August 26th, 2017 by jenniferolmstead

Sunday is the one day that everyone gets off, except for the nurses who pass medications at the hospital. Nurses also monitor the neonatal and high dependency wards on Sunday. As this was a day to sleep in of course I was up early. I did two loads of laundry by hand before the other volunteers woke up. My roommate volunteers are from Ireland which is quite fun. After everyone else was up we had breakfast which included homemade banana jam (amazing good) and honey from the hospitals bee hive. Then we walked to church together for service that was scheduled to begin at 10am. The hospital operates in English so the service was held entirely in English. I find that interesting. The reasoning is that there are several dialects and languages among the local tribal people and English is mandatory for all students so it is understood by most. We were a few minutes late and the worship had begun when we arrived. The service was attended by all the staff not on duty, including the students. I find it interesting that it is mandatory to attend and the nurses have a mandatory Bible study every morning, which I hope to attend. This is how they share their faith and encourage each other to grow in faith.
The songs that were used during worship were all familiar to me and the other volunteers, which was really great. As this is a very reserved society, I was conscientious of my own worship, not wanting to offend. At first this was awkward as I was more focused on my actions than on worshiping God. As I relaxed however I noticed that I was able to worship fully and no one seemed to mind. They did something I thought was amazing, mass prayer. A man from the office came forward to announce some financial blessings that had been received during the week and then a lady came forward and reminded everyone to pray for the patients’ health as well as that they would come to believe in God. Then she invited everyone to pray in mass prayer before being led in prayer. I don’t have the words to describe what it was like to be praying all together in multiple languages with no hesitation. It was truly inspiring. After a few minutes, we were led in prayer as a congregation. The message was on the good Samaritan. It was a good message and an interesting pint was made that I had not realized before. At the end of the parable when asked by Jesus who had done the right thing the lawyer answered it was the man who cared for the injured man, he did not refer to him as the Samaritan. The speaker included some history from the old testament to help explain the prejudice that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans and then pointed how the choice of words indicates that the lawyer was not willing to overlook his prejudice even after hearing the parable. This shows how strongly our beliefs can affect who we are willing to help and how we view those we are helping.
After the service, I took a short nap and was woken up for lunch. I’m enjoying the food here. I have decided to remain at this house instead of staying with the nurses to ensure I don’t eat something with gluten. I was going to visit the nurses this afternoon, but I took another nap after lunch. I am feeling much better after the extra rest. The other volunteers baked a cake today and we did more laundry together. Everything here is run by battery so we had to stop doing laundry until we have more battery power, not sure how that happens. It is interesting how every so often I hear a few beeps and the power will come back on to certain items and the fans will change to a higher speed.
The doctor asked me some questions about politics which were difficult for me to answer. I explained what I know and understand, which is not much, and stated that to be honest I do not get involved much in politics.