Bugs and joy

It’s been far too long since I last wrote. I am currently recovering from a bout of diahorrea, a very common occurrence on the ship. It’s only the second time since I have been here that I’ve been ill which I think is pretty good going considering the amount of bugs around! Alex, my co worker recently had 3 tumbu fly maggots dug out of his arm and side. The flies lay eggs on damp clothes which then hatch and turn into larvae which burrow into the skin. After a few days they hatch out of the skin as fully grown maggots! I feel slightly freaked out by the thought of maggots growing in my skin but as Sylvie very succinctly put it, ‘This is Africa!’. I have posted the following link for the less squeamish amongst you if you want to know more about the tumbu! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordylobia_anthropophaga

This week sees the start of Alex and I in our new roles as patient life coordinators. I am beginning to feel like a woman of many talents and am beginning to get asked the question ‘So what role are you in today’?! Even so, I feel blessed to be able to work with a great team of Togolese day volunteers who are the instigators of all ward activities, translators for us and generally wonderful people.

There is one lady in particular that I am beginning to grow very fond of. She lives about an hour and a half outside Lome along lush green roads, punctuated by thatched villages. Usually we would not visit anyone more that 1 hours drive from the ship but she is the exception since we are so quiet. I am so glad that we are able to visit her. She is a tiny lady, not more than 5 feet tall but what marks her out as different from all the other women of her age is the enormous tumour the size of a small pineapple of the right side of her face. She is normally so happy and upbeat so when we walked into her yard 2 weeks ago, it was a shock to see her sad and crying. When we asked why she said that she felt like the only person with cancer. When she saw all other women her age going to the fields and to the market she felt ashamed that she could not carry out such every day tasks. Then she spoke the words, ‘I may as well be dead’ and burst in to tears. I remember sitting there thinking ‘God, I don’t have anything to say’ and feeling her tears and sorrow washing over me. I never thought that this job was going to be easy but the emotional rollercoaster that I have come to expect is sometimes so overwhelming.
But then God reminded me of the hope of eternal life that he offers and the promise of a new body in heaven free from pain and sickness. As we spoke these words with her and encouraged her to give herself wholeheartedly to God, the tears continued to flow. I went away not knowing (as is the case with so many of my visits) whether our words had spoken to her heart. The following week we arrived to see a totally transformed woman. She was laughing and smiling, her face was glowing and there was an air of joy about her. It turned out that she had been going to church and people there had been praying with her. Her face was radiant as she said, ‘I have put my trust in the Lord.’
For me it seemed to be God fulfilling his promises to me as I was preparing to come out here and I was reminded again of Isaiah 61:3, ‘to…provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them…the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.’
Since then we have given her a bible which – as she is unable to read – she has been getting members of the church to read to her. It’s so often the case that during the times where we feel hopeless and that there is no hope that God steps in and shows us the way.