October 29, 2015
by Fenton Rees
My (Fenton) time here at Bongolo is almost over;- I head back home this weekend. So this will probably be my last e-mail from here at Bongolo, but others will come when I’m back home and can relay stories and events that I hear from Pat.
Pet weevils. Some people have pet goldfish in a bowl, but Pat has pet weevils in a clear Tupperware container ½ full of flour! The flour pre-dates our arrival, so who knows how old it is. She wanted to bake a cake with orange peel in it, but has lost interest for some reason. I suggested that if you added at least as many raisins as there are weevils (perhaps 30 or 40) then you won’t be able to tell? But still no cak !
Rugby World Cup. We watched our first TV since being in Gabon;- New Zealand vs. South Africa in a semifinal of the Rugby World Cup! One of the residents had a small TV and allowed us to join them. Even though the commentary was all in French, it was still good, with all the Africans in the room obviously cheering South Africa on. In the end, NZ just squeaked a win at 20 vs. 18, and so is on to the final with arch rival Australia. With only the internet to keep us in touch with the rest of the world, it is easy to lose track of what is happening back home.
“Amazing surgery”. Pat was guiding a 2nd year resident thru an umbilical hernia, which is apparently “fairly easy”. Pat showed him a type of stitch that then allowed him to complete the surgery. As they were finishing off, his comment was “We are doing amazing surgery with you Dr. Rees”. Pat thought it so funny she couldn’t stifle a laugh, as apparently it wasn’t that amazing. Pat has no real agenda here and so can be more patient than most, so I think they appreciate that.
We both read a book “The Hand on My Scalpel”, by Dr David Thompson, the chief surgeon here a Bongolo from 1977 thru to about 2007. Quite strange to read a book where some of the people in it are still here and every day you walk past some of the buildings that he has photos of.
Meeting in Libreville. The medical director/chief surgeon, Dr. Keir Thelander, and I both fly to Libreville on Saturday morning; me on my way home and him on his way to Niger to critique another hospital. That afternoon we are scheduled to meet with a Gabonese electrical construction company that has quoted Bongolo to do some major re-wiring on campus;- the main overhead wires that snake all over the place. We have heard it many times from the full-time missionaries here; You ask someone to do A, B and C but when they are finished you get maybe A, not B or C, but D and E. And for Gabonese on the receiving end of this it is more or less OK. That is the problem we face;- they (the construction company) have a detailed plan of what we wanted, put together by the missionary engineering outfit (eMi) I came out here in February with. But they came back to Bongolo with a nicely done proposal that is only somewhat related to what we asked for. Aaaagh!
What don’t they understand about the “Golden Rule”. Ummmm, that’s the “OTHER Golden Rule from the one some of you are thinking about, the one that says “He who has the gold makes the rules”. Perhaps it’s a good thing the meeting will be in French and I’ll be dependent on Dr. Keir to translate for me, otherwise I would probably go in with both “guns blazing”. So you can pray that this somehow works out OK and I don’t make things go sideways because of this cultural issue.
Well that’s about all for now,
Blessings,
Fenton & Pat