CANADA

Here I am at my parents' home in Oakville, Ontario, starting to sort out life here and unpack after spending time in Switzerland on the way back from Benin and now beginning to transition back into Western life...
Not always easy, but I am so struck by God's goodness to me and his faithfulness since being home.

I was never seriously sick, never injured in a serious accident, all my visas and flights worked out smoothly, my two needle stick injuries didn't result in my contracting any illnesses... I could spend a long time on this list!
All in all, I give glory to God for bringing me safely home to a loving community here in Canada.

For those that are interested in seeing photos and hearing a bit about my experiences in Benin, I will be organizing a presentation that I will give in both Oakville and in Ottawa.
The Ottawa date will be after Thanksgiving (I will be hanging out here with my family until then), but the Oakville date will be Sunday, September 30th at 7pm at 64 Cox Drive, Oakville, Ontario. Contact me if you need more information and I hope to see you there!
With love and gratitude,
Charity

Hello again my friends,

The rainy season has come, meaning it literally rains for upwards of two hours (and sometimes all throughout the night) every day! Everything is very green, things take forever to dry (and often smell moldy when they do- ick) and we are enjoying the increased variety of vegetables again. 

I have become slightly more african in my habits- for example, when the temperature falls below 28 degrees celcius I automatically put on a sweater. I also have taken to heating water on the stove to bathe like the locals do- I believe this is what we call becoming climatized! Unfortunately I think the coming winter in Canada is going to be a bit of a shock. 

Other things- yam pilé- have I talked about this? It is the Beninois dish- made from yams pounded in wooden pots using long wooden poles ...and your entire body weight (often they will each take a pole and two or three will take turns and pound rapidly in succession), adding water until it becomes dense and dough-like. Then they serve it with sauce- peanut, sesame, vegetable, tomato.The first time I ate it I found it so heavy and tasteless I never ever wanted to eat it again, but now it is definitely my favourite dish. I know it will be difficult to find in Canada, which is a definite downer.

At the hospital right now the nurses’ aide students are finishing their training, which means part of my job has a teaching element- things like NG tube and foley insertion, proper technique when changing dressings, and other various skills. My mother and two sisters work in teaching, and I have always said I wasn’t gifted in that area- but I have realized through this time that I actually have a great passion for teaching, especially in practical skills! The exciting thing is that at an evangelical hospital I am able not only to impart my nursing knowledge, but also my spiritual convictions to these students at the same time. 

Prayer requests- pray for pediatrie, very overcrowded and chaotic. With the rains come the mosquitos, and so malaria season is upon us. Pray that the staff will get the rest they need and will not become discouraged by the many deaths and heavy workload.
Please continue to pray for more Christian staff to come and work at the hospital. Please pray that the existing staff would be growing and strong spiritually and living exemplary lives, that the message of the gospel would be seen as the most important piece in the care of these patients and not just the medical care.

Thank you and God bless you.
With love, Charity

Hello again my faithful friends,

Amy and I took 2 weeks vacation the last two weeks of May, during which we visited Niger! What an adventure. We were blessed by the generosity and kindness of the Schmidt family, who warmly welcomed us to stay with them in Niamey. The trip to Niamey from Parakou was a 12 hour long bus ride, which we took from 10pm to 10am in the morning. Not our most comfortable trip, but it meant we were able to arrive in Niamey in the morning with the traveling behind us. I had assumed Niger would be a variation of the same West-African theme, similar to Benin with subtle differences. Nope! Immediately crossing the border the green of Benin is left behind and trees become scattered few and far between. Even the the red road of Benin becomes yellow in Niger.

We crossed the bridge in the dark at around 3 in the morning, desperately trying to fill out our paper work and run back to the bus in time so that it wouldn’t leave us behind at the Niger/Benin border (which it nearly did twice)! Quite stressful at the time, but something we can laugh about now. :)

Upon entering Niamey we noticed the people also looked quite different- the population being 98% Muslim, there is a large Arabic influence. The vast majority of women wear the hijab, and many have ornate embroidery on clothing and henna tattoos on hands and feet which are less common in Benin. 

