Epperly Adventures

Back in the USA!

2011-04-06T20:16:00.000-07:00

We made it back safely! Its always nice to step on US soil. I enjoy working in other places, but there is a comfort in the stability, familiarity, and safety that occurs when we return to the US. So its great to be back.
Our time is Zimbabwe was wonderful. It really went faster then we expected. We would have loved to stay longer, but it is still nice to be back. Our last week went well. The Peds ward remained busy, and as usual the hospital was steady. We enjoyed getting to spend some time with our Zimbabwean friends, although our good-byes were a little more somber knowing there was a chance we may not return to Karanda. We feel that our time in Karanda has been valuable, and look forward to future challenges.

The trip time from Harare, Zimbabwe to Wichita, Ks took 40 hours........but we all made it, and didn't loose our minds in the process. The kids did great, and have really become quite the seasoned travelers. We had a few stressful moments, but the good news is I don't have any crazy stories to share. We were also fortunate to spend some time with family in both Tucson and Wichita before returning to work in New Hampton.
Were looking forward to the next 9 months in New Hampton. It will be great for the kids to have the same home for the next 9 months, and I know we are all looking forward to that.

We thank everyone for their prayers, and give God the glory for a successful trip! We still plan to keep updates on this blog over the next 9 months, so feel free to occasionally check in.

The Madness of Mondays!

2011-03-08T05:29:00.000-08:00

I suppose Mondays everywhere are always busy, but here at Karanda there is no comparison. There is no ER open within 150 Km of our hospital on the weekends. So on Monday everyone comes pouring in with quite a wide array of medical issues. While the nurses begin triaging the 200 plus patients, most of whom have all shown up by 8am, we all begin our rounds.

My ward this month is peds ward, and as we mentioned last week is quite busy, especially with the hydrocephalus patients. There are a large assortment of other issues including: meningitis, HIV, TB, malnutrition, severe pneumonia, jaundice, large abscesses, bone infections, and several patients with significant fractures. Since I wasn't on call this weekend, sorting through all these issues takes a fair amount of time.

Also during rounds, there happened to be 2 urgent Csections that needed to be done. One of the mothers was in labor, and has a history of 3 previous Csections. Allowing her to labor on 3 previous scars can be quite devastating especially if the uterus ruptures. So this mom took surgical priority. The 2nd Csection of the morning was a mother who had been laboring for several hours and just stopped progressing. Fortunately, both Csections went well, and both the mothers and babies were happy and stable.

After rounds were done, and the Csections were finished I was able to enjoy the traditional Zimbabwean tea break. Usually between 10-1030am, this break always seems to come at the right time, and allows us to re-energize on some coffee or tea, and a nice small meal (Usually hard-boiled eggs for us). Its also a great time to spend with my family.

After tea, I headed to the (OPD) outpatient department. My time is usually spent in theatre or the OPD. Since there are so many new patients on Monday I usually start the day in OPD, and then finish up in theatre when all the patients have been seen. The rains have just about stopped, so the temperature is heating up. The building where we see patients gets a little warm as the benches fill with anxious patients. As I've mentioned before this is called the outpatient department, but is really more of emergency/trauma/outpatient department as the patients line up with a tremendous spectrum of pathology. We see illnesses ranging from osteoarthritis, back pain, and headache, to end stage HIV, severe fractures, necrotic wounds and comatose meningitis patients.

Today was no different then the rest! The department was packed with people all day long. It seemed like no matter how many patients we saw the lines kept multiplying. I admitted 10 patients all of whom were very sick. There was probably another 10 that could have easily been admitted, but the wards are already full, so we try to manage as many things as possible without admission. To put that into perspective, in the US on a busy week I would admit less then 5 patients to the hospital. So needless to say it was a busy afternoon.

The most memorable patient I saw was an 11 year old girl. She looked to be no more then 5 years old, as she had been slowly wasting for the last several months do to HIV. She was taking the anti-retrovirals as prescribed for the last 4 years, but she was still slowly succombing to the disease. Over the last 3 months she had been treated as an outpatient for an assortment of conditions all related to her HIV. Unfortunately she continued to worsen at home. She had severe thrush (oral fungal infection) which kept her from eating. She had persisitent diarrhea which kept her in a constant state of dehydration. Now her constant coughing, most likely from TB, seemed to bring her closer to the end. Hopefully the hospitilization will stabilize some of her conditions, but even at best her long term prognosis is grim. Even despite her severe illness there was still a light in her eyes and an enchantment in her smile that I will never forget.

After OPD finished up, I went to theatre where I did several small surgical procedures, and some ultrasounds. The day finished with 2 more C-sections. The first was a mom that had severe pre-ecclampsia. This is a disease process that if goes untreated can lead to seizures which can comprise the life of both mother and baby. The best treatment is urgent delivery. Her C-section went well, and both mom and baby were stable throughout the surgery.

The last C-section of the day was a mom who had a complete placenta previa. She came to us late in the day with significant vaginal bleeding. We did an ultrasound that showed the placenta was completely covering the cervical opening. Of course this means that the only mode of delivery can be a C-section. The only problem with this, was the mother was only 33 weeks pregnant. At Karanda we don't have the technology to keep premature babies alive. Any baby born younger then 36 weeks is at risk for death. We had hoped the bleeding might slow down, and we could keep her pregnant a little longer. Unfortunately the bleeding became more brisk, and we were forced to perform an emergent C-section. Before starting the procedure, we spent extra time praying for the life of this baby, and God answered our prayer. The baby was born no older then 33 weeks, and probably closer to 32 weeks, but is doing great. She is not requiring oxygen, and is even starting to breast feed. She isn't out of the woods yet, but its been over 12 hours so we are quite encouraged. Another answered prayer at Karanda!

Anyway, just a brief overview of monday at Karanda. Always intellectually stimulating, physically challenging, yet always rewarding. In the victories and tragedies God is always glorified!

Rounding on Pediatric Ward

2011-03-04T02:15:00.000-08:00

Parden

Lydia

Praymore

Villa

Tadwanashe

This week John and I have started rounding on the pediatric ward. I think we're both excited to spend our last month with these kids. Its always very rewarding to take care of such little ones, with the potential for long life still ahead of them. There are many sick children that we take care of daily. Some seem to recover quickly. While others are still a mystery. We are often left wondering about the true diagnosis because we lack some of the diagnostic tests needed to investigate their conditions further.

There is a special group of children that need prayers here at Karanda. These are the children with hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus, meaning water on the brain. This causes them to have large heads and can also shrink the brain tissue over time. It is usually starts because the child had a neonatal illness such as meningitis that was never properly treated. There are instances where a child can be born with this disease, but that is less often the case here. This week we have been especially busy caring for children with hydrocephalus. Our pediatric ward usually has about 20-25 kids. Right now, we have 11 children with hydrocephalus. Just 3 days ago a van from another region of the country, brought 5 children that needed VP shunts. We are one of the only, if not the only hospital in the country putting in VP shunts. This is a shunt that is placed to allow the extra fluid around the brain to drain into the abdominal cavity. This relieves the pressure, helps the child feel better, and hopefully prevents further developmental problems.

We have enjoyed learning how to put in VP shunts, and the challenges that come with taking care of hydrocephalus patients. Unfortunately, many of the children arrive months to years after their diagnosis and already have significant developmental delay. We have seen children 7-10 years after the procedure that are doing very well, but often their future is much more guarded. These children are very precious, I've put their names below their pictures. If you can pick out one or two that you might pray for over the next week, months, or years, I am sure their families and our hospital staff would really appreciate it. They still have a long road ahead, but with the power of prayer anything is possible.

Tindenda

Ronyanyi

Nicholas

Justine

Tanaka

Trembinkosi

Parenting....One of Life's Greatest Teachers!

2011-02-27T12:53:00.000-08:00

Beau leading Gracie back to the house after church!

I find it interesting that some of the greatest and toughest lessons I've learned here in Africa don't have anything to do with Africa. We see a wide array of pathology on a daily basis. We are constantly stumped by medical and surgical mysteries. We see poverty and tragedy that is unexplainable, and spiritual warfare that is quite evident. Even with all of this, my greatest lessons have been learned from parenting my two small children. I love my kids more than I can describe. More then anything I want there happiness. On a daily basis I'm confronted with the conflict of giving great gifts to my kids versus giving them the discipline and instruction they need to be the people the Lord intends for them to be.

Gracie already going after the older boy!

Beau of course, being three, is the more challenging at this stage in his life. I can't make him see that all I want for him is happiness. If he would just listen when told, and do the things I ask him to do, our house would be filled with more peace. Instead there is a constant butting of heads as he tries to assert his own desires in a world where I already foresee most of his immediate consequences. I'm sure the parallel I'm making is quite obvious at this point. Its clearly evident how God looks at me as I look at my son. My stubborn, hard-headed attitude must frustrate our Creator as he patiently awaits for me to fully embrace His love!

Beau cooperating nicely as we put on the cast, of course the bag of Reese's on the bed helped a bit!

Today, I was struck with another powerful analogy while working with Beau. His schizencephaly does not allow the right side of his body to work the way it should. We previously casted his left arm for a couple of weeks so his brain would adjust and increase the nerve output to his right hand. We saw significant improvement in his right hand even after that short time. Of course, being limited to only the use of his poorly working hand, he didn't enjoy the experience.

Today, we felt it was time to cast his left arm again. Its not something we enjoy doing.....in fact we dread it. That's why its been several months since we have re-casted him. We do know how much it helps, and for long term use of his right hand, its so important for him. Unfortunately, he doesn't see or understand the immediate or long term benefit. When I told him what we were going to do today he just started crying. He looked at me with his tear-filled eyes and said: "Daddy please don't put that cast on my arm". You can imagine how low I felt as a parent as I tried to comfort and reassure him. I can only imagine this is how God feels as we are in the midst of trials or suffering. We beg and pray for him to remove us from the situation. Only our prayers go seemingly unanswered. He knows the benefits of our short term suffering. He knows that our perseverance and faith are developed by allowing it to continue. Its just so hard to get your mind around this concept in the midst of pain.

In scripture there are many verses that address this idea of trials sharpening our faith. My favorites include: Hebrews 12:3-17, James 1:1-8, Romans 5:3-5, and 1 Peter 1:6-7. In Hebrews 12 if you jump to verse 7 it says: "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it" Verse 12-13 made me think specifically of Beau's situation as it says: "Therefore strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for you feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed."

Despite Beau's pleading we did cast his left arm. He is now starting to except the idea of having the cast on for a week. Oh course, he has come up with several unique reasons why we should take it off more quickly. As Beau always does, he has risen to the challenge with his infectious smile. He is now proudly showing off his cast to his friends, especially the lion and monkey his mom drew on the cast. Even now he's back outside with some of the local Shona kid playing soccer.

The Beauty of Zimbabwe!

2011-02-24T12:45:00.000-08:00

Beau kissing a baby chameleon that we found!

Our time here in Zimbabwe has been met with plenty of challenges. At times the level of poverty, illness, and tragedy that the Shona people endure is overwhelming. It often seems we go weeks without "happy endings". Most of the patients that come to the hospital have advanced disease and there is often little that medicine or surgery can do for there physical bodies. I often wonder how a just God can allow such suffering to occur. Just when I think He is nowhere to be seen I get glimpses of His love from a multitude of places. I see Him in His creation with the beauty of nature all around us everyday. I see Him in the Shona children, with their bright eyes and big smiles full of hope for the future. I see Him in the newborn infant who once had no heartbeat and now is crying in his mothers arms. I see Him in the men and women, who despite the wasting of there physical bodies have now come to know the Lord and will live with us in eternity! All of this just scratches the surface on the love God has for us. In Ephesians 3:17-19 it says:

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God."

Heres some pictures showing the beauty that is in Zimbabwe!

That same baby chameleon up close!

Pools, and waterfalls next to the river....Luckily no Crocs!

The view from Three Hills overlooking the river.

A Zimbabwean bird busily making a nest!

A unique design on this butterfly.

A lone baobab tree,a symbol of the beauty and ruggedness of Africa

Three bright-eyed kids that live right below the Three Hills.

Can't leave out a picture of a great brai (BBQ) on Dr Vinzant's birthday!

Pulpit Rock, I still can't believe we climbed that last year....actually twice!

A beautiful African flower!

The Dream Team goes to the Three Hills!

2011-02-22T11:12:00.000-08:00

The kids came to visit me at work..something else must be more exciting!

The last week has been alot of fun because we were joined by some familiar faces from Kansas. Dr Todd Stephens, Dr Richard Leu, Dr Whitney Vinzant, and Dr Todd's daughter Sara have all joined us for the last week here at Karanda Hospital. Their combined wisdom, life experience, and medical knowledge have been a wonderful addition over the last week. I often say its like working with "The Dream Team" of medicine. The best family medicine doctor, general surgeon, and tropical medicine mind that I know all on rounds together make for an awesome educational experience. They made huge contributions from the beginning, and they've jumped in as if they had been there for years. In fact, they got here on a Tuesday night at 10pm, and 3 hours later Dr Vinzant and Dr Todd were both scrubbed in fixing an incarcerated hernia on a young man. I think Dr Vinzant has mastered VP shunts, and ready to start in on Orthopedics. Dr Leu has already read and probably memorized everything there is to know about HIV and TB in Zimbabwe. Dr Todd, who spent 6 years working in Africa, always seems right at home and is a wealth of knowledge about the nuances of tropical medicine. His spiritual leadership always encourages my soul and challenges my walk with the Lord.

Drs Todd and Vinzant with Shea and the kids before we left.

This weekend we were able to take Dr Vinzant, Dr Todd, and Sara to one of our favorite spots near Karanda. The area is called Three Hills. It is simply 3 large granite formations over looking scores of miles of beautiful Zimbabwe countryside. The hike is slightly unorthodox, as I don't know that we've ever been the same way twice. I know several times the group wondered if we actually knew where we were going. This time of year the path we take is usually quite overgrown with long grass plenty of mud, and several small streams. There is a concern for snakes since we can't always see our feet, but so far we haven't come across any of the venomous vipers.

Beau hiking through the bush.....he insisted he could do it himself!

Shea and I prefer bringing the stroller, just so Gracie and occasionally Beau have a place to travel. Although pushing the large stroller through the thick grass and over the big rocks, becomes quite a challenge, so it was nice to have Dr Vinzant and Dr Todd around to lend a helping hand. Dr Vinzant actually pushed Gracie in the stroller most of the way up the rock. I'm sure he wondered why we brought this stroller that we had to carry so much of the time, but I think he was to nice to say anything.

