Dear Page and Teri,
Greetings from Ndola , Zambia ! I tried to post something on the blog… and I just can’t figure out how to do it (feeling like a techno “old lady”).
Just want to let you know how much I have been thinking of you all. The other day we had a meeting with 18 of the women that work for “living compassion” in our school/food program and Jen asked them how many had lost a child. 16 of them raised their hand. 16 out of 18 of the women had lost at least one child, many had lost multiple children and most of them had lost their husbands. I immediately thought of the two of you… the huge difference here is that these women have a lot of support in that they can relate on this grieving process with each other daily. And I realized that the amount of peer support, the kind in which friends have had a direct experience of what you all have gone through is minimal if not absent. Made me realize how alone you must feel at times (and not from a lack of people, just lack of close relationships that have had the same experience of a loss of a child). And the whole thing has just left me holding you both in my heart throughout my days here and including you in the celebration of life that continues to be a part of the lives here.
I am attaching a picture taken the other morning. The area we are working in, kantolombe is a slum outside of the city of ndola , where there is no medical center, no electricity, no clean water and a high rate of malnutrition and disease. Last week an American doctor visiting from Botswana saw some of our folks and there were two that she suggested get to a Dr. immediately, one with severe abdominal pain and one with a HUGE sore on her leg. So I took them to a clinic, and it appears that the girl with the abdominal pain has abdominal TB and the one with the sore, Purity, has to go in every day this month for cleaning and packing of the sore. And in the last days we discovered 2 more with sores on their legs, so there are three of them that are going in to the clinic daily. The cleaning is so intense - they all scream and cry - it appears to be modern torture - and there is no other way. Two of them have infection under the skin around the sore which they scrape with razor blades and then the cleaning itself seems to be like putting acid on open wounds. It is amazing the motherly instinct that comes out in me - I feel like I would do anything for these girls ( 10yrs, 43 yrs, 14 yrs). Being in the medical arena seems to dissolve any barriers of culture, language and separateness for me, I just feel their humanness and hearts and feel like I would do anything it would take to help them move through the pain that will lead the road back to their health. The first day with Purity as I held her hand, rubbed her head and just put my hand behind her heart while she was going through her first treatment (she is 14) - I had a hard time not letting the tears just fall. The insanity of the unavailability of health care and the unnecessary pain deeply affected me. The sores that these girls have are a tropical disease caused by an insect bite. after the insect bites there is a pimple sort of thing and then without care they grow - and for Purity - hers she has had for a year, and it is about 3 1/2 inches in diameter (it is huge). If these girls had care form the beginning the process would be so simple - but instead - they grow and for Purity and Regina the deterioration is so close to the bone that without immediate care the infection would move into the bone which would result in an amputation at some point.
Having this medical experience has been so rich in that I realize when you take everything else away, really all there is to live for is Love. And Teri and Page, the love you embodied as parents inspires me to love these others who don’t necessarily have parents to love and care for them. And for that, together, we are making a difference in this world.
Lots of love,
Tracey
ps. we have been blogging while we are here, if you want to check it out, go to:
http://www.livingcompassion.org/africa/0707blog.html
Greetings from Ndola , Zambia ! I tried to post something on the blog… and I just can’t figure out how to do it (feeling like a techno “old lady”).
Just want to let you know how much I have been thinking of you all. The other day we had a meeting with 18 of the women that work for “living compassion” in our school/food program and Jen asked them how many had lost a child. 16 of them raised their hand. 16 out of 18 of the women had lost at least one child, many had lost multiple children and most of them had lost their husbands. I immediately thought of the two of you… the huge difference here is that these women have a lot of support in that they can relate on this grieving process with each other daily. And I realized that the amount of peer support, the kind in which friends have had a direct experience of what you all have gone through is minimal if not absent. Made me realize how alone you must feel at times (and not from a lack of people, just lack of close relationships that have had the same experience of a loss of a child). And the whole thing has just left me holding you both in my heart throughout my days here and including you in the celebration of life that continues to be a part of the lives here.
I am attaching a picture taken the other morning. The area we are working in, kantolombe is a slum outside of the city of ndola , where there is no medical center, no electricity, no clean water and a high rate of malnutrition and disease. Last week an American doctor visiting from Botswana saw some of our folks and there were two that she suggested get to a Dr. immediately, one with severe abdominal pain and one with a HUGE sore on her leg. So I took them to a clinic, and it appears that the girl with the abdominal pain has abdominal TB and the one with the sore, Purity, has to go in every day this month for cleaning and packing of the sore. And in the last days we discovered 2 more with sores on their legs, so there are three of them that are going in to the clinic daily. The cleaning is so intense - they all scream and cry - it appears to be modern torture - and there is no other way. Two of them have infection under the skin around the sore which they scrape with razor blades and then the cleaning itself seems to be like putting acid on open wounds. It is amazing the motherly instinct that comes out in me - I feel like I would do anything for these girls ( 10yrs, 43 yrs, 14 yrs). Being in the medical arena seems to dissolve any barriers of culture, language and separateness for me, I just feel their humanness and hearts and feel like I would do anything it would take to help them move through the pain that will lead the road back to their health. The first day with Purity as I held her hand, rubbed her head and just put my hand behind her heart while she was going through her first treatment (she is 14) - I had a hard time not letting the tears just fall. The insanity of the unavailability of health care and the unnecessary pain deeply affected me. The sores that these girls have are a tropical disease caused by an insect bite. after the insect bites there is a pimple sort of thing and then without care they grow - and for Purity - hers she has had for a year, and it is about 3 1/2 inches in diameter (it is huge). If these girls had care form the beginning the process would be so simple - but instead - they grow and for Purity and Regina the deterioration is so close to the bone that without immediate care the infection would move into the bone which would result in an amputation at some point.
Having this medical experience has been so rich in that I realize when you take everything else away, really all there is to live for is Love. And Teri and Page, the love you embodied as parents inspires me to love these others who don’t necessarily have parents to love and care for them. And for that, together, we are making a difference in this world.
Lots of love,
Tracey
ps. we have been blogging while we are here, if you want to check it out, go to:
http://www.livingcompassion.org/africa/0707blog.html
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