Two Months Already!

These two months here have flown by! The first couple of weeks here seemed really slow but once getting into a routine and realizing all the work that can be done around here time has begun moving very quickly! Forming relationships and making friends has also really helped to make time here enjoyable. I will be honest I have been battling a little bit of homesickness these last couple of weeks, probably mixed with some culture shock. Not culture shock in the traditional sense but instead a sort of listlessness and tiredness. Lack of motivation and some discouragement about the slowness of learning the language. Still not being able to freely converse with people. I am learning so much here, dependence on God for so many things. When you are transplanted into another culture without your friends and family near by you remember that God is the only constant thing in your life and you have to rely so much more on Him for so many things, especially here. For your rest at night, for understanding, for strength and energy, for wisdom in so many situations but especially at the clinic with minimal language. Also for your safety as there are several poisonous creatures that lives around here, snakes, scorpions, elupians, mugsums… Not to scare you, one doesn't see them that often. But last week just a little bit down the trail ahead of me I saw a little black snake with orange dots on it that quickly slithered into the bushes. Later I described it to a Palawano and they said that if that type of snake bites you, you are dead by noon (it only takes half a day to kill you!). However at the clinic we have a shocker (looks like a wind up car battery/cautery machine) that we can use if someone is bite by anything poisonous. I guess it must coagulate the poision and a minor issue: it really hurts! But you live!

I wanted to share a few things with you that I am learning here. Last Sabbath I saw Jesus in Mumul. We went to Sungsang in the afternoon to visit with the people there, also Mumul's family-in-law. There are some particularly scruffy, dirty children from Sunsang whom I had met earlier so I have pictures of them.

I am ashamed to admit that I was friendly to them but really kept my distance. I didn't take them onto my lap and I made sure to keep my head far from theirs! Mumul in contrast motioned them over and started looking through one of the girl's hair (I won't mention her name). She expertly and very quickly started killing the lice with her fingernail and a piece of bamboo that was the size of a comb without teeth and meant for doing just that, squising lice/cracking them against the wood with your fingernail. And it was even hard for her because her fingernail was already sore! She gave me one of the live lice and for a second I was disgusted but did what one must, cracked it dead with my fingernails! After watching awhile I realized it wasn't so bad, much like killing mosquitos and I started looking as well in another girl's hair but rather halfheartedly hoping to not find any! I was thankful that Mumul was done at that point and suggested we keep going on to another house. I realized though that Jesus specialized in touching people that other's didn't want to touch. In nursing you are faced with situations and people you don't want to touch but you do because it needs to be done. But what about other times? When you don't need to touch someone and you don't want to because they have lice or worms or urine soaked clothes. I realized that I had just seen Jesus in Mumul. She ministered to those little girls by her touch and helping them. Here people look for lice all the time, that is normal and its a bonding thing, but I mostly see mom's looking in their children's hair or friends looking for each other. I have not seen anyone making the time to help the neglected, scruffy children who hang about. I definitely saw Jesus in Mumul that day.

I also wanted to mention a semi-success story! About September 22 a little girl was brought to our clinic with 2nd and 3rd degree burns to her hands from accidently falling into some boiling sugar being made from sugar cane. Thankfully mostly to her left hand and not so much to the right. So we have been doing dressing changes for this little girl for almost 2 months now. Within the first week we had to pop the blisters as they totally circled her fingers and prevented her from moving her fingers. Then later we had to peel and cut off all the dead skin from almost her entire hand. It was like degloving her hand. Then ever since we have continued with every other day dressing changes to keep her hand clean and moist so it could heal. If she had been in North America she would have likely gone to a big hospital or maybe a burn unit and had skin grafts done to her hand. As it is her hand finally closed over with new tissue/scar tissue shortly after one month. We are down to weekly dressing changes mostly to protect her very fragile skin and trying to get her to move her fingers to prevent the hand from healing curled up and being stiff with strictures. We started right from the beginning to try to get the family to exercise her fingers but I don't think its happening. Her fingers are healing curled and she can't straighten them entirely but praise God there aren't any more open areas! And praise God her hand never got infected! Remarkable under the conditions people live in and due to their standards of hygiene here!


I wanted to also share an encouraging moment that I had a couple of days ago. It started out not so great, I was feeling really tired, discouraged and emotional and definitely not motivated to go language learn! But I decided to hike up to Nyug anyways for the Wednesday market and hoping to see Pliding as well as Mindan and others from church. I made it up there very tired and found out that once again Pliding was not home but instead up in the hills near their fields. However about an hour later guess who showed up! Pliding and her children carrying back their produce from their field! Mindan and I went to Pliding's house to visit with her and we proceeded to laugh the most that i have ever laughed since coming to Kementian! They were teasing me about telling Mindan that I like to throw up, "Ga'ay ku mugsuka" instead of saying what I was trying to say, that I like to talk with her, "Ga'ay ku mugsusugid". Our nickname for each other is mugsuka now! Then I was conspiring to cook when their children aren't around so they actually get to eat something! I had made bread last week and gave them some but their children gobbled it up! They were laughing at me exaggeratly whispering behind my hand about what we were going to do! The laughing continued and I eventually found out, as Mindan's little boy pointed out, I also had a black bean shell stuck in my teeth! What fun when you can make people laugh! I totally agree with the Bible that laughter/a joyful heart is good medicine! It was also encouraging to find such fulfillment spending time with these two ladies. It made me remember a book we read in training about bonding and how that when someone is bonded to the local people they can find their emotional support and fulfillment in their friendships with them! How exciting! Here I am wondering if I am going through culture shock and then seeing evidence of bonding! It is very encouraging!

Since having malaria I have been more careful about using mosquito spray and using mosquito coils in the house at dusk. I have a mosquito net and have been using it all along. We don't really see mosquitos after dark (6pm), so I find the mosquito net most helpful for me to feel confident that there isn't any insects etc in my bed when I crawl into it at night! We often get to bed by 8 or 9pm and are up at about 5:30am for prayer together at the rock by the clinic. Its been essential to get so much sleep! I am often getting up during the night for a little jaunt to the outhouse but oh well! You definitely need to wake up in order to get out of the mosquito net and not step on anything on the way to/or in the outhouse! One must always be on the look out for poisonous critters and chicken poop! The chickens roam freely all over the place! They especially like when we spill something in the house and it falls through the floor and they can eat it!

Thank you so much for your prayers, e-mails and encouragement! You are in my prayers as well! Please keep praying for all us missionaries but especially for the Palawano Christians here that they can be true to their beliefs and for all the Palawano people. Love you all and miss you!