Journals from Africa - DR Congo #2

1-18-10

Dear Friend,

Well I woke up this morning to some pleasant surprises. Last night a small roach was in my bathtub – just the size of maybe two ladybugs. I then woke up in the middle of the night and was going to go to the bathroom but was met by a slightly larger cockroach – maybe a bit bigger than nickel-sized – and decided to let it have its playground because I didn’t want to use my shoe to smash it in case eggs came bursting out and I was too tired and dazed to deal with it. Thus, this morning it was on the floor at the foot of my bed on the rug. I remembered there was a box for a radio sitting on one of the nightstands so I grabbed it as the roach began to move and threw it on the critter and smashed him. I went to shower and when I came out a huge horse-size cockroach is scurrying out from under the bed on the side of the bed. I gasped a bit and reached for the box again – I threw frantically and fruitlessly. Now it is somewhere in the room causing me to have a bit of paranoia. Lovely.

Anyway, I’ll fill in a few of the details I missed yesterday and then head to breakfast. Regarding the clinic – Hyacinthe says he wants to start a blood bank in his clinic, but currently the room is used for overflow from the maternity ward. We saw the operating room and he said he performs about 30 operations a month and 6-7 of those operations are C-sections, which are kept for 2-3 days after the C-section. When we walked in one of the sections a woman was lying on the floor of the entryway receiving IV treatment for malaria.

Last year the number of patients at the clinic came down sharply because of the financial crisis in the Congo. The total for each month was 900 (usually it is well over 1,000) and 700 antenatal patients were seen each month (??? month or year, ask). There were 150 babies delivered per month – give or take. 40 outpatient cases were seen per day. This year, however, 550 babies have been born already.

The financial crisis occurred last year for multiple reasons. Few had jobs before the crisis and then when the crisis came the few that had jobs lost them. The two major industries that the Congo relies on were essentially shut down – diamond mining and copper mining.

Sometimes Hyacinthe’s wife does reception at the clinic. She will be an x-ray technician when the clinic develops the capacity for x-rays. She was a technician when they lived in Zambia. Hyacinthe and his family moved to Zambia originally to begin the process of immigrating to the U.S. But Hyacinthe had been praying to ask God what his calling was and felt God laying the Congo heavy on his heart. They had moved to Zambia when Rachel (their oldest) was 4 months old and they moved back to the Congo when she was 0 years old. More later.

Amani,
Bridget