Drs Todd and Vinzant helping carry the stroller down the hill.

The hike to the hills is quite picturesque, and filled with beautiful trees, and thatched roof huts scattered across the country side. At the top, you can see for miles. We were there just before sunset and the sky was lit ups with a multitude of colors. We stopped for a quick snack and some water at the top. There's a family that lives right below the three hills, and they have several small children. They always seemed thrilled to have company way up in their backyard. Although they probably think its a little strange that we would climb that big rock with a stroller...for fun! Luckily there were no great stories of daring rescues or strange injuries, everyone did well and enjoyed getting to see one of the more beautiful spots in Zimbabwe.

Shea and the kids hanging out at the top....Dr Todd's waving to the kids.

The rest of the time with our "Kansas Crew" has been great. We've enjoyed some great meals together, swapped plenty of stories, some interesting medical cases, and I even go to watch the super bowl again thanks to a copy they brought. We also narrowly escaped the wrath of a driverless, runaway land cruiser as it bobbed and weaved through the compound just missing the guest house. Thanks to the scream of "Oh my stars" by Dr Todd we were all ready for the close encounter of the rumbling vehicle. Thats actually a great story I'll have to share at another time.

Were so glad they came. Our time with them went so fast. It reminds us of how quickly our time here is going. We have several more weeks, so its good for us to remember for us to make the most of our valuable time here!

We pray for there safe travels in Zimbabwe and safe flight back to the US!

Body and Soul Aerobics Class

2011-02-18T04:35:00.000-08:00

Body and Soul class

I have had the opportunity to be involed with the aerobic class here. Last year a short term missionary named Brenda started the class which is called "Body and Soul", for the local women. April and I starting exercising with them and April took over teaching after Brenda left. April and I were hoping this would continue but didn't know who would take over after we left. Fortunately there were 2 volunteers, Anna, a long term missionary, and Miriam. They both agreed to do the Body and Soul training and take over the class. Neither one of them had any exercise experience, but both have done a wonderful job with the class. Many of the local woman and nursing students come.

The class seems to fluctuate greatly in numbers from 3-20, depending on what is going at the nursing school. We were able to bring over about 30 sports bras, donated by Harvest Church, to give to the ladies that attend. They have really appreciated this gift, as there are very few sports bras available in the area. Harvest Church also gave us Daily Bread devotionals that we have been giving out to the women. Anna encourages them each aerobics class to get into the word of God on a daily basis and I think the Daily Breads give them a very practical way to put this into practice. This is really a very good ministry here, as it provides the women an appropriate place to exercise, with an emphasis on their spiritual health as well. One of the ladies told me, "It is OK for the whites to go on a jog here, but if I were to do it, people would think i was being very lazy". "Lazy?" I said. "Yes, they would think I was lazy because I was running instead of spending my energy on the fields" she replied. That was interesting, a little insight into the culture around us.

Eating candlelight Indian food in the courtyard.

I am glad to be a part of the class and get to know more woman through it. We can all keep Anna and Miriam in our prayers, as they are full time nurses and they still work very hard to make time for this ministry.

Beau's Big Day!

2011-02-13T12:12:00.000-08:00

I think they were playing a derivation of 500 in the water!

Happy Birthday to Beau! His actual birthday is in 2 days, but today turned out to be a good day to celebrate, so we decided to have all the festivities on Sunday! The last couple of weeks have been really hot, because it hasn't rained much. Yesterday, I found the old kiddie pool from last year. I blew it up and it held all the air without leaks! The only problem was the water. We haven't had much water past 11am the last week, so we hated to fill up the pool with water other people could use. Well, today we got lucky because we had a great rain, and we easily filled the pool. This afternoon was nice and hot, so it was a perfect afternoon for a pool party.

Gracie, Beau, Jeremy, Jo Jo and Caleb all having fun!

Last year we had a few to many kids, so I think Beau was a little intimidated. This year we let him pick his favorite couple of friends to invite to his pool party. He chose Jeremy, Jo Jo, Caleb, and of course Gracie (not that he had a choice on that one). So this afternoon the 5 of them ran around and swam as long as they could. We also gave them a nice ice cream (picked it up in Harare last weekend) break which I think was Beau's favorite part.

Gracie loved her ice cream, and desperately wanted more!

Gracie held here own with a pool full of boys!

At one point I looked over and saw that Beau had positioned a patio table right in front of the pool. He had climbed up on the table and bent down to ready for a jump. I saw him and yelled: "what are you doing!". He calmly said "I just wanted to make a diving board!" I of course told him that was a terrible idea, but inside I was thinking "that might actually work pretty well". Well I guess I know where he gets it.

Homemade Winnie the Pooh cake....Wow I couldn't believe Shea made that from scratch!

After the afternoon of swimming and eating the kids were getting tired. We put out a few fires and got them ready for the next round of activities. All the long term missionaries were getting together to throw a triple birthday party for Beau, Rita, and Kathy Stevens (who we affectionately call "Ambuya" which means Grandmother in Shona). Kathy is married to Roland Stevens and she was turning 85 today. She's quite an amazing women as well!

We had a great meal.....potluck style! Although the whole meal Beau just kept asking: "When is it birthday cake time?" He's been talking about his birthday cake all month. For him the dinner couldn't get over fast enough. Finally, the time came to blow out the candles and open presents. He got some nice toys and trinkets from the missionaries here. He especially loved Ambuya's gift. She gave him a huge box filled with cookies. We then got to the cake....Beau's favorite part! He quietly sat in his seat and managed to eat about 4 pieces. I guess thats what I get for telling him he can eat as much cake as he wants on his birthday. It actually took him until nearly 10pm to stop talking to himself in bed. I guess that's why you don't give sugar to 2 year olds after 7pm.

Beau waiting to blow out his candles..sitting next to Ambuya!

We have been so lucky to have Beau in our family for the last 3 years. He has been a huge blessing to both of us. He has been an incredible example of perseverance to those who know him well. Things haven't always come easy for him, and he's had a lot of bumps and bruises along the way. You would never know it by his demeanor though. No matter how many times he falls, he always gets up with his infectious smile, heart warming laugh, and a courageous heart thats always ready for more. I'm so proud of him and lucky to have him as my son! Happy Birthday Beau!

The Good News From a Bad Situation!

2011-02-10T11:35:00.000-08:00

It was a warm afternoon in the OPD (outpatient department). There was still a long line of people waiting to be seen, yet I felt my brain had about reached its capacity. I just finished seeing a sick child and I looked up to see a young women, probably in her mid 20s, pushing a wasted skeleton of a man probably in his late 40s. He looked to be her father, but I quickly found out she was actually his wife. Actually she was his 2nd wife. His first wife passed away from HIV several years ago. She was timid, and made little eye contact, but had a warm smile. She brought her husband to be seen because he had a large neck mass, and lost the ability to walk over the last several days. He told her that he was recently diagnosed with HIV, and had just started taking HIV medication within the last month.

After spending sometime reading through his card I realized that he hadn't been honest with his new wife. He was actually diagnosed with HIV six years ago. He married this women knowing he was HIV positive, and didn't tell her, his diagnosis. This is actually a crime in Zimbabwe, as it should be. With the help of my translator we were able to figure out that he had actually taken HIV medication for several years that was not prescribed to him. The medication he took was actually prescribed to his oldest son who also had HIV and died 1 year ago. He didn't seek medical attention for his himself, so no one would know he had HIV and he could marry another. This man was lower then low! It took everything in me to continue to take care of him. He infected his 1st wife, and their 2 kids, and now probably this new wife and there young daughter. To make it worse he lied about all of it for the last several years.

His new wife learned all of this for the first time in front of us. You could see her already low self esteem just deflate even more. She wasn't educated, and in this culture women are essentially the property of their husbands. Unfortunately, without a husband, women our left to fend for themselves, and this can be quite impossible in this country.

He had an abscess in his neck and end stage HIV. His time on this earth was drawing to an end regardless of our medical treatments. We did drain the abscess and admitted him to the male ward. Although my concern was really not with this man, but this poor young women and her young baby girl. What kind of future would they both have? This question lingered in my mind much of the next day.

The following day, I had just finished seeing all the patients in the male ward and I heard a soft voice come from around the corner. “Chiremba, Chiremba (this means doctor in Shona) I want Bible?” This was the voice of the women! Her English was quite broken, as she had very little education. She had probably just learned that phrase. What an answered prayer! I awkwardly communicated with her, and then left to find a bible and a chaplain. We were able to find her a Shona Bible and that same day she came to know the Lord as her savior.

I thought this story was a great parallel of what Christ did for all of us. This woman's husband died several days later. She became a widowed HIV positive Shona women. This was as low and worthless as a person could become in this country. The reality is we are all worthless compared to the perfection of God. Thankfully Christ's sacrifice provided a way for all of us to become royalty. Now I along with this women will sit at the table with the King of Kings for all eternity! Praise God!

Weekend in Harare!

2011-02-08T04:04:00.000-08:00

Gracie sitting by herself, coming back from Harare!

I awoke about 430 this morning to a call from maternity. They had another mother who had labored to long somewhere else and needed an urgent Csection. For a second, I forgot we were back at Karanda! So I grabbed my stuff, and off I went in. Another busy day at Karanda ahead. Fortunately everything went well with that mom and her baby. A great start to the Day!

We just returned from a weekend trip to Harare. It was a nice to get a little break, and get to the big city for a couple of days. Going to Harare is always a fun time for our family. After a long time of being so isolated at Karanda its awesome just being able to drive in a car. Our weekends our usually predictable. A lot of pizza and Chinese food. Both are a welcome change to making food from scratch, cleaning a sink full of dishes, and they taste great too. I'm still not sure if the food is really as good as we think or if are just so ready for “quick and easy” that anything would taste good. Either way the pizza and Chinese were great, and we even had burgers and ice cream one day as well.

Beau with his rubber band(head band) that he wore for 4 days straight!

The main challenge to our weekends back at Harare is the Grocery shopping. Shopping for 1 month at a time is quite the challenge. Fortunately we've gotten used to the stores here, so its gotten much easier. We usually have 4 main stops including: a cheese store, meat store, vegetable store, and a general store. Shea in particular, has it down to quite a science so our trips have gotten much more efficient. The kids and I also got some pool time. There is a really nice pool at the guest house, and Beau really loves getting some time to swim.....even if the water is cold.

A little Pool Time!

One of the other highlights of Harare, is getting to spend some time with the missionaries stationed in Harare. There is really a great group of Godly men and women in the city, and it great to spend some time with them and their families. Several of them had us over for meals, and they all love playing with the kids, and we have come to treasure there stories and advice.

Of course for me, the biggest highlight was getting to watch the Super Bowl. Doug Everswick, one of the long term missionaries in Harare, was able to get the satellite to pick up a live feed from the the game at 130 am local time. It was awesome just to watch some football, let alone watch my favorite team take home the Lombardi Trophy. Even Beau woke up with me for a couple of hours and enjoyed some pop corn. What an awesome game....Go Pack Go!

The other great blessing from the weekend was the lady I wrote about several days ago. When we left on friday she was still not very alert, and still critically anemic. When we returned, I found out she was able to get 2 units of blood over the weekend, and is now alert, holding her baby, and making enough milk to keep her baby fed. Praise the Lord!

Beau and Gracie heading out to go exploring!

It looks like they found a hideout!

The Kids Club Ministry!

2011-02-03T05:15:00.000-08:00

Chantal is always very shy.

We have enjoyed being involved with Kids Club again. Kids Club is the HIV orphan ministry that the hospital runs. These are kids that nobody can care for. They have technical homes, but are considered a burden on there new families who often have many other children. They often go without meals and usually go without love. Three days a week, the children come to the hospital and are given a meal, bible lesson, play some games, and receive much needed love.

The local Chaplin, who is in charge of Kids Club, came to me concerned because their volunteers have been busy and have not been able to come to help as they had done previously. He also has a lot of other work to do and cannot always be a Kids Club three times a week. We talked a while and then after talking with a few of the other missionaries, we came up with the idea of hiring a full time person to help with Kids Club. The only issue of course was funding.

Fortunately, before we left, Harvest Church, our church in New Hampton, was able to send us with money that could be used on the missions field. What a blesssing! We are very excited about this opportunity. Harvest Church will be able to fund one Kids Club leader for a year. This leader will improve the organization and stability for the kids. Her role will consist of planning two Bible lessons a week, one health topic, a weekly Bible verse, and organization of games and activities.

Colin enjoying jump rope, we all celebrated when he finally made 5 jumps in a row.

We have also found the perfect person to take on this project. She is a 24 year old, single lady, who lives very close to the hospital, her name is Priscilla. She can also speak good English and Shona, so she will be very good at translating for short term missionaries that visit. I think she will play a very important part in the lives of these children as it will be someone they can rely on.

I have attached pictures that I hope you will enjoy. One of the first times that we went down to Kids Club, I had Beau bring his Christmas candy to share! He wasn't so excited to give his candy away, but the kids there sure appreciated it!

Beau giving away Christmas candy!

A Night on Call!

2011-01-30T15:06:00.000-08:00

I had just fallen asleep, when I awoke to the ringing of the phone with a maternity nurse on the other end. She just called to inform me that a patient arrived who had delivered at home, and continued to have significant bleeding. I was tired as it had been a long weekend on call, and I was hoping for a good night of rest before the start of the week. Half asleep I reached for my scrubs and bag of random medical supplies and stumbled to the door to assess the situation. As I walked to the front gates of the hospital I noticed an anxious man standing next to a small cart with two large oxen attached to the front. This was an ox cart which was a common mode of transportation for many of the Shona people. I could only assume this was the husband of the lady I was about examine.

I proceeded to the maternity ward where I saw an elderly lady holding a small newborn right outside the delivery room. She was friendly, but nervous, and I also assumed she was the mother of the women I came to see. I arrived at the bedside to find and HIV positive mother who was completely pale, and barely responsive. I came to find out that she delivered at home which was 20km away. Evidently only a part of the placenta was delivered, and she had spent the next several hours with significant bleeding. They all loaded in the ox cart and initially drove 5km to a local clinic only to find no one available, and then turned and drove another 25 km to our hospital. All the while our young mother continued to bleed. As I examined her I knew she needed several (3-4) units of blood. Unfortunately we had no blood in the hospital to give her. I asked one of our midwives how much she was still bleeding, and her response was "She has stopped...I do not think she has any blood left to bleed". Sadly, this was not much of an overstatement. The only option was to perform a D&C to remove the rest of the placenta and hope she would stop the bleeding, and we could keep her alive through the night.

