Some of you asked for a video of me wrestling the bed cover. I really was hoping I would not need to change it anytime soon, but God had other plans so here you go (I made it double speed for you)!
Just when I think my life might be hard I am reminded yet again of what a wimpy tubaab I am. Life for Gambian women is HARD, yet they rally together and manage. They are truly amazing.
Earlier this week at 5:45 am as I had just finished my last sip of coffee our guard came to my door saying he let a patient in to the clinic. I usually unlock the doors at 7am, but we don’t start seeing patients until 8. I wish I could say I did not grumble under my breath, but I did. I then took a deep breath, said a prayer, went to brush my teeth and then head down to see what was up.
As I walked to the clinic in the pitch dark, a family member of the patient approached me. She knows us, asked forgiveness for bothering me and repeatedly said how grateful she was for our help. Yep, I now felt awful for the grumbling. I asked the Lord for forgiveness and wisdom as I humbly walked to the patient.
What I found was not what I expected. I found a very weak and unable to stand Gambian woman. Gambian women are tough so if she was this weak we were in trouble. This woman had gone into labor in her home village 5 miles away. In rainy season cars cannot get to her village and even if they could all the taxi drivers were on strike this day. So, she delivered baby #6 at home with the help of her mother in law. However, after delivery she kept bleeding and getting weaker and weaker.
So, her community of women rallied around her finding a man willing to drive a donkey cart on the dark, muddy, slippery roads. The journey on rough roads took over 30 minutes before she got to me for help. Ok, yeah now I felt like a wimpy tubaab and a horrible person for even a second of grumbling.
I jumped into action although there was not a lot I could do. I called our ambulance driver and left a mess behind as we loaded up in a car (praise God not a donkey cart) for the 30 minute drive on mostly paved roads to the nearest hospital. My workers said it looked like there had been a big fight in the clinic when they got to work to find the mess and me nowhere to be seen.
Praise God, He won the fight. I was able to pray with them in the name of Jesus en route to the hospital and mom and baby are back home and doing well. When I returned to the clinic, I cleaned up my mess and wrestled that darn bed cover again!
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