We had a wonderful time with the Schmidts, who showed us the sights of the city, gave us a tour of the SIM Niger office and Sahel Academy (the international school), played ping pong with us, and wisely suggested we get a pass for the nearby pool- somehow we planned our visit to Niger during the hottest months of the year!  

During our time we went for a short visit to see Galmi Hospital, a SIM operated hospital 6 hours by bus to the west of Niamey. This had particular interest for me as my grandparents had known the hospital well and my parents had worked there short term, my mom as a nurse and my dad as a medical student in the early 80s. The Bembéréké and Galmi hospitals are very different- I thought that Bembéréké was in the middle of nowhere, but Galmi is actually in a much more remote location! Since Galmi is still owned by SIM, there are many more westerners/missionaries- at least 40, in fact (including children). On average about 5 western doctors,  a pharmacist, and even an occupational therapist. It was interesting to compare and contrast the two hospitals. We enjoyed the hospitality of the wonderful missionary community there who greeted us warmly and took great care of us for the two nights we spent there.
All in all it was a wonderful vacation, surprisingly relaxing for the 36 hours of bus travel we made, and we were very thankful for the opportunity to see another African country. 

Then we settled in back in to hospital work- have I mentioned how much I love my patients?? With the few Bariba and Peulh words I know I have made great friends with many of the patients. Many who come into Chirurgie with more complex problems are there for 3 or 4 weeks before being transferred to Soins Minima, located just behind us where they might stay for another 3 months until they can go home. They call me “Baké Péno”, which means “third daughter”. It started with just “Baké”, the Bariba word, and they added the Peulh word “Péno” when I started to wear the white, red and blue beads that the Peulh characteristically wear. When they greet me with their chorus of “Ka we ru Baké Péno!” it puts a huge smile on my face. I wish I could learn Bariba more quickly, but I remind myself that 10 months ago I hardly spoke French, so I really shouldn’t be too disappointed.

I am now quite comfortable in the Chirurgie unit, no longer getting vertigo at the sight of the traumas, and have also started accompanying the ambulance with evacuations to Parakou- it’s amazing when I think back to my first few days, stumbling through the French, asking a million questions, always needing help or translations. So thank you for your many prayers, God has truly answered them!

I now have just over 2 months left here in Benin- departure date is September 6th- and I know the time is going to fly by.

I would love your prayers to FINISH WELL. To stay focused, to bring joy and positivity, to work hard, to share Jesus in word and in example.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to move, revive, challenge, grow, to break up the fallow ground of hearts that are hard or are satisfied with a works-based Christianity and to transform the church here into a brilliant light, joyful and multiplying. (Great book recommendation: Life in the Spirit by A.W. Tozer.)

I love you my Christian family, thank you for supporting me and for sticking with me!

With love, Charity

Dear friends and family,

I apologize for my lack of posts. As I’ve said many times, internet communication is difficult up in Bembéréké and working at the hospital is quite busy, but I have let it go a little too long. I will try to be more consistent from now on- I know that I certainly need your prayers and so will work on updating you more frequently to keep you informed.

What is new with me?

It is mango season in Benin! Mangos are everywhere- several varieties, and all plentiful to the point that they go bad quicker than people can eat them. Unfortunately this also means for the surgical ward that the season of the “Chute d’arbre” has started. Children climb the big mango trees searching for the fruit and fall, often with compound fractures and serious head injuries. In April alone we had more than 26 cases.

One such case was Assana, who fell and fractured her leg and became my patient on the surgical ward for 3 weeks while the leg was in traction. For a 5 year old, 3 weeks of bed rest is no fun! The little cutie would wait expectantly until she caught my eye whenever I came in the room, at which point she would break into a beaming smile and giggles. Before long I was stopping in to see her every time I would pass the salle, doing ridiculous things like making balloon dolls for her out of plastic gloves, and before long my colleagues were referring to her as “ma copine”. 

Assana is Peulh, and didn’t speak any French at all, so our whole relationship was smiles and gestures. But what a special gift it was to me, and what an encouragement!