We took her back to the theatre (operating room), and gave her some sedation. With some difficulty I was able to manually remove most of the placenta. Her placenta was firmly affixed to the uterus (placenta accreta). This made it quite difficult to remove. After removing most of it, I then used a curettage to remove the rest. Her bleeding slowly stopped, but the battle for her life will continue on through the night.

For now the night appears to be over. The rest of the hospital is quiet, and I'll try to get some sleep. This may be difficult, because I don't know if she will make it through the night. I know the best medicine I can give her at this point is prayer. I know our prayers have the power to move mountains (Mark 11:23-24). I'm also thankful Christ has removed the fear of death, and with him safe place to seek shelter (Prov. 18:10).

Happy Birthday Sekuru!

2011-01-27T04:10:00.000-08:00

Happy 81st Birthday Dr.Roland Stephens! Or as he is affectionately known "Sekuru", which means grandfather in Shona. We just celebrated Sekuru's 81st birthday on January 24th. Roland Stephens is still working hard here at Karanda, and shows no signs of slowing up! He operates 8-10 hours a day, takes call with frequent C-sections in the middle of the night, and still runs 3 miles three times a week.

I guess 81 candles was just too much!

Sekuru has been the stabilizing force at Karanda for the last 40-50 years. After finishing his surgery residency in the early 60s he and his wife Kathy, and there 4 boys came to a very small bush hospital in eastern Rhodesia called Karanda. They both felt called from the Lord to spend there career serving others on the mission field. Its was at Karanda where Sekuru operated quite faithfully for many years. In the late 1970s as the civil war erupted in Rhodesia, violence threatened Karanda Hospital. In those days they would frequently hear mortar rounds right outside the gates. Sekuru had no intention of leaving, and he continued to operate through the violence for many months. He felt that was where God wanted him, and that God would continue to protect him. As the war escalated, and violence near Karanda continued to worsen the "powers that be" finally were able to persuade Roland Stephens and his family to leave. In 1979 Roland Stephens and his family were flown out of the war zone, and shortly thereafter Karanda hospital closed.

A rare smile by Sekuru Stephens

In the years that followed Dr Stephens and his family continued to follow the Lords calling on his life, and spent most of the next several years working in other bush hospitals all over africa. His heart however, was always at Karanda. Karanda had since reopened in the country that was now called Zimbabwe. In the early 1990's Roland Stephens returned to Karanda to work with his son, Dan, who followed in his fathers footsteps as a missionary surgeon. Here at Karanda, Roland continues to work quite tirelessly at one of the busiest hospitals in the country. He still performs 5-15 surgical cases a day, rounds on multiple wards, and has been on call as the only physician for several months straight over the last year.

Beau, Gracie and the Reimer kids patiently waiting for some cake!

Dr Stephens doesn't do all of this for accolades, notoriety, or fame. In fact, if he knew I was writing about him he would probably just crack a small smile, shake his head, grunt, and walk the other direction. Sekuru Stephens does this because he loves the Lord. He felt a calling on himself at an early age, and has never looked backed. At an age when most 81 year old surgeons would be counting there retirement saving, playing 4-7 rounds of golf a week, or worse yet, sitting in a nursing home with a diaper and some milk, Sekuru Stephens keeps working..day after day...after day. He has no plans to slow down either. As long as God gives him the strength to get out of bed, a brain that works, and the ability to pick up a scalpel, you can be sure Sekuru will keep going. He is a tremendous example to me, and should be to all of us. The most important thing to realize though, is he doesn't do it for himself nor for you or I. He does it to bring Glory to our Lord!

Physical Therapy in Zimbabwe

2011-01-24T10:43:00.000-08:00

Beau and I walked down to the rehab room, Beau was very excited that we could bring some braces for other children that needed them too! He ran into the room and handed one to Ms. Oshe, she is the rehabilitation therapist here a Karanda Hospital. We refer many things to her from post operative rehab to congenital problems. She does geriatrics, orthopedics, and pediatrics. We had the opportunity to bring new supplies to Ms. Oshe. The supplies were donated by Team Rehab's physical therapist Lisa Krieg.

Now how we came to now 'Miss Lisa', as Beau refers to her is an interesting story. Of course, our insurance company has it's "in network" physical therapists. I heard about Team Rehab when we moved to New Hampton from one of the local physical therapy aides . I called our insurance company to see if they were in our "network" and I was told that they were. That same day, Lisa had an opening due to a cancellation, so I drove Beau to Decorah. Beau immediately bonded with her and after some conversation, we found out that Lisa had grown up in Nigeria, as a missionary child. We had a lot of good conversations about serving in Africa. Lisa even tried to arrange her and her husband to come on this trip with us to Karanda, but do to the many details that needed to be worked out in order for them to leave their business, they were not able to accompany us this time. Lisa did send us with many orthotics and two pair of pediatric crutches.

As it turns out, Team Rehab, is not in our network. If it wasn't for that first lady who told me that it was, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet Lisa or have their supplies donated here at Karanda. It is awesome to look back over the past 2 years and see how God used Beau's stroke to work for the good. I am sure God will continue to use Beau to help us grow, learn, and even reach more people for Christ.

The Epperlys

No Power, No Water, No Problem!!

2011-01-22T05:03:00.000-08:00

A little bedtime reading!

We just finished a 5 day stretch without power. It is something we became quite accustomed to last year. This year we were hoping for a little more power consistency. Unfortunately, the only thing that has been consistent is the lack of power. Water has also been a bit of a problem. The water pumps have been dry by 11 am since we've been here. It really hasn't been that difficult though. We've learned to take showers early and save the water for dishes later in the day. (We haven't had to use cloth diapers yet either...that's been awesome). We have a generator on the compound that comes on several hours a day to help with some daily tasks, and gives us a chance to check emails. We also have a gas stove for which we do most of our cooking, and plenty of good flash lights. (We've even had to pull out the headlights again for Csections) I find it interesting how quickly our perspective can change, and how quickly things that seem necessary, just become luxury.
I was just reading in Psalms 63: 1-8 the other day. As always, I was struck by David's reliance on the Lord. He says: " My soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water" The Lord was his ultimate source of power, strength and protection. Being here really puts that passage into perspective. To often while living in comfort and luxury in the US my eyes are taken off the Lord. I instead turn toward my own strength, and ability to provide for myself and family. Thankfully, being here has really reset my mind and heart to a complete and utter dependence on our Lord. I hope this way of thinking can persist and I continue to say as David says: "My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me".

Back in Zimbabwe

2011-01-20T00:52:00.000-08:00

We made it! Our trip to Zimbabwe took about 3 days. We had a few unexpected delays, and challenges but overall went as smooth as we could have asked for. Its good to be back in Zimbabwe! Its been really nice coming back to a familiar place.

The kids have both adjusted to jet lag quite well. Gracie was sick for the first week of our trip, but is now back to normal and full of smiles again! Oh yeah, and back to annoying her brother again! She also found Beau and Abbie's old chairs from last year and realized that she is now big enough to use them. Also, dad thought it would be a good idea to give her a little play-do while I was cleaning up. I had no idea she would put it in her hair, nose, ears, and of course belly button.

Beau is doing well too! He's back to chasing bugs and lizards and anything that moves. He's also enjoying playing soccer with some of the other local kids in the area. Oh yeah and he still loves climbing on the jungle gym out back!

My favorite quote of Beau's so far happened on the night we spent in Ethiopia. After trying for about an hour to get him to sleep. He said: "Dad, why is the sun broken?" I said: "What do you mean? He replied: "Well I don't think its night night time right now, but its still dark?"

Looks like Beau has a cold!

Shea and I have jumped back into work at the hospital. As always its quite busy. Between the wards, operating room, delivery room, and outpatient clinic.....there is always something going on. We've both enjoyed being able to get right back into the swing without the steep learning curve as last year. We've already seen a lot interesting pathology, strange diseases, and several tragic stories...including snake bites, a crocodile attack, and a surprise twin c-section. The medicine is always a lot of fun, but its really just a tool to allow us into the lives of these wonderful people. I think the best part for both of us is getting to rekindle many of the relationships of the last year.

We have already seen God work tremendously in allowing us to get our visas. When we arrived in the country, we had a temporary work visa that was valid through Jan 27th, 2011. We tried to get a 30 day visitor visa when we arrived at the airport, but they wouldn't allow it. They told us to go to immigration. At immigration, they started a "file" on it, and told us to return in a few days. Our hospital is located 3 hrs from immigration, so another missionary that lives in Harare went to follow up on it for us. He just emailed us and notified us that they extended our visa for 60 more days, for free. Awesome! This was more than we expected, as we were planning on have to take a couple thousand dollar trip out of the country to be allowed to get a second 30 day visa. Praise God! It has all been taken care of and we do not have to pay another dollar.

Many of you have contacted us by email and have told us that you are praying for us. Thank you so much. Our health has been great and as long as the Internet allows we will continue to keep you updated on the things God is doing here.

The Epperlys

The Excitement of the Peds Ward!

2010-05-13T14:51:00.000-07:00

The last several weeks have flown by. We are down to our last week here at Karanda. I can't believe 5 months have actually gone this fast. We've had our moments here, and there's been times I thought the end would never arrive. But as I sit here with a week left to go Shea and I both feel so lucky to have had this experience, and the thought of leaving is bittersweet. Many of our local friendships have blossomed, although saying goodbye won't be quite as difficult since we've decided to return in January. We are excited about the ministry opportunities here, and glad we can be a part of the ministry here in the near future. Its been great having Rhonda around, and we have all benefited from her marvelous cooking (especially our waist lines).

The last several weeks have been great for Shea and I as we have been in charge of the Pediatric ward. Its been quite an experience. We have really enjoyed working with the children. It has been both heartbreaking and heartwarming. Its painful to see these innocent little kids stricken with such devastating diseases, yet encouraging to see kids at the brink of death return to life with proper medical and/or surgical treatment. The ward has also been a wonderful place for evangelism as many of the families are eager to hear about the gospel, and have been very receptive to His calling!

The Pediatric ward has been so busy that it is often quite stressful trying to make rounds and keep all of the patients straight. The other day we had 32 patients in the ward. The capacity is actually 24.....but here in Zimbabwe we really don't have to worry about petty things like “fire marshals” and “regulations”. I've been told by several nurses that the previous high was 30 patients, so you can imagine it was quite a zoo. The actual room the ward is located in is about the size of an average 2 car garage. So you can imagine trying to fit 32 sick gets, there moms/family, IV poles, oxygen tanks, and what little staff we have was quite a challenge. We still have sick kids sleeping under the beds of other sick kids trying to make enough room for everyone.

We've had an incredible array of pathology the last several weeks. We've been stumped on many patients, but we have enjoyed the challenge of figuring out the correct diagnosis, and delivering the best medical and surgical treatment possible. We've seen patients with diagnosis ranging from measles, tetanus, meningitis, cerebral malaria, a necrotic thigh and tuberculosis to pneumonia, neonatal fever, burns, traumatic amputation (her dad was chopping wood and slipped), femur fractures and clubbed feet.

We've had at least 5-7 patients with hydrocephalus some who have received new VP shunts and others that have had VP shunt malfunctions and/or infections. We had one young boy who was evidently playing with a hand grenade and it went off. It took off a good portion of his right hand. (Don't ask me how he got a hold of a hand grenade....I've asked several family members and no one seems to know). We had another young boy who had 2 large tumor growing out of his back and buttock. We removed them both and are waiting for pathology results as well as his skin graft to take.

We had another young boy who was presumed to be bitten by a cobra (never a good thing). He was starting to improve and his family wanted him discharged even though we felt he would be better suited to stay another day or two. We obliged, but unfortunately the boy and about 18 or 19 others were involved in a mass trauma when a large flat bed truck carrying 12-15 people collided with another small truck about one half mile down the road from Karanda. The irony of the situation was that most of the people in the truck had just been discharged from the hospital and were leaving to go home. The trucks hit head on, as they came around a tight corner probably only going about 30-40 km/hr. The impact was still great enough that it sent most of the passengers through the air, and some ended up with significant fractures. All that to say the boy with the snakebite did fine, aside from a couple of lacerations and bruises. We did get our wish and got to keep him in the hospital another night.(I guess they should have listened to us in the first place). Also, Shea got quite the surprise when 20 injured people from that wreck showed up at the OPD right before her lunch break. That's a whole other story, I'll save that one for later.

Anyway back to the Peds ward. We've also had 5-6 patients with severe malnutrition and all are currently on our high protein feeding program. One such patient also had something called a Noma. A Noma is an ulcer on your face that usually eats through your skin and tissue until your teeth and gums are exposed from the outside. This typically occurs in severe malnutrition. This particular patient is a 9 year old boy named David who came in weighing 10 kgs (22 lbs). David was completely emaciated when he arrived. He was also unable to walk and HIV positive. Both of his parents have passed away from HIV and he is now being raised by his grandpa. His grandpa is very attentive and never leaves his side (I think David is his only family). David initially couldn't even turn to look at me during rounds. Now with several weeks of proper nutrition (aside from the occasional lolli-pop I sneak him) and treatment he actually smiles during rounds and has become quite interactive. He goes outside with his grandpa and its just wonderful to see him happy. According to our scales he now weights 15 kgs (its quite a jump, not sure I always trust our scales here, but I'm just encouraged he continues to improve). So with the Lords help David will continue to improve, and with proper HIV treatment and education he may still have many good years of life ahead of him.

So as you can see the Peds ward has been very challenging, but also quite rewarding. The rest of our time has been spent in the maternity ward doing C sections (Shea and I actually got to do a twin C section together...it was great), in OPD seeing patients, in the theater operating on an array of pathology, and at home chasing kids, and changing diapers (although a few less since Beau is starting to use the toilet alot more). Overall things are great, and were excited for one more good week of work here at Karanda. We really look forward to see all of our friends and families real soon. God Bless!

The Perfect Mothers Day Get-Away!

2010-05-09T00:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Mothers day to my beautiful wife Shea, my wonderful mom Fran, and my arizona mom Rhonda. I'm a lucky man to have those wonderful women in my life! Yesterday Shea and I tackled “pulpit rock”. Climbing as always been one of Shea's favorite things to do. So for a pre-mothers day celebration what better then a good climb. After Paul and I finished rounding on the hospital, seeing patients in the outpatient clinic, and doing a quick C-section Shea and I headed to climb the massive rock formation.(Its so nice to have a Grammy here for babysitting, and a little break from the kids is always appreciated). It sits about 15-20 kilometer's from Karanda, but most of it is bush roads so it takes about 30-40 minutes to get to the spot where we will begin our approach hike. Legend has it that hundreds of years ago pulpit rock was inhabited by the Zulu tribe. After conquering territories in what is now Southern Zimbabwe and South Africa they left there massive rock for a time. According to the legend they returned some years later with hundreds or thousands (depends on whose telling the story) of Zulu warriors to move the rock to there new territory in the south. Now if you were to see this massive 640 meter high rock structure up close you would find it hard to believe, but you know me.....I'm always up for a good legend! (Elvis still lives...right?)

