The Chair...

So we have always had this little red chair that sits in our Baby House clinic room.  It was the perfect size for all little tikes who needed to take a seat while they waited for their favorite nurse (or needed to be held down by their least favorite nurse).  Anyway, it cracked.  Sadly it was on its last leg.  So, Tracey (the amazing missionary who runs the Baby House) bought us a new one.  It was yellow and working out great.  But it was determined unfit for the larger kids.  I'll say I agreed...it was a flimsy for the 6 year olds who sometimes ended up in it.
Turns out a few weeks ago we ended up with another new chair to try out.  Take a look...

Adorable right?!  Who wouldn't want to come and have a seat on Micky and Minnie?  It was metal...more durable and a bit larger.  Perfect for those 6 year olds causing us an issue!  So we all thought until our first little patient came to take a seat.  I can't recall who it was...but they came in and took a seat and much to everyone's surprise the chair squeaked!  Not just a I'm a new chair squeaking because you sat on me squeak...oh no.  This was a squeaker toy, REALLY loud, obnoxious, long, drawn out squeak.  I just started laughing.  I mean the Baby House is ALWAYS loud.  If no one is crying, it's a miracle.  If only one child is yelling your name at a time, it's been a good day.  So I had to laugh at the idea of a chair that SQUEAKED adding to the overall noise of our lives.  What else could you do but laugh??
Well, this little patient was attended to and went to leave.  And much to our surprise as he got up to go toddling off to play there was another LOUD SQUEAK!  Yep, it's squeaks when you sit down and when you get up...RIDICULOUS I tell you!  We all decided we'd give it a shot and it brought joy to many little faces as they realized they could make it work by sitting down and standing up as fast as possible before Mana Meghann was ready to see them.  Hilarious really!  Even more funny were the little guys who were scared to death of it.  They would happily walk with you to the clinic room but as soon as the saw the squeak producing chair they would stop in their tracks and refuse to come any closer.  They are TOO funny.  So I let many take a seat on the floor and didn't traumatize them with the squeaks!
Well it didn't take long before the older Baby House boys (all about 4 years old) began to say that's the chair that farts.  Can we make it fart?  What can you do?  Just laugh and tell them sure, sit down and it will make noise.  They LOVED it!  Everyone (minus those who were still scared) was "very sick" for a few days because they wanted to try out the chair.  So funny!
Sadly...or maybe not so sadly...the bouncing up and down on the seat to make it "fart" was a bit to hard on the squeaker.  It makes a fast little squeak now sometimes but nothing like it used to be.  I have to admit I'm relieved.  It was funny but it also was a bit rough hour twelve of your day to hear SQEAKKKKKKKKKKK each time a child sat down or stood up to leave.
So there you have...the story of our little red chair and the many laughs it caused!

Tchau :(

I have had to say goodbye to some pretty amazing missionaries the last few weeks.  First came Heather or Mana Eva as the kids call her.  She is one of my close friends here on the center and maybe the most positive person I have ever met.  She has been here over 2 years overseeing the girl's dorm of 67 girlies.  Can you imagine??  Living and working with 67 girls ALL the time.  She is miraculous and did it all sharing the love of Jesus.  Heather know you are missed and that often I walk over to the girl's dorm and am sad not to find your smiling face among them!  I do pray God makes this transition back to England for a season simple and directs your every step.  Know you are loved by your family here in Moz!

Last week we also said a sad goodbye to Clifton, Pauline, and Rebecca...or the Lee family!  Pauline was a nurse here several years ago and came back with her husband and fantastic daughter for 10 weeks.  It was SO amazing to have them among us.  They brought fresh eyes, new ideas, and just a wisdom we were lacking as a team.  I know God started amazing things through them and in them while they were here.  Know I am praying for each of you.  I pray God reveals His dreams for your family and holds you each close as you find your footing in the States again.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you did while you were here and for all the love you shared.  We are going to miss you!

Tons of Updates!

I've been promising updates...so here it goes...

#1- There have been MANY medical staff changes.  To list a few:

-Iara and Marcia left.  They are two amazing Brazilian women who have been working in our clinic for close to 10 years.  Iara was the head nurse, and Marcia dealt with all the finances and buying.  They are truly missed!

-Pauline joined our team for 10 weeks!  Pauline is a nurse from New Zealand, who now lives in Texas with her husband and gorgeous daughter.  Their family joined our long term team for some time.  Pauline worked here several years ago and was instrumental in getting our clinic off the ground in the beginning.  She was a HUGE encouragement to our whole team, especially me.  She opened my eyes once again to the need around me and re-sparked my flame!

-Sheri took on the overseeing position in the clinic from Iara, but only a few weeks later left for a few months to be with family and friends back home.  So we have all pitched in to cover this large position while continuing on in our normal roles as well.

#2- In all of this change, my official job is overseeing all the medical needs of our 55 youngest kids, including the Bercario (nursery), Baby House, and Tracey’s dorm (the transition dorm from the Baby House to the older dorms).  But, on top of this I am the one with the most current experience living on the base at the moment, so the other two nurses come to me often with questions, concerns, and issues.  So in reality I have my hand in all areas of medical.  This has meant long trying days filled with answering questions, feeling inadequate, and constantly looking to God for the wisdom and direction to get through the day.