For some reason, especially among the Peulh, many patients are against the use of casts for fixing broken bones and prefer to use their own traditional medicine once the traction is finished (or sometimes even before). Assana was one such case, and so we said goodbye after her mother signed a release against medical advice form. 

But I took this photo with her before she left. Isn’t that a great smile?

We celebrated my 24th birthday on the 30th of April, with many friends from the hospital coming for a dinner in the Paillot next to our house. We had a huge rain in the afternoon, an so the evening was pleasantly cool. It was a wonderful birthday, I was very happy.  

Another happy occurrence for the month of April was the birth of Eli Nathan AKPO, the first son of Pastor Caleb and Aïssa (our Beninois family away from home). Amy and I asked the surgical team permission to follow the cesarean and were able to be with Aïssa through the whole thing! He was born April 15th in the newly finished Maternity ward, named “Eli Nathan” meaning “Dieu a donné”, “God given”. I just love him. He is only 3 weeks old, but I have already carried him on my back like the Africans do! 

Prayer Requests:

Canada Day celebrations:

I am trying to organize a party for Canada Day for the Africans to celebrate a bit of our culture and just have some fun. Pray that I would be able to find time with my complicated work schedule to teach the songs to the choir and make the arrangements.

That I would be bold in evangelism and walk in the Spirit:

Something difficult I have realized in being here is that my power over the physical healing of patients is incredibly limited, despite my best efforts. I often cannot change the course of someone’s disease or stop someone from dying. God alone is in control. While this is often sobering and difficult to accept, I have been profoundly touched that a far more important work than my nursing skills and treating the physical body is doing the work of an evangelist, bringing healing to spiritual sickness. The body will die, and as much as I try and as hard as I work I am often unable to stop it. But our bodies are here for but a moment- what of the state of their eternal soul?

I try to engage my patients in discussions about faith during care, for example if I have a patient who needs a dressing change. I can start by saying, “Are you Christian or Muslim?” and then go from there, because the vast majority is one or the other. It seems to me, from what I’ve observed, that many identify with a religion because it is culturally accepted (and a very community-oriented culture) and not because their hearts have been touched or that God is something very real to them. Please pray that the message of the gospel and the person of Jesus Christ would become real and that the Holy Spirit would move in hearts. Pray that He would move in my heart as I seek the right words to say and the right bible stories to share.

Holiday in Niger: Amy and I are heading up to Niger for our holiday starting May 29 and will have two weeks to see Niamey and Galmi, where we would like to visit the missonary hospital there. Pray for safety and for a restful break, and that we would be a blessing and encouragement to the missionaries we spend time with.

As I’ve said, I will be working at posting more often. I appreciate your love and prayers and miss you dearly!