Anyway, today we were charged with getting to the top of the great rock, and enjoying one of eastern Zimbabwe's finest views. Shea and I along with Dr Stephens (who lead the climb), and our friends Nicci and Anna decided today was the day for the ascent to the top. Luckily, I can tell you there were no thrilling/death defying stories comparable to my climbing mishap in 2004. No major falls or seizures or helicopter rides to trauma centers (not that there are life flights or trauma centers anywhere within hundreds of kilometers). The outcome of this climb was much better. Although there were several moments when I wondered why we were doing this without better equipment the climb went relatively smooth.

It was interesting this was the first time Shea and I climbed together since before we had kids. In the past we have climbed some pretty “hairy” things, and probably taken some unnecessary chances. But now with kids back home waiting for us to return, the idea of taking needless risk, for risk sake seemed a bit less appealing. With those reservations in mind, we still were excited to have a couple of “kid free” hours outdoors, and looked forward to climbing again.

This climb was a bit unconventional. Shea and I are used to climbing shoes, a good rope, a harnesses, and some solid carabiners. (Not to mention a good belay device). Today we just had our tennis shoes, and Dan's old rope that he says he brought "only if the women need it" (Hey what about me, its not like I have the best Life insurance policy here). So that being said he planned that we would free climb the face of this pulpit rock. Well I guess we'd have to see about that.

So we drove our car as far as we could through the windy and rocky dirt roads. We stopped about 1 mile from the base of the rock. We hiked the last mile and enjoyed the scenery as we saw several villages scattered about between the road and pulpit rock. We got to the base of the rock and began our ascent to the top. The majority of the climb was steep, but didn't require any climbing. We just leaned up hill and maneuvered between stones, boulders, trees, and loose dirt, and used all 4's as needed. The last several hundred feet was a 4 sided cliff face without any significant switch backs. This was where it got a bit tricky. Dr Stephens, had done this climb multiple times in the past, and he was used to taking climbers of all skill level up to the top. There were two very difficult spots in the climb, the first at the very beginning and the last at the end. We all went up about half-way on the first part of the climb without any rope. But as the winds picked up and began to howl, we felt a little more comfortable at least having a rope in our hands in case a slippage were to occur. (Wasn't going to be a gentle fall to the bottom). Dan reluctantly agreed, and climbed up ahead and attached his unconventional rope to the base of a tree at the top of the first pitch. We all used this to aid in our climb to the top of the first part of the climb. As I said before it was awesome to be climbing with my wife again, and the risk of death is always a bit of a thrill, but the thought of Beau and Gracie without parents was a bit sobering. So we kept that in mind with every firm grip of a hand-hold, and securely placed foot-hold.

After finishing the first part, we gently maneuvered around a narrow switch-back and came to the base of the last part of the climb. Unfortunately, Dr Stephens left our only rope anchored back at the tree at the other part of the climb. So to enjoy our conquest at the top and the breath-taking views we had to free climb the rest. This last part was bit shorter then the first, and fortunately the rock formation formed a bit of a crack and we were able to snake/wedge ourselves against it. We would have much preferred to have a rope at this point, but aside from a loose rock encountered by Shea's right foot (took away our breath for a second), we all got to the top quite safely.

The view at the top of pulpit rock was magnificent! There were breath-taking views from all 4-sides and the beauty of Zimbabwe was so evident on the summit. What a powerful God we serve! The top of the rock was probably big enough to fit two moderate sized homes, and it even overlooked onto the Mozambique valley which lay about 20 kilometers to the east. We stayed at the top for about 30-45 minutes, but then envisioned Rhonda at home with a hungry Gracie (she still doesn't like to take milk from a bottle), and decided to head back down.

Going down brought a few hair-raising moments, but we made it down with all limbs intact and no major injuries. It was another wonderful adventure for Shea and I, and we were so lucky to have Rhonda here so we could share it together. I can't imagine raising kids with anyone other than my wonderful wife.The patience and love she displays on a daily basis to our kids never ceases to amaze me. Raising these first two kids has been so much fun, and really pretty easy I'm already looking forward to another. Although, I think we may still have to talk more about that one. :) Happy Mothers Day Shea and Mom!

A Day in the Life of Mr Mom!

2010-05-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

Well today, I thought I would write about something a little unique to medicine, but none the less important. I've written about a surgery day, and an OPD day, but today I think I'm going to change gears a bit. Today I'm going to write about my “stay at home with the kids” day. I currently stay with the kids on Tuesdays and Thursdays while Shea goes to work. I've found these days the most rewarding, but also the most challenging. Here in Zimbabwe the challenges are unique. There is no car, no familiar kid distractions(YMCA/Zoo), hundreds of kilometers to the nearest shopping center, and power outages that make planning meals and doing laundry a bit of a challenge. I think I have gotten used to all the little curve balls (well at least they don't surprise me so much now.......in fact sometime there even fun) and I really love being a stay at home dad. So today there will be no stories of life and death struggle (well maybe for the ants and bugs that cross Beau's path), no blood, guts and bodily fluid (well there is the frequent diaper surprises produced by the little ones), and no life threatening infectious disease (well we did have that really bad stomach bug going around.....Oh well). So today I'll keep it simple, I'm just going to recount for you the details of my day at home with the kids here in Zimbabwe. I know, I know, I know....many of you are thinking how boring, and you know I'm inclined to agree with you. But house wives everywhere need a champion, and now with my vast 4 months of experience I think I can be that champion. So here's the story on April 29th of 2 crazy little kids, and their Dad who is just trying to keep up.

So the day for me started when Gracie woke up at 6am. Usually Shea and I just lay in bed and hang out with her, since there is very little Gracie time the rest of the day (once her big brother wakes up). At 7am I went to the hospital devotional with Paul. Today the Shona singing was beautiful as usual and Paul gave some wonderful words on the basics of salvation. After that the marathon begins. I arrive back home and both kids are up. Shea is getting them ready to eat, but leaves the rest of the job to me since she needs to finish getting ready for work. This morning's breakfast routine went pretty smooth. Usually I sit between the kids with my own bowl of oatmeal. I feed Gracie her rice cereal, and make sure Beau is hitting his mouth with the spoon more then the other parts of his face. And occasionally I'll steal a bite myself. We all finish eating, and Beau is already begging to get down and play. So I rush to the kitchen to get a clean rag, and do my best attempt at cleaning the oatmeal out of various spots on his clothes and skin. He passes the dad test and now he's off to the living room to play for a few seconds. By now its 8am and Rhonda and Shea are leaving for the hospital for the day. Luckily, we'll see them back at tea time. I finish getting Gracie cleaned up. She really wants to be held right now, but I have to put her in a spot that is safe and she will half-way enjoy as try and get Beau cleaned, changed and dressed for the day. From here I'm just going to give a little timed play by play with a little side commentary as needed:

8:15 Beau sits on the toilet (his first day in big boy undies....he's pretty excited we'll see how long it lasts!!)

8:20 Entertain the kids while cleaning up the bedroom (Not as easy as it sounds)

8:30 Beau is back to the toilet (he actually told me he had to go...that's a first!...he goes and get the M&M (a great reward)

8:40 We all wrestle on the bed (Gracie and I versus Beau....we always win!)

8:50 Gracie goes down for a nap (not without a fight though...she is really screaming)

9:00 Beau is on the toilet again (Are you noticing a recurring theme here!)

9:05 We've got power back on ( this has been a long week without much power, so seeing the fans spin is a welcome surprise)

9:08 I go to put the eggs on the stove for tea time( Tea time is usually from 10-1030, and we have all become accustom to hard boiled eggs at tea (its quick and its a great source of protein that the kids like)

9:10 I go outside to play with Beau and also do some Physical therapy with him (oh and by the way Gracie finally stops crying) We catch lizards, bug, and various insects. Also climb some stairs to strengthen his right leg

9:25 Beau and I run to the hospital to check on Shea and Rhonda's rounds (He likes seeing his mama at work)

9:30 More PT with Beau (we climb some stairs and hang from bars at the play ground.....yes there actually is a playground here, not with US standard regulations, but still there is some stuff to play on)

9:40 Went back inside to check on Gracie (still sleeping), and put on some hot water for tea

9:45 Beau is back on the toilet....the big boys are still dry and he gets 2 M&M's for this one( 1 for being dry and one for going......I know to much detail)

9:45 Gracie starts crying again...I give her a second and she is back to sleep(thank-goodness!)

10:00 Beau and I are back outside catching some more bugs before Shea and Rhonda come home for tea

10:10 Gracie wakes up again...this time for good

10:15 Shea is back so we have some tea, eggs, and peanut butter and bread (Beau loves the egg whites, but can't stand the yolk) This is definitely one of may favorite Zimbabwean traditions.

10:30 I get called from the hospital to put in an Intraosseous line for a man that is very dehydrated. I gladly take a small break from the kids, and go with Paul to the hospital to put in the line. We have a nice drill for these IO lines...it works pretty slick (anyway enough medicine...back to the kids)

10:50 Shea finds Beau is wet while he is sitting in his chair eating( We made it almost 3 hours...not bad for a first time in the “big boys”)

11:00 Shea and Rhonda leave back for work

11:05 I finish feeding Beau and while feeding Gracie he tells me he has to “poop” I pick him up to run to the toilet, and he says “poop in the pants”........man, we were so close....that was kind of a mess to change

11:10 So I guess were back to the cloth diaper diaper...so I changed Beau into the cloth diaper for now (Gracie is crying now(squeaky wheel always gets the grease)

11:20 I change Gracie

11:25 Played with Beau and Gracie on the floor for a while

11:45 Read them both several books (At this time April is warming up some left-overs for our 1pm lunch...thank-goodness for leftovers) April does a great job organizing our meals for the day. My job usually consists of peeling fruits and veggies, cleaning dishes and putting together some of the simpler side dishes. I'm definitely the least skilled cook in the house (even Paul is quite skilled in the kitchen). But I am learning a lot, and occasionally get to throw together a little something myself. Its been a good learning experience for me.

11:55 Took Beau to the toilet....again (another M&M is earned)

12:00 Put Beau down for a nap

12:10 Time for 1 on 1 with Gracie (as I said earlier with her big brother always around, she rarely gets much 1 on 1 attention. So I enjoy getting the chance just to play with her even if it is for a short while. She starts getting fussy pretty soon....She's tired and needs her nap!

12:30 Changed Gracie's diaper

12:35 Gracie goes down for a nap (but once again she's not happy about it and is letting out quite a scream

12:55 Gracie finally stops crying

13:15 Everyone's home for lunch

13:20 Beau wakes up

13:30 I feed Beau some of our left-over delight (he kind of picks at, not to hungry right now)

13:45 Gracie wakes up

13:50 I get cereal ready for Gracie to start eating

14:15 After meals are finished and diapers are changed/bathroom breaks taken(another M&M earned by the way)The three of us head to the shops for a nice afternoon outing. This is always a nice break in the day for me. I put Gracie in Paul and Aprils Stroller, and put Beau on my neck and we walked quite conspicuously to the shops. Its quite an interesting strip of tiny rundown buildings. There are often a few shady people walking around, with women pumping water out of a well, and barnyard animals roaming free. A white guy with 2 kids sticks out like a neon sign. I have gotten used to it, and for me its just a good chance to get out of the house, and pick up some stuff we need as well as whatever “junk food” I can find. Beau always enjoys seeing the people and all the animals that wander around down there. We got a few things, and headed back to the guest house.

15:00 We return from the shops

15:15 A visitor from the Netherlands arrives. She brought several hydrocephalus kids to be looked at, but is confused about where she is supposed to be staying. So April and I tried to sort out those issues while the kids were beginning to melt down, and dinner was in the midst of preparation

15:30 Change both kids diapers

15:45 Help with dinner preparation (stir fry tonight)

16:20 I take the kids outside to keep them distracted and avoid any big 4:00 pm meltdown. My sister Mary Beth coined 4pm as the “witching hour” with the little ones, and I've found that the phrase is very accurate. Gracie doesn't want to be put down anymore. So trying to play with Beau while holding Gracie is always challenging. And Beau always gets a little more needy at this time as well. He's also a little more rough with Abbi at this time...so I really have to watch him close. That's why I usually just go outside so the temptation to tackle her is not as strong.

17:00 Start feeding the kids as they begin there meltdown (Shea is not home yet....I think it was a busy day at the theater)

17:15 Gracie has a nice surprise for me....so I take her to change her diaper

17:30 Beau is still eating well, Gracie on the other hand is melting down. She doesn't want this cereal anymore. She just wants some breast milk.

18:00 Shea comes home and I can gladly pass off Gracie and finish getting Beau fed and ready for bed

18:20 For the next 30-40 minutes I go through Beau's bedtime routine which consists of chasing him around the house, brushing his teeth, chasing him around the house, changing his diaper, chasing him around the house(OK so you get the point), getting his “night night” shirt on, doing some stretching, reading a couple of books, and saying our prayers. He always calls me back in to let me know a few things I forget, but now at 19:10 he's in bed, Shea has Gracie in bed, and at least for now we have some peace and quiet. Another wonderful, yet exhausting day! Not a lot of “me” time today. But as I've found stay at home parenting is a full time job, with something always going on. My hats off to mom's and dad's everywhere that make it look easy. Hope you enjoyed looking into the life of a stay at home dad on the mission field!

Zimbabwe Vacation #7&8

2010-04-29T04:52:00.000-07:00

Day 7

We were awaken early this morning April 21st by a screaming Gracie! I was still half asleep, and frustrated at the prospect of being up at 1am with a crying baby. I quickly went to hand her to Shea so she could began what I hoped would be a soothing feed that would put her right back to sleep. Right as I was about to hand her to Shea I looked down and her face was covered with at least a dozen ants. I felt horrible! Our poor little 7 month old was being eaten in her sleep by those pesky little ants. I quickly brushed her off, and we changed her clothes. I went to her bed and found a nice trail of ants going into her bed and making a circle around her crib mattress. We killed and cleaned out many ants from her crib and repositioned the crib in our own mosquito net hoping this would discourage any future “attacks”. We tucked her back in bed for the rest of our short night.

