Here is a message sent out by one of our student missionaries I have the permission to forward on. It will give you a new perspective on Koza. We will periodically send some of their messages on. Enjoy:
Hello!A busy week has gone by. Two Sabbaths ago Mary-cecille, a women from the south preached. The south is known as being more liberal and she has a good husband which allowed her to speak so freely. She preached on how men should not beat their wives and how God had made woman to be man’s helper not his slave! Dr. Shank was translating for us and the next week when the men had the podium again a rebuttal was given. The sermon opened with the verse about it being “better to live in the desert than
live
with a quarrelsome wife”. It is so strange to hear them preaching on issues like beating your wife. This last week was about not using the traditional healers. The sermon topics here deal with issues that are so foreign to me. The people here in Koza are saturated in tradition. The local medicine man is still visited. A sorcerer lives up in the hills and still makes sacrifices, while fishing around in the goat’s guts so as to foretell some event. That’s a bit scary. Most of the people here in
Koza are farmers. If they do happen to get an education there are no job openings for them and when they come back home many go back to the fields. So why go to school? This past week I’ve been working in the emergency room with Kalda, one of the few nurses that speak English, he has been so good about teaching me. I’ve given several depo shot’s (birth control) and wish that I could give out much more. But being fertile here and having many children is almost a sign of wealth. As well as since many
men take more than one wife the woman who has the most children is presumed to be the preferred wife. Well I don’t want to overload you with too much info and I know that life back home tends to be busy so I’ll try to make this a shorter than my last email…But I just have to tell you one more story…Ok, one last story. I just have to share! So last week a woman came in to give birth and Lauren and I got to get in on it. After walking into the room the nurse Ganava handed Lauren the sterile gloves
and said “Do you want to catch the baby?” “umm ok” say’s Lauren a little timidly as she explains she’s never done this before. With a couple quick instructions about grabbing the head and neck “c’est comment ca” which means “It’s like this” if your talking French. Ganava say’s this all while illustrating with his hands how to catch a baby. Lesson’s over the baby’s almost crowing. I’m standing there holding the clamps and scissors all ready to cut the cord when all of a sudden this huge gush of water
projects from this woman’s vagina, spraying all over me as it hits the wall behind me! I hadn’t understood when Ganava has said the BOW’s hadn’t broken… I really need to learn French! So, after Lauren grabs the baby and I cut the cord, we suction out his nose and mouth and wipe him off before weighing him. As they’re weighing the baby I start doing fundal massages to help the placenta come out. Remembering that the birth of the placenta can be a bloody mess I stand at the woman’s side as I continue
to massage her fundus…again not knowing French… Ganava tells the woman to push and with a huge surge of energy, from a woman who has just given birth, the placenta comes flying out in a surge of blood that fly over the woman’s leg and all over my arm in a warm bloody mess!! Did I mention the last time I was helping during a delivery I got barfed on… yeah, just my luck always at the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m never helping again during labor unless I have a full body suit!!! Well I guess that’s
all for now! Just remember birth is bloody. I’ll let you know some more disturbing stories next time. Till then S.