With love, Charity

Hello dear friends, sorry for the long lapse in communication- we have been without internet for most of February and so posting hasn’t been possible, but we are still getting along just fine out here!
We have said goodbye to harmattan and “le chaleur” has hit- and boy is it ever HOT. I take at least three showers a day and am so thankful for my bedroom ceiling fan! The rain is coming soon, and with it (I am hoping) some cooler temperatures.
We are finding lots of fun things to keep us busy- recently we bought a football (soccerball) in Parakou and have had our first game with colleagues from the hospital- le Benin vs. le Canada! It was a lot of fun, nobody took themselves too seriously and it resulted in a tie. We already have the next game scheduled for this week.
We have also discovered “les collines”- the big hills behind our house. Not sure why it took us so long to venture beyond the gate, but I’ve been enjoying running the many trails and going hiking, and it’s really quite beautiful- last week I noticed wild blue orchids growing all over.
At the beginning of February, Ryan, a former peace corps worker who lives near Parakou, granted a long-awaited wish and provided us with kittens! We took the two kittens into our home, an interesting cross between the domesticated cat and the wild borgu bush cat. We named them Baloo and Bagheera and they were incredibly entertaining little friends.
Unfortunately we underestimated the amount of work these cats would be, and with our busy nursing schedules and small home, it was only three weeks before we decided to find them new homes! Please don’t think we’re heartless- Bagheera went to the new Canadian missionary, Miriam, and Baloo went to our colleague Adam whose young kids are enjoying the cat very much.
I’m also greatly enjoying the deepening relationships with the locals here, especially fellow colleagues, a huge answer to prayer and something that I know often comes only with extended time.
Feeling much more settled in Chirurgie, although the things I see there never cease to amaze me. The other night we had a whole family come into Chirurgie at 4:30am after a driver had hit their house in the middle of the night, causing all the walls and roof to collapse on them. Two children under the age of five and a baby, all crying on a gurney. One of them was seriously injured and needed surgery for internal bleeding. A far cry from Canada, where building inspectors won’t approve living spaces they are not built “to code”!
One night an 8 year old child came in after being gored by a bull. One man (a thief, apparently) had been shot in the hands, then waited 4 days before coming into the hospital. By then one hand was gangrenous and had to be amputated. Lots of young men with compound fractures from moto accidents, lots of peritonitis, and lots of children with full body burns from spilled cooking oil or hot water.
Many difficult cases, but I’m somehow struggling my way through dealing with even the gory traumas.
One of my colleagues also suffered a serious moto accident- if he had not been wearing a helmet he would have died, but as it was he suffered a broken arm and badly broken jaw (the helmet didn’t cover his chin). He came into the hospital and I could not recognize him except for his eyes, his face was so swollen. It was quite a chilling feeling, to see someone I see and work with all the time have such a close brush with death.

And so, the fragility of life is much more visible here. And I do say ‘visible’- because even in Canada, for all our safety measures and accident prevention, medications and advanced lifesaving treatment, it is a lie (and from the Devil himself, make no mistake) to believe that we are somehow in control. We are finite- like grass that grows and then dies. I don’t say this to be depressing, but only because it helps remind me to not waste this life of mine that is so quickly gone. God is over all, and I am in His hands. But we have a hope greater than this world around us and our fragile bodies, because our God is not only in control, He is good.

The long-anticipated arrival of my dad and brother finally came, something we had been talking about nearly since we arrived here. They made a quick stop in Benin on their way back from my dad’s Medical conference in Kenya and where they also visited with good friend Charles Mully and spent time at the Mully Children’s Family (Quite a remarkable organization- check it out at www.mullychildrensfamily.org).
Amy and I made the long journey down to Cotonou again so that we could get our visas at the same time, and a huge highlight was definitely the hotel pool! We spent one day in Cotonou, then spent two days in Bembéréké. It was short, but so nice to be able to spend some time with them and be able to show them my life here.
Their visit also has marked the half-way point of our time here in Benin- how strange! I am truly falling more and more in love with this place and these people every day.

It’s funny how at the beginning the French was so difficult, while now it’s like a breath of fresh air to find a patient who understands French- less than twenty percent of our patients do. So now I am actually trying to add more Bariba words to my vocabulary each day, and the patients always meet these efforts with laughter and surprise over the “baturi” who can “speak Bariba”. Such beautiful and special people, I feel blessed for this opportunity to work with them and learn from them.

Please pray for the hospital, for more Christian staff. There is a great need for personnel and not enough people to hire to fill all the spots. Pray that this would not result in the compromise of hiring non-Christians, but that the hospital would remain evangelical, with the focus of meeting the spiritual needs of the people, not only their physical needs. Pray for faith to grow- belief that our great God can truly provide for all our needs, even when it seems desperate or impossible. 

As the result of the limited staff, the hospital has had to begin decreasing the hours for the dispensary, which means that the patients are sent directly to the units for the consults... and this obviously greatly increases the workload, and can cause tension in the staff. Please also pray for unity and love between our existing Christian staff, that the Holy Spirit would work in hearts to a common purpose and goal.

Thank you, my Christian family! I am incredibly grateful for your prayers and for your love and concern for me.
With love,
Charity

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We drove down to have our visas renewed in Cotonou- it was very humid! I had gotten used to the cool Bembéréké mornings which required a sweater for the short walk to work and make the cold showers now near unbearable to get into... but the air is so dry anything wet you hang will dry in half a day. Cotonou is next to the ocean, a very different life from our tiny village of Guéré at the hospital.