We awoke early for the morning as we had a long drive ahead. We quickly packed everything in the van, and hit the road for our long 8 hour journey back to Antelope Park. It was a long, but fairly uneventful drive. Gracie serenaded our van with her screams for at least the first 2-3 hours of the trip. She eventually calmed down, and with the help of some PB&J and some brother bear Beau traveled well almost the whole ride. We have really been lucky to have 3 very good young travelers on our journey across Zimbabwe.

I did have some time in our long drive today to read a bit of CS Lewis's book “Weight of Glory, which is a compilation of essays and some talks that he gave over the span of several years. There was a quote that I found quite profound. It says “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far to easily pleased.” I thought this was a very practical quote. I know too often I dabble around in the shallow end of the pool, as it pertains to the depth of my spiritual walk. Its much easier to give God just enough, rather then everything. By doing this I have come to realize we only experience a fraction of the joy God intended. (And I don't mean physical health and wealth here!) The spiritual and eternal Joy is absolutely endless and unbelievable if we can just give God all of us! I'm tired of being satisfied with just the scraps from our Lords table, when he intends for me to feast on His limitless banquet.

Anyway, just one of many powerful and thought provoking quotes from CS Lewis.(Although I will admit trying to digest Lewis's words in a hot, bumpy car with noisy kids is the easiest of tasks!)

Well, We pulled into Antelope at half past two, and enjoyed some beautiful scenery, cold beverages and a dip in the nice pool. It was great to end our trip here at Antelope. The scenery was gorgeous the river tents were elegant, and the food was perfect (especially the Gnu steak we had for dinner). We really enjoyed the wonderful sunset from the deck of our river tent. What a great trip this has been!Tonight we can “sleep in”(not sure what that means with the kiddos, but we'll try!), and we'll hit the road late morning for the last 4 hours of our trip into Harare. I can't believe our trip is already drawing to an end.

Day 8

Well today, April 22nd we left Antelope Park and headed back to Harare. We enjoyed another great breakfast at Antelope and a nice morning walk before loading the car up, and piling all the kids back in for one last drive. The end of our trip came way to fast. The drive today to Harare was only 4 hours, and all the kids did great. We ate some chips and cookies in the car to keep everyone at peace since we drove through lunch. We arrived safely at Harare around 2pm. Fortunately for all of us there are no dramatic or exciting stories to tell about today. We finished the day by doing some grocery shopping as we prepare for our last month at Karanda, and had a great dinner at the Everswicks house. Tomorrow we pick up Shea's mom Rhonda at the airport, and our excited to have her with us for our last month at Karanda. Then on Saturday we'll head back into the bush for 1 more month. Thanks for following along on our little Zimbabwe vacation. I'm sure we'll have some more good stories in our last month at Karanda, and we'll be sure to pass them along.

Zimbabwe Vacation #6 (Victoria Falls here we come!)

2010-04-27T22:46:00.000-07:00

Day 6

This morning April 20th we woke up to a beautiful view on the our 2nd floor loft. As I mentioned earlier with the large open window, and trees all around, it almost feels like living in a tree house. We did realize the one downside to having a window that wouldn't close properly was an infestation of small critters. I went to put my shirt and shorts on that had been casually thrown across a chair by the window and felt a multitude of small pinches. I looked down and my clothes were covered in dozens and dozens of tiny, little ants. I quickly took them off, and threw them and the rest of our covered clothes out the window to attempt to rid the loft all the ants. Fortunately they spared Beau and his bed which were adjacent to all the clothes.

The rest of the morning was un-eventful, but wonderful. We had been traveling pretty hard all week, so it was nice to just sit by the pool and relax a bit with the kids. The pool was a gorgeous, and had a 3 layer design with waterfalls and stones creatively placed all around. We were also excited to see a large trampoline close to the pool. Shea showed Beau and I some of her old trampoline moves, and Beau enjoyed being bounced up and down as well. After our morning of relaxing we headed to our final destination.......The Victoria Falls. We were all pumped since this was really the moment we had been waiting for. Neither of us really new what to expect, but I can tell you that what we saw greatly surpassed any expectations that any of us had. I can honestly say that I have never seen anything more powerful in all my life then “The Falls”. Amazing, spectacular, unbelievable, sensational.........none of these adjectives really do it justice. There just isn't enough adjectives in the dictionary to adequately describe it. The moment I looked across and saw the power of “The Falls” I felt so small, yet so blessed to be in the presence of such a Mighty God who actually wanted to have a relationship with me. It brought me nearly to tears, and I was just thankful to have the opportunity to see such a magnificent site. It was a very spiritual experience for me and really for all of us. We all feel honored to get a chance to serve the Creator of this spectacular universe, and being in his obvious presence gave us all a great deal of momentum heading into our last month.

So after I picked my jaw off the ground, and thanked God for allowing me to be here we began our 2 kilometer hike around the falls. The rainy season has just come to an end so “The Falls” were bigger and faster then usual. This also meant reverse precipitation was at an all-season high. Reverse precipitation is just when you have so much water falling a large amount will essentially ricochet back up. As you can imagine this gets you, the viewer, soaked from all angles. Before the hike we had decided we were just going to get wet, and thought we would forgo the ponchos. But I don't think any of us had any idea of how wet we actually got. It was amazing. The trail goes in an arc around the falls, but every 20-40 feet there are overlooks that give you the best views. This is also where you get the most soaked. When you stand at the edge of these lookouts you just get pounded with water from all directions. It hits you in gusts, and it is an absolutely amazing experience. Beau, Paul, Stephen, and I loved to get right up to the edge and feel the full blast of the water. It was great seeing Beau with “the guys” in our group. As the girls hung back just a bit. Beau was always ready to go charging into where the action was. We all just had an amazing experience and our so glad we pushed through with the trip to get here. All the driving, sleepless night, and crying kids were well worth the chance to see Victoria Falls, and experience our Creator at a whole new level.

After we dried off and got back in the car we had to race to make it to our next scheduled event of the day. We left the park at 4:15, and were actually supposed to meet the people to pick us up for our Vic Falls sunset cruise at 4:15. Somehow we managed to dry everyone off, change clothes, diapers, and get the diaper bags reloaded just in time before our cruise took off.(Thank goodness for African time) The cruise was a lot of fun. It was just great to be on the water. We saw several Hippos, and stayed up stream from the falls. At one point the captain said if you go any farther forward the current is to strong, and we'd be in trouble. He reiterated that only jet boats are strong enough to go any closer to the falls without getting sucked over to the edge.(You didn't have to tell us twice). At one point Paul joked about how often those great big hippos get too far down stream. They may be powerful, but definitely no stronger then jet boats. I think we both got a good chuckle with that morbidly funny picture of seeing a big hippo getting sucked over the falls(what a site that would be).

After the cruise we headed back to the lodge for another marvelous feast that Stephen had prepared. The trip was now coming to an end. We got the kids to be as early as we could, knowing that we had a 8-9 hour drive ahead of us tomorrow. We head back to antelope park tomorrow for one more nights on the river tent, then back to Harare the next for the trips conclusion. We just pray for safety tonight with 2 days of driving ahead.

Zimbabwe Vacation #5

2010-04-26T14:37:00.000-07:00

Day 5

This morning April 19th, at Miombo lodge we were woken up bright and early as usual by Gracie. She's quite the morning girl, usually by 6am she is up and ready for the day. Its amazing how God changes your mindset and perspective as life brings changes. Several years ago I couldn't imagine getting up at 6am on vacation. If I had to I would be quite irritable, and a little unpleasant to be around for at least a couple of hours. Now, even as we laid in our small thatched roof cottage we both enjoyed being up before sunrise. And as Beau awoke and decided to join us just before 7am it was wonderful just to lay there and see the 2 of them interact as they each took turns making the other laugh. Shea and I can't think of much else we'd would rather do then lay in bed and play with the kids, tell stories, and watch them laugh. I guess the old saying is quite true: “The best things in life our free”.

After enjoying a nice breakfast of eggs, sausage, tomatoes, beans and toast, we had a nice leisurely time by the pool. Beau loves to swim, but over the last couple of months he has started to realize why we adults don't love cold water. He used to love sitting in cold baths and showers, but has recently decided that being cold isn't as much fun as he once thought. But after some coaxing he gladly jumped in and enjoyed being thrown in the air as usual.

After swimming we had wonderful sandwiches for lunch, and jumped in our van and headed to Victoria Falls. Beau and Abbi did great on the drive, but Gracie is really starting to turn into a bad passenger. I think we have finally realized that she has spent so little time in a car seat over the last 4 months, that now she won't tolerated being strapped in for more then an hour. Poor Shea was trying everything, but finally the one thing that gave her some peace was a partially chewed ginger snap cookie (we have great pictures). Gracie loved them and finally calmed down....to the thrill of the rest of the vehicle. After our short 2 hour drive we made it to Victoria falls city, and to our lovely Lokuthula lodge. Its funny every time we arrive in a new place Beau rather loudly exclaims “We're home!”. I can't imagine what life must be like for the 2 toddlers, as they have lived in so many places over the last 1 year. I think wherever we lay our head for the night is home to them. So we're all just glad that they have been such excellent travelers.

Anyway, we made it just in time for check in and were greeting by several odd guests. We found about 10 wart hogs grazing right outside are door, as well as tons of little monkeys swings in trees right out back. The lodge we stayed at was huge. It was a very unique 2 story structure that was completely covered with a thatched roof. The back of the lodge was covered in canvas and the whole rear wall could be completely unzipped so you could see all the wildlife walking around behind us. Paul and April are always gracious enough to give us first choice on the room, since we have an extra crib to fit next to us. So we were lucky enough to get the top loft which also had a large canvas window that also opened up for an excellent view of all the wildlife and trees. It feels very much like staying in a tree house.

As I mentioned earlier when we first arrived there were wart hogs all around our lodge. We all spent a lot of time watching them eat, and interacting with one another, and came to the conclusion that they were quite docile animals. Well initial assumptions about wildlife are often slightly misguided as we found out. Shortly after our arrival Beau and I were walking by a group of trees watching all the monkeys swing from branch to branch with a nice sized family of wart hogs munching on grass near us. By then we had become quite used to having them close by, so I was much less vigilant about watching there every move. I'm not quite sure what happened, but Beau must have made eye contact that they didn't appreciate. In a blink of an eye I heard a large squealing sort of grunt and the male of the group made a quick charge at Beau. Fortunately I was right there so I quickly swept him into my arms, and any serious injury was avoided. So the moral of the story is never trust wildlife and don't tick off wart hogs.

The rest of the day we just relaxed in our nice lodge, and that evening we had a once in a lifetime experience at the Boma. The Boma is a world famous wild game restaurant that just happened to be 2 blocks from our lodge. The food and atmosphere were amazing! We ate animals ranging from eland, ostrich, impala, kudu, wart hog and even crocodile. The wart hog was by far the tastiest meat, and Beau and I made sure we ate a little extra to symbolically teach our little friends a lesson for there attack earlier. During the meal we had African dancers, face painters and drummers. We had a fantastic array of deserts (I think I tried at least 7-8 different kinds). The finale of the night occurred when the drummers actually gave us a little drum and dance lesson. Beau especially loved the drums and hes actually got some pretty good rhythm for a 2 year old. Beau and I were also were one of several called to the front to attempt a little African dance for everyone's viewing pleasure (I think everyone enjoyed watching his facial expressions more then my rhythm-less moves). Overall it was a great day and wonderful evening, and I look forward to melting into my bed with a nice full belly.

Zimbabwe Vacation #4

2010-04-25T06:02:00.000-07:00

Day 4

Well today April 18th, we hit the road again! We left Antelope park around 7am this morning, and headed to Hwange national park. Our stay the last 2 days had been wonderful. So wonderful in fact, that we actually considering staying in Antelope Park the next 4 days, and forgoing the hundreds of kilometers of driving that is awaiting us on our eventual arrival at our final destination of Victoria Falls. Our desire to see one of the 7 wonders of the world won out and we decided to press on. The drive today was quite long...about 6-7 hours. We all did pretty well, although Gracie had quite a melt down at one point. The nice thing about no seat belt laws here, is you can just take your kid out of their seat at anytime for feedings. Although Shea naturally would prefer to leave her in the confines of her safety seat, her good judgment was finally worn down by the screams. Gracie got a nice meal, and sat in “Mommas” lap for a while, much to the appreciation of the rest of the vehicle.

We arrived at Miombo lodge shortly after 1pm. It was nestled right in the middle of the largest game park in Zimbabwe.......Hwange National Park. The lodge here was much more “wild”. It was quite secluded, and no lush green river beds any where to be seen. Its rugged beauty, and feel of untamed wilderness with the possibility of seeing wild game at any time was quite appealing.(Paul and Abbi actually "stumbled" onto a large elephant during one of their walks). Our accommodations were a bit smaller, but also beautiful in there own way. They were small lodges (probably about half the size of an average US bedroom), with shower and toilet partially connected by a common thatched roof, and several smaller thatched walls(by all practical purposes outside). These lodges gave us a feeling of an actual Shona house, and I think we appreciated the difficulties of squeezing in 2 cribs next to our bed, and finding small “nooks and crannies” to place our bags and things. Overall we really enjoyed the location and accommodations of Miombo lodge.

Later in the afternoon we were taken on a game drive right in the middle of Hwange. It was a wonderful night as we all spread across 3 rows of ascending benches precariously strapped on top of a small truck. It was excellent for viewing game. We saw a great variety of animals including: Elephants, Giraffes, Zebra, Hippos, and Crocodiles just to name a few. The best find of the night was a large herd of Elephants, probably 40-50 in number that walked right next to the dirt road as we slowly drove by. It was amazing site to see, and according to the locals was quite unusual to see such a large herd in that particular area. The only animal we didn't see were the lion, but fortunately Shea and I had plenty of close encounters with the lions the night before. We drove back after dark going about 20-40 km/hr on the back of the truck. We were all bundled together enjoying the nice crisp cool evening. It felt much like flying across a lake in a boat after dark, and I think we all enjoyed the sensation of being cold, since it has been so long since our skin receptors had perceived such a sensation.

Tonight ended with a fabulous meal prepared for us by our young guide. He prepared steamed broccoli, pasta, sausage meatballs, and a tremendous mushroom white sauce that filled our hungry stomachs. We continue to be amazed by the talents, and maturity of our young guide as he leads us on this trip across Zimbabwe. Praise the Lord for another safe and wonderful day!

