Choma

Hey everyone!

Last Friday we drove 1 ½ hours from Zimba to Choma. It ‘s been fun moving to different places, and it is neat to see how unique each place is that we are staying. The place that we are staying at now is called the Fortress, and it is a neat area that has lots of open space for us to be in. One of the unique features is that there is a pretty inside courtyard area that has green grass and an open area where we often eat our lunch or do homework.

On Sunday we went to church at Choma Central, and during the morning service all 12 of us students along with our RD got up in front of the church to sing a special song. We sang a song complete with clapping and hand motions. There was a time of testimony where a young lady gave a powerful testimony of how her mother was diagnosed with cancer, and after months of treatment she passed away. This young lady is the oldest of five children. Her testimony was that even though God did not answer her prayers the way she wanted Him to by healing her mother from cancer, God is still God. She encouraged us by saying that God knows our individual circumstances, and He has a plan for our lives, even through the difficult times.

After the restful weekend we jumped into clinicals for Monday and Tuesday. We have been at Choma General Hospital, which is quite a bit larger than the hospital at Zimba. On Monday we started out with a tour of the hospital, and then we were sent to our various clinical assignments.  I was in the ARV (anti-retroviral) clinic during the morning. The hospital provides free ARV medications to patients with HIV, and it was neat to see how many people were eager to get help and complying with the treatment—the clinic sees about HIV positive 80 patients a day!

Tuesday Andie and I spent the day on the Maternity Ward. Since there were six babies delivered the night before, most of the moms were discharged this morning (they usually discharge new moms 6 hours after delivery). We spent most of the day following the gynecologist while he did rounds, and while he saw patients for the women’s health clinic. Some common problems seen in that clinic were PID (pelvic inflammatory disease), uterine fibroids, infertility, and UTIs. The doctor was great at asking questions, and he would often say what the symptoms were, and ask us what we thought the diagnosis would be. He also let us help with calculating gestational age, measuring fundal height, and using the fundoscope to hear the fetal heart rate.

The past two days have been full of good learning experiences. Some girls on the team have gotten to help with procedures like dressing changes, Foley catheters and suctioning. We have each had unique experiences in the hospital because each ward is quite different. Tomorrow is Wednesday, and that means we’ll have a full day of class. We are all looking forward to having a chance to sit down and take a break from the more strenuous and draining hospital environment.

On a personal note, this time in Choma has been a really neat time of reminiscing for me. My parents lived in Choma for 4 years when they first became missionaries in to Zambia (I was 2 years old when we first moved here). I’ve been able to see quite a few people that I knew from my childhood, and it is totally awesome to have the opportunity to be back here again.

Thanks for reading and keeping up with us! We appreciate your prayers for us and all the new things we are experiencing here.

Love,

Hannah