Amy and I laugh that we are becoming the African version of a “country bumpkin”, used to the small town life, as we come to the city wearing our matching traditional clothes and find everyone wearing jeans and t-shirts.

Funny how quickly one forgets the things one has been used to- things like a big crowded city or having a grocery store with many varieties of jam, actual coffee, chocolates, even strawberries and peaches! In Bembéréké we can get nescafe, powdered milk, flour, eggs, canned tomatoes, soap, matches, onions, garlic, hot peppers, some other canned vegetables, and that’s pretty much it. We also have a vegetable lady who drives up from Parakou (2 hours) each Wednesday with some vegetables. Anything packaged (ie nescafe or powdered milk) is very expensive, so we try to buy those in Parakou. At any rate, going to Cotonou and having so much selection in the stores was very exciting! We enjoyed time with Manassé and Béatrice, playing in the waves at the beach and seeing some of the markets. Saying goodbye was sad, but we have planned to pass through Switzerland on our way home in August so we will be able to see them and Anja again before the year is out, which we look forward to very much.

How does one celebrate Christmas in Africa? The festivities began for us in early December when the missionaries gathered on the stone porch behind one of the houses and lit candles and listened to Handel’s Messiah under the stars. I am already a pretty big fan of the Messiah, and this was a pretty awesome way to listen to it. So great to sit and contemplate the incredible promises and prophesies of God, the enormity of what the Messiah coming to earth meant, the person of Jesus Christ.

Being in Africa and surrounded by a different culture can make certain biblical stories come more alive to me- for instance it was interesting when one missionary commented that she wondered if Mary carried Jesus around on her back like the women here do. Or seeing anew the compassion of Jesus in sending the angels to simple shepherds with the message that the messiah had come... I work with people groups who care for livestock as their means of survival, literally having next to nothing, seemingly insignificant in the grande, global scheme of things... but Jesus’ heart is so beautiful, he loves each person so individually and so deeply and he reached out to the marginalized and forgotten. Truly revolutionary in his compassion and love, unlike any the world had ever seen before. And the world has nothing like it. Nowhere to be found apart from Him.

Christmas Eve the hospital had a big fête with all the churches in the area- the francophone, Peuhl, Bariba, and Ditamarie congregations- and each had choirs who sang. The missionaries- aka the four of us- sang “Hark! the Harold Angels Sing” with only my guitar to accompany us. It seemed to come off okay, although stood in hilariously stark contrast to the lively, rhythmic African chorales... but the Africans were very generous and seemed to think it was great.

Amy and I decided to work on Christmas Day, so Christmas had a very different feel to it. This was my first Christmas not being with my family, and as I worked the shift at the hospital I reflected on how different it was from the Christmases I had become accustomed to- having breakfast together, opening gifts, dinner with extended family- I was really struck with thankfulness over being able to spend 22 uninterrupted Christmases with my incredible family, that my family was still safe and well and loving God in Canada. What a huge blessing.

I was able to have a Christmas brunch with Amy, Katrin and Marta during my break, which was really wonderful.

January has brought some changes in the staff at the hospital- I am now working in Chiurgie (Surgery), and Katrin is the new Chief in this department. I am really looking forward to working with her and learning even more. Surgery acts as the emergency room during the night shift, so this will be a new area of learning for me, as well as dressings and drains and prepping people for surgery. I will also be working with children as well as adults, whereas previously I was only working with adults.

Please pray for this new transition, that it would be smooth and would improve many things for the hospital.

Please pray for the Bariba church. The pastor has resigned under grave circumstances. Our friend Caleb has stepped in as pastor for the next three months or so until they find a replacement, and the church is currently searching for a new pastor. Pray for healing, pray for wisdom, pray for God’s word to prevail and for God’s people to be united.

The French is coming much, much better! Thank you for your prayers in this, God is truly answering them.

With love and gratitude,

Charity