Zimbabwe Vacation #3

2010-04-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

Day 3

Today, April 17th was another great day. We woke up early as we usually do with Gracie. But is was great to be in a nice cool tent with sounds of nature all around us. We took our time this morning as we decided not to plan any activities until after our wonderful 8:30am breakfast. Before breakfast we explored the beautiful scenery, and watched as scores of birds and mist gently lifted off the top of the river. Here at Antelope Park there is a long list of activities to choose from. Anything from a safari drive, carriage rides, walking with lions, riding elephants, feeding lions, and so on and so forth. Unfortunately, with our kids being so small there were only several things that they were aloud to do, or that they would enjoy. The one thing that we all agreed the kids would love was the carriage ride through the bush. So after breakfast our group decided to do a horse drawn carriage ride through the game park. The carriage ride was great. Beau and Abbi just loved being pulled by horses, not to mention all the big game animals that we were able to see. We saw one herd of giraffes (at least 5-10) that walked right in front of our carriage. This was tremendously exciting for me, but you can imagine the look on Abbi and Beau's face as the giant beasts crossed our path. In the middle of the 2 hour carriage ride we stopped for snacks at an unusually large tree where a large tree house awaited us. Paul and I took turns carrying Beau and Abbi up the multitude of precariously placed, yet sturdy tree steps for an excellent view of the vast African wilderness. We thoroughly enjoyed our carriage adventure, and had another great meal waiting for us afterward.

Probably the highlight of our short trip so far, has been Shea and I's lion walk. Today we were fortunate to have two of our friends from Karanda, Anna and Nicci meet us for part of our trip. Thankfully for us, they graciously asked the 4 of us if they could watch our kids why we enjoyed one of the more adult adventures here at the park. Shea and I always hate being away from the kids(Oh...who am I kidding...any chance for a small break and trustworthy babysitting is always a welcome chance to spend some time together). So we quickly and gladly accepted and decided that we would partake in Antelope Parks famous “lion walk”. According to the park they were the first safari outfit to ever provide such and opportunity with the un-tamable “king of the jungle”, and still one of the few places in the world where you can actually walk with lions. We've heard wonderful things about this experience, and I immediately jumped at the chance. Shea took a little more coaxing(I wonder why....she has actually taken car of 2 lion attack victims in the hospital both of which were supposedly pet lions), but eventually she agreed.....so we signed up. The walk was an amazing experience. Antelope Park has one of Africa's largest lion conservation programs. The steps of the program our actually quite involved, and I don't want to bore you with the details. But the goal is simple. They want young lions to grow up self sufficient to where they can eventually be released into the wild and survive on there own. The lion walk usually takes place with lions between the ages of 15 to 18 months. The primary purpose is for the guides to see how these younger lions react to other animals and situations in the wild, and to see if they are ready to progress in the program. Today we were with 3 lions. Two males and one female. They were probably 75% of the size of a full grown lion, but still very intimidating creatures. And as we learned lions can never be tamed. No matter how used to humans they are, they can turn on people within seconds for no apparent reason. Supposedly the owner learned that lesson the hard way, when one of his female lions attacked him and took his arm.(a fine thank-you for giving the lion such a nice habitat). So needless to say, we were excited but cautious about the whole experience. The walk started at the edge of the bush where these 3 lions awaited us in a large cage. They were released from the cage right in front of us, and the walk began. We had 3 guides and one other couple with us. The lions were in charge of were we went, we were just lucky to be so close, and able to watch there every move. They started the walk by spotting several zebra about ¼ of a mile away. They all 3 worked together to stalk there potential pray as we walked anxiously right behind them. Unfortunately for us, the zebras caught wind of the situation and quickly retreated, but it was still awesome watching them as they worked together to try and take down some food. We also watched them play, climb trees, and roll around in front of us. We have some great pictures to prove it. The walk lasted about 1-2 hours, and was and great experience. Even by the end Shea kind of warmed up to the idea of the lions. Although she has one encounter when one of the male lions approached her and made strong eye contact (they call it the lions “natty eyes”). So she quickly slammed her stick(as we were told to do), and said “no” and the lion slowly turned and went the other direction. The goal is to always make them feel like you are the dominant animal whenever they get closed to acting up (like my little wife is really dominant over a 200-300 lb male lion). But thankfully it worked very well. The trainers did a great job, and I don't think we had any other “near death” experiences. Overall it was a wonderful time, and something Shea nor I will ever forget. The rest of the night was great. We had another wonderful dinner, got the kids to bed, and crashed ourselves slowly thereafter. Praise God for another great Day!

Zimbabwe Vacation #2

2010-04-23T03:36:00.000-07:00

Day 2

Today, April 16th we were met by our long haired, younger then expected white African tour guide at 7:45 am. (He was actually only 20 years old, but very capable and experienced for his age). His name is Stephen. He came with a nice big van, so there was plenty of room for all of our stuff, especially since we had already packed so light. Also there was seat belts in the middle seats, so we could actually use are car seats the conventional way and not just for a high chair at mealtime. Our guide was charged with taking our 2 families hundreds of miles(1950 kilometers round trip to be exact) through Zimbabwe, guiding us through various game parks, cooking and cleaning most of our meals, and handling police roadblocks, and any vehicle malfunctions that could occur. Seemed like a huge challenge for most, especially at 20. Fortunately, he had already guided many mission trips into the majority of countries in Africa. So he was very experienced. Both of his parents passed away by the time he was 9. So he and his sister who was 9 older became quite self-sufficient at very young ages. Needless to say, he seemed to be up for the task, and we were all just excited for a change of scenery and a chance to “hit the open road”. Today we only had to drive 4 hours from Harare to Antelope Park.

The drive went rather smooth....thankfully. The kids did well, aside from a few small outbursts. But nothing that Elmo and Brother Bear and a laptop with a DVD player couldn't fix (Not to mention some nice “biscuits” or as I like to call them cookies).

We arrived at our 1st destination shortly after lunch was served.......and what a feast it was! The view was phenomenal as we had green manicured grass all around, that crawled right up to the edge of lush river, teaming with wildlife. It was the paradise we had hoped for, and we were all thrilled. We stayed in river tents. They were actually large canvas structures with an enclosed brick bathroom attached, overlooking a small marsh that was adjacent to the river. We each had large balconies that overlooked the water, and was perfect for viewing birds, fish, and other wildlife that wondered around behind us. It is really very luxurious, and peaceful. A wonderful place for all of us to recharge our batteries.

All the meals here are provided by the cooks here at Antelope Park. The meals today were simply amazing! We had a large selection of meats and sides with cool crisp ice cream for desert. The best part of the meal was that we were not responsible for any dishes. Paul and I joked about the dishes as we went back for seconds and thirds and casually left our used plates behind. Overall it was a wonderful 2nd day. We praise God that we made it safely, and are already enjoying the rest!

Zimbabwe Vacation

2010-04-22T16:50:00.000-07:00

We just made it back to Harare from our weeklong excursion through Zimbabwe. Were all doing well. I've tried to keep a daily journal of all our notable experiences. I decided to just send out one of the entries every day for each of the 7 days of traveling that we had. Hopefully you find it interesting.......if not than stop reading:):)! Alright, well enjoy.

Day 1

Let the adventure begin! Today, April 15th we set out on the first leg of our trip. We began by driving ourselves from Karanda to Harare. I think we are very excited to have a break from the bush. We have been in Karanda 6 weeks straight, and are anxious to get in a car and head to an actual city. We are traveling with a group called ACTS. They are a group that specializes in leading short term mission trips into remote places in Africa, and they also plan and lead vacations for long and short term missionaries. We were informed by them that we should pack light, probably backpacks and small bags, so as to fit everything in the vehicle for the long trip. Its a tall task to pack “light” when you have 2 kids and your traveling through Africa for 7 days. We did our best to comply, and we'll just have to see how this “backpacking trip” really goes.

We didn't get far from Karanda when our first obstacle presented itself. You see, there are 2 ways to get from Karanda to the paved road that will take us to Harare. One way is 25 Km of bumpy, rocky, winding roads that takes adds about 40-45 minutes to the trip. The other-way just recently became a possibility as the river waters are just beginning to recede (200-300 feet wide at the crossing point, and probably mid thigh to waist deep at some points). This way is only 4-5 Km on dirt road and is a straight shot to the highway. Now we are driving a Land Rover with 4 wheel-drive....so that is to our advantage. We also just talked to several missionaries who recently braved the waters. Two of them said it was difficult, but thought we could make it, the other said she made it but she would not advise trying to cross it at this time. So naturally, that's 2 to 1 in favor of giving it a shot. So......as we approached the river we could see that it was quite high. There were Shona people walking across, but the water was above their knees, probably close to there waist in some areas. I turned to everyone for one last bit of encouragement, made sure the kids were all buckled in, said a quick prayer.........oh yeah and made sure Paul got his video camera out(sink or swim we had to make sure we got this on camera). Then......I decided to go for it. I had two people in the front seat with me. I had Dr Smith (a visiting neurologist from the US), and Shea both eagerly awaiting and pondering every move. It was nice having 2 opinions as I began my plunge into the waters, but unfortunately they both shouted opposite commands as I began driving in the water. Shea shouted “faster”, Dr Smith shouted “slow down”, and April and Paul (in the very back) were shouting other commands as well. As we approached the deepest area of the river I could see that water was approaching the hood of the truck. I could also see that we were making quite a wake (and for a brief second thought: “this could be fun to ski behind.....then I went back to reality), the tires were covered with water, and I knew we were very close to stalling out. I really started to doubt why we were doing this, and wished we had just taken the extra 45 minutes of driving. Unfortunately the middle of the river was no place to turn around. I kept driving, as I continued to get conflicting orders from my 4 backseat drivers: “More the the left!”, “no more to the right!”, “stay in the middle!” “Were not going to make it!!!” But thankfully, after a bit of stress, some shouting, and a few prayers.......we made it to the other side. It was a great feeling! We got through the first major obstacle of the trip, and shaved 45 minutes off the trip as well (always nice with 3 kids in the back).

We made it to Harare with no other issues. We enjoyed a nice big pizza dinner, as we always do in town. Paul and April went to the store and loaded us up with some excellent drinks and snacks for the road. We bunked down for the night, and awaited pick-up from our ACTS tour guide in the morning. I'm sure more good stories are sure to follow!

A Day at the OPD!

2010-04-13T08:05:00.000-07:00

Well I hope this doesn't bore everyone to tears, but I decided to write a blog about a typical busy day at the OPD(outpatient department) here at Karanda Hospital(by the way it was April 12). If nothing else its just a good way for me to look back and see what kind of things we see on a usual OPD day. This will probably be more interesting to those of you in medicine or just those of you who find medicine interesting. To the rest of you read on at your own risk. I'll be just listing the majority of the patients I saw, but for your reading pleasure I might just throw in some interesting side commentary.

Anyway, as always the day starts out for Shea, Paul and I rounding on the wards. This month Shea and I have been in the Female Ward. Female ward is generally the busiest. Usually we have anywhere from 25-30 patients that need to be seen. Luckily for me on this particular day we only had 18 patients....so as you can imagine it made rounds quite a bit faster. On this day the female ward had 9 post-operative patients(ranging from hysterectomies(5), ovarian tumor removal, scalp tumor removal, thyroidectomy, and vesico-vaginal fistula repair). We had 9 other patients with diagnosis's ranging from: HIV, TB, pneumonia, vaginal bleeding with severe anemia, heart failure, and intractable Headache. After rounds is when the fun began!

Now to give you some background OPD is not just a normal outpatient clinic. We don't have an ER here at Karanda so from 9-5 everyone goes straight to the OPD....so there is always an interesting mix of the worried well, and critically ill. Basically, the clinic takes place in a fairly small room surrounded by benches. We are all quite packed together in a poorly circulated, warm room. I will sit at a table with a translator next to me, and a long line of people sit crowed around us on benches waiting for there turn to be seen(Its actually a bit unnerving because they just sit and stare why you talk to and examine the other patients). The nurses triage the patients and actually 25-40% of the patients are actually seen by nurses. Its the lucky ones who actually get to see a doctor (Well I guess that depends which doctor it is :)) Many of these people live within a 5-10 KM area, but the majority live quite far away, and many had to get up as early as 4 am to wait to be seen.

On this particular day I saw 68 patients (which is probably quite typical). Now to put this into perspective most family medicine clinics see about 20-30 patients a day(and this doesn't account for all the other patients that the nurses saw). So its quite different than what we are used to back home, and I can tell you I'm learning a lot. OK,OK,OK, now for the list you have all been waiting for. Many of them are fairly routine things, but many were quite interesting. I will just list them in the chronological order I saw them.

I saw crytococcal meningitis(brain infection in HIV patient), drug reaction to HIV medicine(quite common since the HIV meds have many side effects), HIV wasting syndrome(this is usually the last stage before death for these patients), olecranon fracture(fracture of the elbow), foot fracture, fracture of the tibia/fibula(the fracture was a bit old and probably difficult to fix), ascaris infection in a toddler (worms that crawl around your bowels.....think about that tonight when you eat some pasta), Tertiary syphilis,( This was actually quite interesting. This man came in with paralysis from the waste down for 5 days. He had large painless ulcer on his privates (gotta put that for the kids).....usually diagnostic for syphilis. Of course he was HIV positive..so this always complicates everything.....I started him on antibiotics, and when our X-ray machine is working again we'll take a picture of his spine, but for now we'll see how he does), Conjunctivitis (infection of the eye), Kaposi Sarcoma (tumor caused by HIV), Benign prostatic hypertrophy (we see a lot of these around here, since we are one of the only hospitals in the country that removes prostates), new diagnosis of tuberculosis, tension headache, hypertension/backache (fairly typical US stuff), radial/ulnar fracture in a kid, hydrocephalus, osteoarthritis in both knees in an older lady, large ear keloid (enlarged scar), otitis media, tuberculosis, pneumonia in pregnant lady, child with multiple skin abscesses (probably HIV positive), heart failure, abscess of left foot, hepatitis, DVT (blood clot in your leg) , tuberculosis, pneumonia (this was a very sick older man), HIV diarrhea, gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis, impetigo (skin infection in a child), a mother that couldn't lactate, phimosis (a good reason circumcised), 3rd trimester pregnancy with complications, ruptured otitis media, CVA(stroke), malunion of radius and ulnar fracture( 3 month old fracture that wasn't set properly).................OK, OK I'll take a break and put a period. Next I saw post herpatic neuralgia (bad headache and someone who has had a herpes infection), malnutrition, tuberculosis(there seems to be a bit of a TB pattern here), cellulitis(another type of skin infection), conjunctivitis vs glaucoma(sent that one to theater for a proper eye exam), DVT, large lipoma (benign fatty tumor), TB (x2 more), infected VP shunt(shunt for kids with hydrocephalus), pregnancy with poor dating, fungal infection of the scalp, severe eczema, parotid gland abscess, femur fracture, urinary tract infection, pneumonia, atopic dermatitis (allergic rash), cataracts in both eyes (one is totally blind so to late for surgery), hemorrhoids, severe ascites (lots of fluid in the abdomen that shouldn't be there probably from liver failure or heart failure), osteomyelitis of the tibia(infection in the bone), severe vaginal bleeding(had a hemoglobin of 3(should be 12-14 in a normal women), hematuria x 2 years(probably bladder cancer), miscarriage, prostatitis, sinusitis with large reactive lympadenitis(large swollen lymph nodes), tuberculosis(what kind of day would it be without at least one more TB patient...this was on death's doorstep by the way), severe heart failure, and to finish it off one large fibroid uterus (a uterus with large benign tumors).

