Kristin Thornton’s Blog

Sunday, 18/1/09

the internet at the school house does not work and hasn’t worked since the last time i e-mailed/blogged.  we are at the internet cafe in town where we pay about $1 per hour to use their computers on the internet.   elizabeth faile drove us here this afternoon, its almost a mile from the hospital.  not sure when they will get the internet fixed at the schoolhouse; i think they have to get a new modem and some are traveling to accra (bigger city) on tues and will return on thurs so possibly by end of this week?  but not certain.

we are doing well, so no worries about that!

thursday evening before we made our evening rounds at the hospital we went to Jane (pharmacist) house for “station meeting” kinda a bible study.  we sang from a baptist hymnal a few songs then a visiting retired pastor spoke about being what God has called you to be rather than getting caught up in what you think you need to do for Him.  thursday call went ok.  sarah and i rounded in the evening and sarah saw a couple of meningitis pts who are kids and were having a hard time breathing.  we went to ask dr. hewitt about what else to do for them and before we got back one of them had died.  also at 2am that morning we were called to the hospital to evaluate an acute abdomen (?surgical) so we went to the hospital and looked at a teenage boy who was having fast heart rate, fast breathing, cold sweat and abdominal pain.  we called for dr. faile who does all the surgeries here to come and evaluate him.  dr. faile decided to take him to surgery and found lots of air in his bowel but no specific infectious cause for all his symptoms.  the boy died later in the night.

friday clinic was okay.  i did not go until the afternoon because i had got nauseous and vomited the sip of water i had taken to help with my own abdominal pain and wasn’t feeling to hot.  but later in the day on friday i was feeling well and did clinic and even did my first D&C friday after clinic.

on saturday we went on a road trip to see the surrounding towns and their amusements!  first we went to Paga where we saw the crocodiles, took pics with them and a couple of us even fed them a chicken! :)  scott may post some pictures of this sometime but with internet being not as easily accessible it may take some time to get them, but you might check facebook!  it cost $4 to go see the crocodiles, another 2-3 to take pictures with your own camera and i think 5 for a chicken to feed them.  the crocodiles there are sacred and there are many stories of crocodiles saving human’s lives by leading them to water or taking them across water to escape their enemies.  in Paga they do not eat crocodiles, but rather bury them when they die just as they would a human.  from there we went to the slave camp in Paga (got lots of pics of that too) we saw where they ate, where they recieved announcements and were sold, where they had entertainment, the punishment rock (if you tried to run away and were caught then you died on that rock) and the graveyard.  will get you pics and more details later.

from there we went to the Burkina Faso border (country just north of ghana) and walked across it without our passports!  none of us brought them but the officials okayed our short trip, just to say we’d been to another country!  our next stop was a catholic cathedral in Navrango where the first missionary to this area was Catholic and they built the first church there in 1920.  we say the original church, very small and their current church which held many works of art and a lovely statue as well.  again, pics to come later.

then we had lunch at The New Lifeline outside resturant, served Ghanaian food of spicy rice with chicken and a side of “salad” consisting mostly of cabbage.  our last stop on our sight seeing adventure was at the craft place in Bolga where we purchased a few souvenirs i’ll show you later!

today was church and we went with Elizabeth Faile again to the first baptist church of nilerigu.  the service concentrated around psalm 37:5-7.  he also spoke about asking God to come and search us.  He said “God knows us better than we know ourselves, so how good/right is it for us to ask him to search us and show us the ‘dirt’ so that we can clean it up!”  He has a very good point and worded it in such a way that the simple truth is brought forth!

tomorrow is another clinic day and we haven’t yet seen the call schedule but will likely take call again this week sometime.  please pray that sarah and i are able to care for the patients as best that we can and to leave the rest in God’s hands.

i miss you all and love you so much.  please continue praying for us!  its already halfway through our time here and it is going swiftly.