Salt and Light

 After leaving Tansen Mission Hospital we took a holiday in South Africa.  We spent Christmas in Cape Town, which is absolutely beautiful.  Table Top Mountain, penguins at the beach, wine country, pristine coastline, a safari, and many hours splashing in the waves were the highlights.

We arrived in Harare, Zimbabwe, Jan 11, 2013 fully rested and ready to get to work.  Our original plan was to head straight out to Karanda Mission Hospital in the bush where Ryan had previously spent 6 months in 2006.  However, our plans have changed as the Medical Council here granted Ryan’s medical license contingent on spending 3 months working in Harare.  At first we were quite disappointed with this news.  However, we have again been shown that the Lord’s plans are better than our own.  Ryan has been working at the two main trauma and teaching hospitals in the country that provide care for the poor, Harare Hospital and Parirenyatwa Hospital.  A good friend and Karanda missionary, Jon Christiansen, dropped me off at Parirenyatwa Hospital the first day, knowing that we had wanted to be serving at the mission hospital.  He offered up a prayer that I hope would resonate with you wherever you are working.  He prayed that even though I was working at this government institution and not the “mission” that I could be “salt and light to the people you encounter wherever you are.”  This has been an encouragement to me and I pray that it would be for you as well.

The typical day starts with doing an x-ray round with the orthopaedic residents at Parirenyatwa Hospital and then driving the Toyota Tazz across town to work at Harare Central Hospital.  It has been wonderful to work with these eager residents and get to know the handful of orthopaedic surgeons working in this country of 12 million people.  My first day rounding at Harare Hospital I met an 18-month-old girl named Angel.  Her mom is in South Africa and no one knows where Dad is.  She had been looked after by a nanny and was just brought to the hospital after neighbors were concerned.  She wasn’t able to walk or crawl and further examination showed she had been systematically abused and had a total of 9 fractures in every limb of her little body.  Nobody comes to visit her.  I have taken this little Angel under my wing and with traction, lots of prayers and time her fractures are healed.  Unfortunately, adoption is regarded as a last resort for placement here.  We are looking for a safe place for her.

Rounding at Harare Hospital these first days the situation seemed quite desperate.  The wards and clinics are full of patients that need an operation, but we are only able to accomplish 1-3 orthopaedic operations per day and 1PM is the witching hour when everything seems to come to a halt.  In a little over a month, reasons for the theatre being shut down have included: no power, no water, no steam for autoclave, no nursing staff, no anesthesia staff, the equipment wasn’t washed, the implants were lost, no gowns, no sheets, underpaid staff leaving early to moonlight in private clinics, continuing medical education, etc.  To hear a patient who has been on the ward for weeks weeping after spending the morning waiting in the OR hallway only to have their surgery cancelled again is difficult.  I have focused on the patients we can help and prayed about everything else.  Slowly, our team is starting to get more done.  These hospitals were in fact shut down just a few years ago as Zimbabwe hit bottom (hopefully) and at least now the doors are open and the lights on (sometimes).

Despite the difficulties, there is much to be encouraged by!  One of the most exciting blessings of this Harare detour is that SIGN (www.signfracturecare.org), described in a previous post, is providing intramedullary nail equipment to care for the desperately poor patients with fractures at both Harare Hospital and Parirenyatwa Hospital.  This wouldn’t have happened if I had been permitted to go to Karanda straight away.  Sponsorship of these programs is still needed if you are so moved.  One of the first patients we treated with the SIGN system in Zimbabwe was a woman who was 6 months pregnant and had been in a bad motor vehicle accident before Christmas in Zambia.  She fractured her femur, broke her tibia in two places, and had the skin peeled off the back of her calf.  She tried to get treatment in Zambia and couldn’t.  She rode a bus to Botswana looking for treatment and couldn’t find it.  Finally, 6 weeks after her injury she arrived in Zimbabwe very pregnant and with a very shattered limb which we were able to put back together with the SIGN system.  Without this donated implant her unborn baby would likely have been walking before she was! 

Recently we took a fly-fishing trip out to the Highlands near the Mozambique border with Dr. Prawius from the U.S. Embassy and Pastor John Bell.   We had first been introduced to Pastor Bell after his sermon on “Salt and Light.”  A week later we were sharing the poetry of the fly rod.  Not my first time out, I fished hard for two days and was empty-handed.  Andrea took a turn and landed a nice Rainbow Trout on her third cast!  Pastor Bell said God routes for the underdog.  I could only smile J

It felt good to smile, as there have been many tears at our house the past few weeks.  Our friend, Becca Sweeney (Koch), was called home to the Lord after battling leukemia, leaving behind a husband, two young children, and a legacy of love and grace.  This news came a few days on the heels of the passing of my grandfather, Harold Horazdovsky.  I last saw my Grandpa Harry in July and would have guessed he had many years left with us.  When my Grandma Sally passed just a couple months ago after a lifetime together my Grandpa told her, “Don’t get too far ahead of me.”  They are together again.  Being far away during these times has been hard. 

Harry and Sally

Kidwell's hours after the addition of their newest member

Win, Andrea, and I all piled in the front seat and drove an old Land Cruiser out to Karanda Hospital for the weekend Thursday night to treat some fracture patients.  The 2.5-hour trip took almost 5 hours due some of the wildest thunderstorms we have ever seen.  We saw a tree fly through the air and topple a power line.  White knuckled we drove in the dark on beat up roads submerged in water and through the river to reach Karanda safely.  That old Cruiser is now officially part of the family.  While we were at Karanda we got to see the mission family grow as well.  The Kidwell’s (www.kidwellsinafrica.blogspot.com) delivered their much anticipated little girl, Grace, faster than expected right on the living room floor, while their two young boys ate dinner and watched a movie with us.  No one can remember the last time a missionary had a baby at Karanda.  Perfect timing!

Win riding shotgun

Love this truck