So that was a mouthful! I think my fingers are beginning to cramp a bit. It was a long, but very fun day for me. I would still prefer to be in the operating room, but the OPD has really grown on me over the last couple of months. I hope you enjoyed the tour through a day at the OPD here at Karanda Hospital. Many, many interesting patients for one day, and there is always more where that came from. I'll be back there to do it again tomorrow.

A week after Easter

2010-04-10T02:31:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Easter weekend last week. We went to church and Roland Stephens, the eighty year old surgeon that is a missionary here, gave the Easter message. It was a good reminder of what Christ has done for us on the cross. Then we went over to Roland and Cathy Stephens’ home for a potluck lunch, which had an abundant amount of great homemade food. We are definitely not losing weight like I thought we might here is Zimbabwe.

John, Beau, and Paul had a great time when they found a chameleon and brought him into our house. We all enjoyed them moving him from place to place and watching his color change in a matter of seconds, I hadn’t realized they changed colors so quickly. You can see him and read more at http://www.mcquilleninternaltional.blogspot.com/ .

Two of the missionaries here, Anna and Nicci, watched our children last week and gave us and the McQuillens a date at “a romantic Italian restaurant” (Nicci and Anna’s dinning room). Nicci is Italian, so it actually was as authentic as you can make it in the middle of the bush, Zimbabwe. We watched “My Sisters Keeper” afterward; it was a very fun evening. While walking back to our house in the dark, we were very vigilant with our flashlights about looking for snakes because there seems to be more around lately. We thought we were safe as Paul stepped through the front door, then April started to step up and something slimy clung to her leg…she let out a loud scream. I decided I had better get out of there, as I turned and ran I tripped in the cement gutter drain and landed on my side on the sidewalk just in time to hear April start laughing. Apparently it was a small frog that had decided to jump onto her ankle…Nicci said that her and Beau had been playing with it earlier and had put it on the front door step, a couple of hours ago, thinking it would hop away. We all had a very good laugh about the whole situation.

The other exciting news is that my mom is going to join us here on April 23rd. We are looking forward to her arrival; I think she’ll have a lot to contribute here. It will also be a special time that she’ll get to spend with Beau and Gracie. She plans on flying back with us to help us on the planes with them. We are very lucky to have had a grandma on the flights both to and from Zimbabwe. We pray all of you are doing well. Please keep us updated on your lives as well. We miss you and will hopefully see you soon.- Shea

Passing the Torch

2010-03-26T13:37:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I last posted something on this blog. We are all doing quite well. The kids are healthy and happy, and Shea and I are getting busier by the day chasing Beau, and keeping up with all of Gracies different stages. Since I last wrote we've celebrated Beau's 2 year old birthday, Gracie is now 6 months, and 2 of my sisters each had babies (Colton and Kate...who we can't wait to see). Beau's birthday was a lot of fun. We ended up having a pool party for Beau....probably the first this part of Zimbabwe has ever seen. It may not have been the biggest pool you've ever seen(ok..ok it was only a kiddie pool), but it had cool water ,and the local African kids, and Beau and Abbi absolutely loved it. Beau and Abbi were probably taken back a bit, by the excitement of the local kids(ok Beau actually left the pool crying at one point....he just wasn't used to having 5-6 bigger kids jumping around and splashing in he and Abbi's little pool), but overall they enjoyed themselves. We actually cooked hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, and Shea made 2 great cakes(chocolate peanut butter and strawberry) from scratch, turned out great. I think all of the kids really enjoyed the food...a little better then the normal sadza (corn meal mash) that they are used to eating.Beau continues to grow at a lightening pace. He is saying more things all the time. He loves chasing beetles, ants, and especially lizards. (he actually starting to catch them on his own now) He's working on the whole potty training thing right now(couldn't come at a better time...the whole cloth diaper thing is getting a little old). His new love of chewing gum has been a great incentive for him to use the toilet. He's actually pretty good at chewing it, and not taking it out.(except for the time I found he and Abbi ripping off an old piece off the ground that he had dropped some time ago....oh well with kids theres always exceptions). Its been especially fun watching him explore the African bush these last few months. He never gets tired of being outside and exploring the vast terrain(namely our front yard:)). He gets stir crazy sitting inside for very long (takes after his dad). Its been a ton of fun watching him have his own adventures as he explores new trees, plants, bugs and animals(just so long as he stays away from the mambas and cobras). For me its like living life again as a little boy......(I guess for those of you who know me best, you wouldn't think thats much different then normal). Anyway, he is doing great, and we can't wait for everyone to see him when we get back.Gracie is also changing everyday. She is becoming such a beautiful little girl. Compared to Beau her activity's don't seem quite as fast pace, but Shea and I see her doing different things daily. She is now almost sitting up on her own, getting closer to crawling, and eating solid food(She hates bananas though). She definitely chatters more then Beau did at his age, so she may be quite the talker here in a few months. She was actually ravenged by mosquitoes one night several weeks ago. ( I think Shea counted...38 bites....something only a mother would do) We both felt awful for her, but the bites are all healed, and no signs of malaria.......so I think we're out of the woods. She really is doing wonderful and is a joy for Shea and I. As I mentioned Shea and I are staying busy with the kids and work. But we are loving every minute of it(or I guess I should say....most minutes of it). The hospital is full of interesting pathology, challenging cases, and heart wrenching stories. We've seen a wide variety of problems including: land mine amputations, gold mine accident(see Paul and Aprils latest blog if your interested in the details), fractures, HIV, TB, Hydrocephalus, Prostrate cancer, cervical cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, Hepatitis, Malaria, schistosomiases, meningitis, and people with strange things growing in strange places(just to name a few :)). We've also been busy doing most of the C-sections here at the hospital. We've done them without light (well I at least had my $8 walmart headlamp), without sterile gowns(Shea and I each had nice plastic aprons...keeps the blood off at least), and performed them on patients who had been in labor greater then 3 days(not a easy thing for those of you not in medicine). So the educational experience we have received has been unbelievable, and we've taken a great deal of the work load off the other doctors so I think its been good for them as well. Shea and I are still splitting up some of the hospital/house workload. We are currently taking care of the women's ward, and last month we took care of the Pediatric ward. The wards are all busy, and each one provides a unique array of problems and pathology. We've also enjoyed getting the opportunity to share our faith with patients and hospital employees. That in fact, is the biggest reason we are here(its easy to get caught up in all the blood and guts....literally), but the reality is we came here to share Christ with people who don't yet know him. All 4 of us feel that with local Shona friendships, and great translators, we have been able to truly minister to patients staff and and especially the HIV orphans spiritual and physical needs. This has enriched our time here more then anything else. Other then that we have enjoyed the extra free time we seem to have. We're out here in the middle of nowhere, so there are'nt a lot of distractions. There is a small little local sadza resturant next to some of the shops.( It looks more like an old west town, then any shopping center we are used to) They serve “burn your fingers” hot sadza with either beef, chicken or veggies. We have begun to frequent that place at least once a week. The beef is a little tough, but tastes great....and we dont have to cook it(so thats always a big win). Before we go into the big city again it will be 6 weeks. After about 3-4 weeks we get pretty stir crazy for civilization, so that will be a nice break for all of us.We are finding one of the biggest benefits to being isolated here in Zimbabwe is the free time we have had....... especially at night. It has really been great for our familys and it has given Shea and I a lot of time to talk and to dig deeper into God's word. Life in the US is so fast paced......there is always more to do in a day than possible, and my prayer and quiet times have always seemed to take a back seat to the busy schedule I help to create. Getting a chance to really spend time in the Word has been great. So I just wanted to share a little of what God has been putting on my heart these last few months. The book that has made the most impact on me lately is 2 Timothy. A little background for those of you who don't know. This is the last book that the apostle Paul wrote before he died. At the time of his writings he was sitting in a cold, hard, lonely, Roman prison(essentially on death row). He had already been through years of traveling, years of preaching, and years of persecution all for the sake of advancing the Gospel of Christ. He had persevered through shipwrecks, beatings, stonings, and imprisonments. In this, his last letter Paul chooses to “pass the torch” to Timothy, a loyal, yet inexperienced friend. He starts out with encouragement. In 2 Timothy 1: 7-8 He says “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God” He then warns Timothy of the trials that await him and how to prepare for these inevitable hardships. He compares it to being like a good soldier, an athlete, and a farmer in 2 Timothy 2:4-7. In 2:4 he says“Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus” He also reminds Timothy of his current suffering, and says in Chapter 2 verse. 9 “ For which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God's word is not chained.”(Powerful words) Toward the end of the book in probably my favorite verse, Paul says “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith.”(Can't you just hear Pauls tired and rugged voice as he utters those phrases)This whole book is incredibly encouraging! You can feel Paul's emotions as he writes it. His moods alternate between sadness and confidence, nostalgia and grave concern. He does not write in his normal composed, and intellectual tone. Instead he writes as one whose physical body is suffering, and although contemplating giving up his spiritual body fights on, like a rugged and tested general calling his troops into battle. So many of you who have continued to read all the way through my ramblings are probably saying “Ok thats nice and all but whats your point? What does this have to do with Zimbabwe?” (don't worry I'd probably be thinking the same thing...I don't really like long rambling blogs either). Ok...the point: We, as believers, have the opportunity and the privilege to accept this torch and run the race that has been run by so many great men and women before us. Just think about that for a moment. You and I get to follow and serve the Creator of the universe.(It gives me chills) And we're not the only ones! There have been thousands upon thousands of great men and women who have given their life to our Creator. They are all now in eternity cheering for you as you run this race in both joy and suffering. Many have even given there physical lives in death and torture (as did Paul) to see that the Gospel of Christ would spread to the ends of the earth. The writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” We are all currently running the difficult race of Christianity, but the wonderful thing is we don't have to do it alone. We do have a great cloud of witnesses that are rooting us to victory, and praying that we will keep the torch and then pass it on to those that come behind us. I can just picture these words from 2 Timothy being written directly to me....and in reality they were. God spoke to Paul in such a way that even two thousand years later the torch of faith would still be passed to new generations of believers through the words Paul once had written down. Today as you read this, I'm asking you to fully except this torch of faith that has been offered to you. Know that the road wont always be filled with joy. There will be temporary pain and suffering along the way. But the indescribable joy of living with The Creator and all fellow believers throughout history.....well I just don't have the words to adequately express that joy. Let this way of thinking change how you live your life....I know it has for me. You can't just settle for church as a hobby or just something to do on sundays with this way of thinking. As one of my favorite preachers Matt Chandler always says “Church by itself is really a lame hobby!”. That statement resonates so true. So accept this torch with vigor and excitement, and let it transform the way you live your day to day life.I know for me today, its not just about accepting this “torch” and moving forward with my own spiritual journey. My job personally, and we as believers have been charged with the challenge of passing the torch/baton of faith to people coming after us. I have to raise Beau and Gracie to know our Lord, so that very soon they can take the torch and run the race. I hope all of us when our life comes to an end can confidently say “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith”