#3- We also have coped with Mozambican staff changes as well.  Aurora (our Mozambican nurse who works in the Baby House) has been away on holidays since the beginning of April.  I for one cannot wait to welcome her back the beginning of May!  And due to scheduling, legal, and ability issues for the moment we are again without an afternoon nurse in the Baby House.  We worked on training up the two nurses for a few weeks, but it has not worked out.  There is still hope that one of them may be able to cover an afternoon or two a week for us, but that is still undecided.

#4- In the midst of all of those changes, the babies have made it through some rough sicknesses.  After the crazy sickness of late February passed and I got better along with all the babies, we were hit hard in the Bercario (nursery).  Several babies got a respiratory virus that caused them major issues breathing.  I ended up with one little 6 month old on oxygen at 4am praying she would be healed so I would not have to bring her to the hospital.  They each slowly improved but only after days of me and the other nurses making trips up to the Bercario all day and night every 3 hours to check on them and give them breathing treatments.  It was certainly a trying week or so.  Other than that, there have been the normal ear infections, continued issues with pink eye (me included), and a chest infection here and there.  Plus now the temperature outside is beginning to change.  It is much cooler at night and some days are cooler as well.  This always brings about a bout of runny noses, colds, and coughs.  But no one has been hit too hard yet.

#5- And to update you on Shelton, the little boy I e-mailed and wrote about, who was brought to the hospital the beginning of March.  He is basically back to normal!  Praise God!  His swelling has gone down (his abdomen and face were swollen before) and he has been generally healthy for the past month.  I pray God’s healing in him comes to completion!  He is a sweet little boy who loves the Lord!  And because he is doing so much better, he got to spend a night with his grandmother this week during school holidays!  She doesn’t have the means to take care of him full time but was delighted to have him for a night!  Again I say, praise God!

#6- Our clinic was inspected by the ministry of health.  This was a HUGE deal and has brought about lots of protocol changes in the clinic.  We are still working to get in line with all the things they told us about.  Please join us in prayer for God's hand of protection over our clinic, that it may continue to be a blessing to all who enter!

I think that's all the work updates I can come up with for now.  I have tons of other stories and things to tell you all but will do that through other posts!

Impact...

The last few weeks I have consistently been thinking about my impact here in Mozambique.  Have I faithfully served in the capacity God asked me to?  What impact have I left thus far?  What is my role and I am living it out?  How do those around me perceive my actions?  Am I loving with my whole heart?  Am I sharing the love of Jesus?
These are the BIG questions I've been asking myself during this super busy season when I spend most days running from place to place on base, frustrated by all the tiny details, annoyed when things don't go my way, writing lists and checking off the important things each day, all to make it home in time for my head to hit the pillow just to do it all over again tomorrow.
The last 4 weeks, we have been going out into the community every Tuesday on medical outreach.  I will share some experiences/pictures from these days in another post.  But before I do, I want to share with you what one of our center youth said to me yesterday.  We arrived at our location, a small children's center (home to about 20 children) run by one of our Iris Ministries pastors.  We all piled out of the car where I'll be honest I was a little car sick and immediately were met by many children most of them up to my waist or a bit higher.  But, I gravitated to the ones who were closer to knee or thigh height.  In less than a minute I had hugged several and had one on my hip.  As I toted him across the sand over to where everyone was standing, one of the boys from our center who is 19 and was with us to help with translation looked at me and said, "You love little kids don't you?"  I looked up and said, "Yes."  I was thinking to myself...of course I do, why else would I have uprooted my life and moved to Africa to live at a children's center.  He looked at me and said, "At the center whenever I look across the playground and see a missionary holding a child or carrying a baby somewhere, I always think, oh that's Mana Meghann.  You always have a child or baby with you."
On the surface not a very profound statement.  But, I don't know this youth personally.  He is one of my gardeners but this is my 7th gardener in my time here...in my 4th house.  I've given up trying to get to know them.  I've given up attempting to get to know the youth because they are rarely sick.  They ALL know my name and sadly I still couldn't pick most of them out of a line up.  Not true, I know their faces.  I know who lives here and who doesn't, I just can't keep all of their names straight...and it's a bit too late to start asking and learning because as I said, they already know me.
So a boy I have barely had a conversation with previously was able to label me as the missionary who is always holding a child.  I was blown away.  Some days I feel like I have run all day and missed the point...loving the child in front of me.  But I was reminded that somewhere in the midst of my stress and my to do lists...God is shining through.  His love and passion in me is being seen!  Within minutes after this simple conversation, this photo was taken of me...

 

I'm humbled.  God gives us each a passion...mine is adorable, annoying, lovable, sweet, tender, temper tantrum throwing, snotty nosed, messy, innocent knee nippers, tots, kiddos, peanuts, youngsters, rug rats, and tykes.  I LOVE them.  Of course there are some who grind my nerves, but overall they bring me to life.  They are my passion and it is encouraging to know that one youth here at the center can see that through my actions.  It didn't take one conversation; it didn't take an explanation.  It took God's love for the least of these spilling out of me.  He is so amazing!