Resilience.
Obviously, I’m talking about the Florida Gators winning the NCAA National Championship.
I know that is old news now, but seriously, I’m still reeling. Those games almost caused me some tachyarrhythmias. I will never forget staying up until 3am and running around my house “silent screaming” about that win. Epic. Oh yes, and resilient. Those boys just never gave up, each game. Reminds me constantly of each person out here working though each day of impossible situations.
As many of you know, I am coming up to my one month countdown. It has been very surreal to think about my time here ending. Bittersweet in the sense that I am excited to see friends, family and start a new chapter, but hard to imagine leaving all of the people I work with and live with and have been involved with for the past two years. Time is such a funny thing, it both flies by and inches along depending on the season, here I feel both sensations as the date of my departure approaches and I try to get everything done.
I find comfort in knowing that God has gone before me and prepared the way. I am excited to meet new people and share with them the experiences I have had here in Togo. And a future visit, where I get to come back and see this beautiful place again.
Recent projects/patient spotlight
One big update. I have been slowly working with a woman, M, to see if I can get her a life changing surgery. As my time was coming to an end, I was fearing that I would be gone before we could line everything up. However, thanks be to God, her passport came in two weeks ago. Since then it has been a flurry of activity to line everything up before I leave.
One of my favorite parts is that I have gotten to partner with Bryce, my PRP colleague in Kijabe. He is an ENT surgeon in Kenya. We have been in contact and now have the surgery scheduled for June 10th. I am now working on medical Visas, flights, translators, etc to make this happen.
To give some more detail, She has a tumor on her jaw that is growing quickly. What Bryce and his colleagues will do is a complex surgery to take out the tumor and replace it with a piece of her fibula, something that is too complex for our team here. I am so grateful for the connections that WMM has given me so that I can pass along the love of Christ by giving this woman the chance at a normal life.
While I get frustrated and work through managing details, all I can think of is that for me, this is a “semantics problem” and for M, this is completely life altering. And with that knowledge, I will plough forward to get this done. God has provided the soil and given me the resources to bring this situation to harvest, so that is what I will do.
Please join me in prayer and if you feel led, finances to support M going to Kenya.
Last month plans
As I think about my last month here, I have a few things left to do. I am attempting (succeeding? hopefully….) at running 10k on my 35th birthday, May 22. Not “a 10k” as there are not races here technically, but I do plan to bribe some children and some friends to make a gauntlet and have some fanfare at the finish line. I am not a runner so for me this is a big deal. It has been encouraging to remind myself what I am capable of as I encounter difficulties and situations where I do not feel sufficient.
We have a farewell planned for May 10th as people start to leave on furlough and I start to actually say goodbye to some people which will be challenging. I am starting to feel the pangs of saying goodbye to staff, PAACS residents, colleagues and dear friends. Pray that I can have “good goodbyes” and leave here well.
The unknown
I will leave here an excerpt from my recent devotional that has given me incredible peace and, weirdly, clarity.
“There are so many “good” reasons to be afraid. There is so much in this world that has been, is, and will be evil. Death lurks around every stoplight and in every morgue and in the snap of one poor decision. But death does not have the final word. God defeats death by dying. So we enter the darkness. Not to shine a light on every monster….We enter the darkness because we do not have to have every answer to be free. We only need the truth– and Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life that defeats death…..
….Resurrection happens in the dark. Resurrection happens at the limits of our knowing, in the surrender of our certainty, in the willingness to be wrong and be righted and be held in it all. Freedom comes when we are okay with walking forward without knowing the full path, because we trust that we do not walk alone. By light and by night, in the known and the wild yet unseen, we never, ever walk alone.” – Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dail “God Didn’t Make Us to Hate Us”
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned” – Isaiah 9:2
“And I feel a spirit move in me again, I know it’s the same spirit that still moves in you, I don’t know how it took so long to shed this skin; Live under the shadow of your wings.
You’re all I want
You’re all I need
I’ll find peace beneath the shadow of your wings” – Malibu – Mumford and Sons
What I’m Watching/Reading/Listening to
- Watching “Love on the Spectrum”
- Watching “Cinderella Man”, “Barbie”, and “Les Mis” as soon as Liza gets home so that I feel I have done my duty to educate her
- Reading “How Far to The Promised Land” – Esau McCaulley
- Reading “Sunrise on the Reaping” – Suzanne Collins
- Listening to: Mumford and Sons new album “Rushmere” – Incredible. No words. Beautiful.
- Listening to: Podcasts: The Bible for Normal People, Good Hang with Amy Poehler, All the Buried Women.
So so proud of you! Your patients are lucky to have you!
So much good stuff n this update. Thanks for the personal, professional, people, pets, projects… Praying.
Kaye
ahhhhh!! I am SO PROUD of you amiga! You set out with a goal to use your skills to help those in most need and are doing it, you have faced soooo many fears/tough decisions and calls/difficult conversations and rallying all of your network to provide the best care possible for your community. You are an AMAZING doctorita! 🙂 I am selfishly happy to have you closer to me soon. I wish you luck in wrapping up your cases and happy tears as you say goodbye to this chapter for now. Abrazos!
Great post! I know they will miss you a lot, but I am happy you are returning to the US. We need you here! There is a great need for surgeons all over the world, and it’s finally our turn to have one of the best (if not the BEST!) practicing here.