Fever of unknown origin

2010-02-08T20:44:00.000-08:00

Fever of unknown origin! For those of you who are medical you have an idea of what I am talking about. For the rest of you, this simply means a fever without an obvious source. For example a child with a fever, who has no obvious pneumonia, ear infection, sinus infection, or infected throat. In the United States we generally assume this is some sort of viral syndrome and the child will most likely improve over the course of 5-7 days with minimal treatment. In Africa, fever of unknown origin (FUO), especially in kids is much more daunting. With illnesses such as malaria, meningitis, and tuberculosis much more prevalent, and many parasitic infections present that are uncommon to us the differential diagnosis is much more challenging. Add to that, the fact that many children remain unvaccinated this creates quite a melting pot of infectious disease possibilities.
For this reason, one of my biggest fears when deciding to travel with small kids to Africa was the fever of unknown origin. Shea and I both knew this was a very real possibility, but still hoped this was a bridge we would not have to cross.
Unfortunately this last week we experienced FUO x2. First Gracie then Beau became ill with unexplained high fevers. After ruling out the most common things we decided (with the help of Todd Stephens who luckily was here) that they both should be treated for malaria. We have since treated them with 3 day courses of coartem, and after several sleepless nights they are both recovering well, and doing fine.
It was not an easy time, as you can imagine. I asked myself many times while holding Gracie why we were here. I thought to myself on more then one occasion about going home while praying that Beau would stop shaking and crying with fever. Looking into Shea's tearful eyes and not having any good answers was a terribly helpless feeling. It was quite a challenge, but I could feel the Lords presence as family back home kept us in close prayers, and our friends Paul and April were a constant encouragement and comfort to us on those wakeful nights. In the midst of it all it seemed very difficult. In reality many of you are going through, or have gone through many more difficult things. Even now as you are reading this many of you are struggling with loss of loved ones, abuse, broken relationships, job loss, financial crisis, poor health, and much more.
Fever of unknown origin in African is much like suffering that occurs in life. We do not usually know why it happens, or even how to make it stop. In the midst of the pain there are rarely answers or solutions to the problems at hand. All we can really do is keep going(or in medicine treating, often with multiple medications), and pray a lot. It is this dependence on God that makes the experience worth it. In the end the pain is always worth the growth (easy to say when your not in the midst!!). James says in James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Or in 1 Peter 1:6-7, Peter says “though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith-of greater worth then gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
The good news is trials/suffering like FUO usually resolve. Whether it takes 4-5 days( like it did with our kids), or many years (like the struggles I know some of you are facing today). In the end your pain is well worth the faith you gain through your perseverance. And your months or years worth of suffering will seem like a mere drop in the bucket compared to the inexpressible joy you will have for eternity with our Creator. Anyway, just another valuable lesson I've learned from our time here in Zimbabwe!
Well to change gears, aside from our little battle with illness things are continuing to go well here in Zimbabwe. We just had a visit from Dr Leu, and Dr Stephens. They were here for about 4 days, but added so much in there brief time here(actually....they literally brought a lot of stuff....most importantly a kiddy pool for the kids). But no, we really enjoyed rounding, clinic, and even operating with them. They were just very encouraging, and helped a lot with some of the work load.
We also made our first trip back to Harare to reload on groceries. It was really nice to get a break from the hospital, and mainly just driving in a car for a change(its amazing how much you miss the freedom to drive when you haven't done it for a while). Paul and I got to take turns driving a 1990s Toyota Land Rover through the bush in Zimbabwe and in Harare. It was awesome just to have the freedom and it was just a ton of fun to drive(especially the dirt roads). Don't worry April and Shea kept a close eye on us making sure we kept in the left lane(yeah.....they drive backwards here), and watched with great care as we made our very strange wide right turns. The whole driving on the wrong side of the road (well, I guess it depends who you ask), takes some getting used to, but by the end of the weekend I think we had it figured out. It was a lot of fun, and we do have an interesting driving in Zimbabwe story, but I think it will be more fun if we tell it in person.
The medicine here continues to be both challenging and fascinating. I know Paul has shared with you recently one of our sad C-section stories. (By the way if you haven't checked out Paul and Aprils blog, you should do so at mcquilleninternational.blogspot.com . Paul is a gifted writer, much more eloquent then I, and he gives much better play by play as he usually updates his blog twice weekly.....oh yeah and did I mention he also takes great pictures). Sorry for the commercial interruption...back to my thought. Anyway, we have had several very tough C-sections as moms often labor for 2-3 days at home, before they finally get to us. This makes the procedure very difficult since often the babies head is deep within the pelvis, and the babies are often near dead by the time they arrive. On the flipside, we have also had some really great outcomes were babies that should not have survived lived, and this has been very encouraging. We had one little 28 week baby deliver vaginally through a placenta previa (this is when the placenta covers some or all of the cervix...so not something you want to deliver through.) Anyway the mother went into preterm labor and we were giving her steroids to help mature the babies lung before Csection. Unfortunately she delivered precipitously before a Csection could be done. Amazingly the baby has done wonderful. Usually babies less then 34 weeks do not survive here, but obviously God is in control, and we are all excited to see this little one still kicking and crying.
Well I think I've gone well over my 1000 word limit(sorry not hard to do when I get rambling). I have so many more stories to share, but I'll have to save them for another time. Anyway all 4 of us our doing great. I think Gracie will be crawling soon. Beau is starting to talk a lot more and he is just a blast to be around(if we could just get him potty trained we'd really be ecstatic). He will be turning 2 in about a week, and I think he is already pumped for his cake and ice cream. Shea is doing a great job balancing home and work.....she really loves getting a chance to work in the hospital and is doing a great job.
We miss everyone a lot, and love getting all of your emails. So please keep them coming.(and pictures are great as well). We hope to hear from you all soon.
To His Glory
John, Shea, Beau and Gracie

Enjoying the outdoors!

2010-01-31T10:58:00.000-08:00

We have enjoyed this last week even more as we have began to

appreciate being able to get out into nature. Zimbabwe is very

beautiful and the people here are so kind. We thank you for

all of your prayers, as God has kept our family from any sickness

thus far.

Surgery Day

2010-01-27T12:07:00.000-08:00

Well I'm kind of new at this whole blogging thing. This is really my first pure blog. I usually just prefer email, but this seems to be the new trendy thing to do so I guess I'll give it a chance. I guess the way this works is you just start writing whats on my mind....well if I did that you would all be bored, because right now all I'm thinking is Taco Bell, Taco Bell, Taco Bell. Sorry I guess I'm a little hungry and I miss my old favorite fast food back in the states. Anyway back to my point. I think blogging is kind of like journal except everyone can read it. Thats kind of strange, but Oh well I'll give it a shot. I was going to sleep since our internet was down t0night, but happened to check before bed, and I guess its working again. Shea just went to sleep, and both the kids are down for the night(well at least beau, Gracie still likes to wake up on some occasion) Anyway, today was a great day at Karanda Hospital in Zimbabwe. MWF our my work days, and on TTH Shea works and I stay at home with the kids. Well Wen. just happen to be surgery days, so today after rounds, I got to spend all day in the theatre. It was wonderful! There is just something satisfying about reparing something thats broken. Well.............I guess I didnt really repair a whole lot today. We really just took a lot of things out. Namely testicles and prostates. It sounds a bit harsh but they are both actually quite fun to do, and you dont need to be a brain surgeon to do it. We did fix a few things though. A few broken bones, small intestine that was seperated, hernias, a clubbed foot, and a kids brain that wasnt draing fluid that way it should....just to name a few. So it was a great day at work!!! We then spent the evening on a 3 mile walk with the kids. We discovered how beautiful Zimbabwe really is. We havent ventured to far from the hospital until now, but it was breathtaking to see the rolling hills, farms and forests. Its also quite fun to see all the people walking with us on the dirt roads. Cars are quite a luxury that we have really gotten used to. But most people around here 3-7 KM every day just going to work, school, or down to the river to get water.
After the walk we all enjoyed a nice dinner, and sat inside and listened to the thunderous rain as it poured over our roof. It is such a wonderful sound, as the people here have been quite concerned over the drought which has hit them right in the middle of the farming season. So tonight is an answered prayer.
Well I guess that is the quick summation of my day. I can honestly say that we are really starting to enjoy our lives here at Karanda. There is still daily struggles and obstacles, but struggles will arise whereever you might live. In the end the Lord is in control, and you have to lay your head on your pillow at night giving all your concerns and worries to him. I'm so thankful that we serve a loving God, and so thankful that he loves Shea and my kids more then I ever could. I gladly give him the reigns!!!

Top 10

2010-01-26T21:46:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!!
Well it has been several weeks now and we and the McQuillens are finally getting settled in. My mom recently made it back to Wichita. We loved having her here why we got settled in, and she added so much to our trip. She also was able to work some in the school and with the HIV orphans.
It hasn’t been an easy trip as many of you know. It has been more taxing then Shea and I’s Kenyan trip 4 years ago. I think the 2 kids under 2 may have something to do with that. But we are starting to get accustomed to the lack of electricity and water much of the time. We are also getting used to cooking food from scratch, and planning meals well in advance.
We have asked ourselves many times over the last several weeks why we are here, but we both know this is where God wants us. He always provides us with just what we need (often not much more), and we have become quite thankful for little things. Like a nice cold shower at the end of the day to cool us off, a drink of cold clean water, and a nice freshly prepared chicken with all of the fixin’s. We’ve enjoyed sitting around our dark, hot room at night as Paul reads us stories from Wendell Berry’s: That Distant Land by flashlight. Or our morning devotionals as the Shona sing in accapella with their heavenly voices.
The medicine has also become more enjoyable. It is quite different then back home, and we realize more every day how lucky we are to have all of our resources we do in the US. Paul, Shea and I have been busy in the hospital wards, operating room, and clinic/triage rooms. We have performed C-sections, many other surgeries, and have seen many unusual illnesses. I look forward to sharing with you, some of the more interesting medical cases in the future
The poverty here is amazing and I am continuously reminded of the abundance we have, even here at Karanda. We actually have a freezer full of meat and water that runs most of the time…so we really can’t complain.
Beau and Gracie our adapting very well. It took about 7-10 days for them to get over jet lag, but they are now doing great. Beau spends most of his day running around with only a diaper(cloth of course), shoes and his brace. I think he would explore the whole country side if we'd let him. He's walking and running better all the time. I think the heat bothers us alot more then it does them. Gracie just rolled over several days ago, and she is smiling and chating with anyone that will listen (but of course her brother is always quick to steal back the attention).
I just thank all of you for your continued prayers, and ask that you keep them coming, as we probably have many challenges ahead of us. Up until now, no one has been really sick. We keep the kids under bed nets at night. And we all are faithfully taking are prophylaxis to keep them from getting malaria, as the malaria season is in full swing. Just continue praying that no major illness attack our family, and that the political climate here in Zimbabwe remain stable.
Before I go, I wanted to leave with you all with a top 10 list of things to remember when traveling with small children to Africa. These are just some of our funny memories, and lessons we learned the hard way through our first several weeks of traveling together with the McQuillens. Unfortunately for us there is actually more then 10……Oh well.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!!!!

Top 10 things to remember when traveling with small children to or in Africa!!! (No particular order)
1) Do not vomit more then 10 times on South African Air or the pilot will ask you to deboard the plane in Senegal (a muslim developing country) to receive proper(yeah right) medical care. (Unfortunately this happened to my mom)
2) Make sure your travel agent gives you more then 2 hours between connecting flights before you 18 hour flight, or you might find yourself sprinting in the airport, with a screaming 2 year old, a backpack, 2 over the shoulder carryons, and a roll behind carryon with a car seat strapped to it. (it wasn’t a good way to start the 18 hour flightJJ)
3) Make sure you never bring car seats, you will just end up carrying them through every airport on your back and never get to use them, as no vehicles actually have seat belts here in Africa.(I just wanted to burn those things)
4) Don’t bring a backpack that you hope your toddler can carry, as you will just end up carrying your toddler and his backpack, and all the toys that keep falling out of the pouches.
5) Make sure your travel agent checks all your bag through from your original destination to your final destination or in your short 2 hour layover you will be forced to carry all 15 checked bags, 14 carry-ons, 2 strollers(one we never got), and 2 car seats(remember we had 5 adults and 3 kids, but my poor mom couldnt carry much with her bad back) from the baggage claim back up to the check in desk. Then rewrap all of your bags with seran wrap, and duck tape(to keep people in South Africa from stealing your stuff), and start sprinting to catch your flight(see #2)
6) Don’t start using cloth diapers for the first time when you don’t have power or water…I think this one speaks for itself.
7) Don’t expect just because you tell your kids “night night” that they will just go to bed and stay in bed after traveling for 29 hours half-way across the world. Or any night for the next week!
8) Don’t go to Africa and live 3 hours from the nearest grocery store. Or as you’ll find out your chicken/meat will go bad, unless you adapt your deep freeze. You’ll be forced to fill old containers with water to make blocks of ice, wrap your food in paper, and put sleeping bags and blankets around your deep freeze….since the power may go out for days at a time.(remember no going back to town for 1 month…..maybe we should have thought harder about this whole trip JJ)
9) Don’t expect that you and your son will get a seat in the vehicle that takes you across Zimbabwe when your driving 3 hours on hot, pot hole filled roads. You’ll probably just end up in the back of the truck wedged between the luggage. You could always tell your son that this is an African Disney ride that lasts 3 hours…..Man we’re lucky!!!!
10) Unless your crazy (like literally taking antipsychotic medicine) don’t travel with small to kids to Africa!!!!(That’s the moral of the story)

Ok here is a few others that didn’t make the top 10 list, but still good:
-Don’t just let your kid start playing with strange bugs
-Don’t just give your kid a bunch of milk that was sitting in the fridge for who knows how long(no matter how bad he wants it)….or you might just end up with projectile vomiting all over your room, and no water or power to clean up with…that room still stinks!!
-Make sure your travel agent books your wife and 2 kids in the same row on your 18 hour flight, and not 3 rows back.(starting to notice a travel agent theme here) Its very important to double team the kids whenever possible on a long flight.
-Don’t sit behind someone on your 18 hour transatlantic flight that doesn’t like kids, or your kid may end up kicking his seat the whole, and this kind of makes life miserable for you.
-Don’t bring more carry-ons/kids then both of you can bring on to the plane at one time, the airline industry really doesn’t take kindly to people going back and forth off the plane just to get more stuff.
-Don’t assume that just because you sleep under a mosquito net that you’ll be free from getting mosquito bites, that is unless you checked under your nets for mosquitos first. Otherwise you just trapped them all in with you for a nice full night of feasting on your blood, and trying to give you malaria.
-Don’t assume that just because you checked your brand new $500 stroller at the gate in Washington DC that it will be waiting for you when you land in Johannesburg. (I mean where could it go, it was supposed to go right on the plane with us……Wishful thinking, maybe someday it will turn up)

OK….OK I think that’s enough for now, but stay tuned I’m sure this list will continue to grow before its all said and done. The Lord really has blessed us, and we are very thankful to be getting settled in. We thank you for your prayers. Please keep sending emails, its so nice to hear from all of you guys back home, its always one of the highlights of our day. We’ll keep checking in with all of you, as much as the electricity allows. I'll probably send this, and some pictures to our blogsite: epperlyadventures.blogspot.com. But I'm really not much of a blogger, and I figure anyone that would read my blog just got this email anyway, so I'll save you a step. Feel free to pass this email it along, and let me know if you dont want to recieve any more emails. Also check out Paul and Aprils blog if your interested at http://www.mcquilleninternational.blogspot.com/, they do a great job keeping that thing current.

To God be the Glory

We have arrived in Zim

2010-01-13T04:40:00.000-08:00

Our family has safely made it to Zimbabwe or Zim, as people here refer to it. We have just about finished with the sleepless nights of jet lag, which is extremely hard on children- I have learned. We spent the first 4-5 days in the capital, Harare and now have arrived at Karanda. John is at his first day of work today. I think he has spent most of the in the operating room or theatre (as it is called here).

Moving into the guesthouse there are a few things that we have had to get use to-- we are now using cloth diapers, which is a adjustment....Beau has wet through quite a number of pants, but I think we've figure out how to do them correctly now. We are becoming aware that electricity comes and goes as the wind...it can make getting our chores done a little tricky. Another new thing is filtering our drinking water, which at times does run out...that is why we have a very large trash can of water sitting outside our back door. The guesthouse that we are staying in is just beautiful though and we have really appreciated the fans in it, as it about 95 degrees out.

Fran, John's mom, came with us and will be leaving next week. She has been such a help and has been able to work at the school and is working with HIV orphans as I write this.
We want to thank all of you for your prayers. God has already been teaching us about relying on Him and I'm sure He is going to teach us even more about patience, compassion, and love. We are going to be serving the Shona people and are excited to meet them, please pray for those patients that we will encounter as well as the hospital staff. A verse that I have been reading because it's posted next to our diaper changing station is: Romans 12:12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Hopefully I'll get to update again soon.

tropical medicine

2009-07-28T11:21:00.000-07:00

First official Epperly family blog! I'm just sitting in the tropical medicine lecture listening to a talk on neurology in the tropics. Shea is 32 weeks pregnancy and is in Tucson with Beau. This is all I'm going to write about now. Stay tuned for more later. (I've gotta seen if this actually works). I dont really trust technology!