.  It HAS flourished, however, propped up by sticks or attached to bushes.  We returned in January to find no fewer than 10 mature passion fruit vines around the edges of our yard, and they have really been producing.  It doesn't seem to be seasonal, and so most weeks we have a "harvest" of 20-40 ripe passion fruits.  You can see one of the vines below, which is actually growing on a loquat tree (apparently a fruit but not one that I've ever enjoyed).  All of the little green globes are passion fruits in progress.

How many passion fruits can you see here?  More than 15!

So, what do you do with passion fruits?  The kids love to eat them, but you can only eat so many, I suppose.  I have been scouring the internet for recipes and have found some winners so far.  I have made passion fruit sorbet in our ice cream maker, passion fruit cake w/ passion fruit icing for Ben's birthday party last March, and last week I stumbled upon a super yummy passion fruit curd (this might sound weird if you've never heard of lemon curd, but it's a sort of spread, like a cross between jam and pudding).  I feel like a passion fruit meringue pie should be possible, but haven't tried it yet.  We'll see what new creations reveal themselves in the weeks to come!  I read online that these fruits are hard to come by in the US, available only in specialty grocery stores and sometimes costing up to $3/apiece so you might have to come visit us if you want to try them. :)  If you find yourself with your own overabundance of passion fruit, drop me a note and I'll send you some recipes.

Passion fruit birthday cake

COTW: The Last Living Child

By Alyssa

Ten-year-old Claver was admitted to our pediatrics service 2 1/2 weeks ago as a last resort. He had been previously hospitalized elsewhere where he was treated for malaria, bacterial infection, and severe anemia. But despite 6 blood transfusions, he continued to be severely anemic. In fact he seemed to have worsened bloody urine after each blood transfusion. The situation was made more dire by the fact that he had 2 sisters who died with the same symptoms - one at age 5 and the other at age 11. His father also has had similar symptoms intermittently in life (and ended up being hospitalized at another hospital while Claver was at ours). And the family lost one baby at birth, so Claver is the only remaining child.

Our initial physical exam revealed a very sick boy with difficulty breathing, extreme pallor, a large spleen (see picture below), and fever. He was barely conscious on admission. His initial hemoglobin level was 2.6 (normal is 12-14).

We kept transfusing him and he kept bleeding. Thankfully we had blood in our blood bank at the time - not always a given here. After a transfusion when he was more conscious, he would cry out, "I'm dying! I'm dying!" His mother cried often, too, seeing her suffering son and knowing he would likely die like his siblings. We added steroids in hopes that that would stop his body from destroying the needed red blood cells. I consulted a pediatric hematologist friend in the US who kindly sent an email to all her colleagues for help with this challenging case. They of course were used to much more information (lab tests, etc.) being available for an ICU case like this, but they rose to the challenge and helped us consider possible diagnoses and treatments. And they even looked at his blood smear slide which we sent back to the US with a visitor. After 4 transfusions, he was still losing a lot of blood and at that point we could no longer get an IV in him despite many attempts. A visiting surgeon came to the rescue and placed a central IV line - something very rarely done here.

After the fifth blood transfusion (at our hospital, 11th in total), he started to turn the corner. He stopped calling out that he was dying and he stopped hiding under the covers. He no longer looked deathly pale. He began to eat a bit and after a couple days started to sit up. We continued his treatment for pneumonia but we no longer needed to give him any blood. And today he happily went home - see him and his joyful mother in the picture below. His father also recovered and came to pick him up. We still don't have a clear diagnosis (probably a familial hemolytic anemia of some sort) and it's possible he could become ill with the same symptoms again, but we'll celebrate the victory today. I really cringed every morning I came into the hospital those first few days expecting to hear he had died in the night. But God saved him. These are the miracles to remember - the glimpses of what will come one day fully when there is no more sickness or death.