Shanksteps #97- War Games

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Shanksteps #97- War GamesHave you ever played Laser Tag?  How about Capture the Flag? War Games? Paintball? Cowboys and Indians?  You know, games where you hide behind bushes and rocks and shoot at your friends…Just 3 miles from here, several villages are playing their own war games, however they are using real bows and poisoned-tip arrows.  I know you are saying, “But this is 2008, how can this be?”  I assure you that this is the real deal.  Greg has already pulled barbed arrows out of a chest, neck, abdomen and thigh.  Most of the “warriors” refuse to come into the hospital because it would mean that they miss out on the war. Apparently the initial two villages have been enemies for years. They lasthad tribal warfare in the 1980s.  Now again, the village farther up the mountain attacked the village toward the bottom. Why are they fighting? The fight started over a field.  One village said that it was their right to plant it this year, the other refused.  As fields mean food, and food means money, it is an understandable fight. However this one has gotten out of hand. The chief of the upper village (Wopi) is recruiting all men from the village to fight. When the police or army comes to stopthe fighting, the chief tells his men to shoot at the authorities.  So far, the fighting villagers are much braver than our feeble military.  A couple of days ago they started burning down houses as well.The interesting thing to me is that there is an accepted “playing field”. This area doesn’t contain any houses.  Only certain men are chosen to fight or “participate” as they call it.  The surrounding villages have all come to watch.  It is almost as if it is all a game – although people are getting hurt and dying (and I’m sure more will die of tetanus).  At first, the war was “scheduled” to last for 4 days. Now they keep postponing the end.  We are now on day 6, with 10 more “scheduled”.The men that have come into the hospital are begging to go home to re-enter the war.  Two have already done so.  The first man came in with a hole in his chest causing collapse of his lung.  He refused most treatment (including tetanus vaccine) and fled the hospital without paying his bill.  (He recently told our guard that he plans to pay the hospital when the war is over, he was just anxious to get back to the fighting).  The next man to come in came in with a barbed arrow in his neck through hislarynx.  Greg removed the arrow and repaired the damage.  He is also trying to leave to go back and fight.  The third guy came in with an arrow sticking out of his abdomen.  Greg was able to remove it without opening his abdomen.  He had no internal damage and did well after watching him for several days.  He left the hospital today, begging to go back to the fight.  The fourth guy came in with a barbed arrow sticking out of his thigh. This was removed and he is still being treated.  There have beenmany others hurt who have refused treatment.  I don’t know what the death toll is now, but it is mostly due to overwhelming infection of the arrow entry site.When we hear of all that is happening in the world, we are reminded again that we are in the beginning of the “time of the end” where “you will hear of wars and rumors of wars” (Matt 24:6).  Please pray for the fighting to end and that these peoples hearts will be changed by the love of God.In His Grip, Audrey and the Shanks

Shanksteps # 96

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Shanksteps # 96

A 60-year-old woman lay on the floor of the Emergency Room.  Fear filled her eyes.  She was given a medicine cup filled with water.  Her eyes grew more fearful and she threw it across the room. She answered questions appropriately, but was agitated with a crazed look on her face.  One minute she was lying calmly; the next she was writhing and breathing fast.  When asked why she threw the water across the room, she answered that she was “afraid” of it.   Her brother was in the corner crying softly (extremely rare to see men or women cry here).   We asked if she was bitten by any animals recently, and the response was yes, by a dog a month ago. Rabies!  100% fatal once symptoms start, and death usually occurs within a week.  Her brother had died of rabies a year ago after being bitten by a dog.  My heart aches, I feel like joining the brother in the corner.  I explain what rabies is and what the outcome will be. I pray for healing or endurance for her and the family.  I asked the nurse to prayin Mafa, so that she could understand.  We pray that she accepts Christ and that she feels peace. Later I ask the nurse that lives near them why they didn’t look for rabies treatment after she was bitten, especially when her brother died of the same thing.  He explained the following:  It is common belief that only sorcerers die when bitten by a dog with rabies.  Other people do not.  So if you are not a sorcerer then you don’t need to worry.  But maybe you do believe medical recommendations to get treatment, if then you go to get the treatment you are very shamed because all your neighborswill be convinced that you ARE a sorcerer. Here is the pathophysiology of a rabies bitten person based on local beliefs.  After the bite a small dog starts growing inside.  It is in the early stages that the traditional healers can “treat” it with sacrifices and other witchdoctor things.   In the later stages when it already “has teeth and hair” it is too late and cannot be killed and the person will die of the disease. As you can see, it is hard to convince someone that the treatment is necessary when they are bitten.  Especially when they are not a sorcerer and our medicines wouldn’t treat something like a dog growing inside anyway.  So it makes more sense to go the person that treats these kind of things, the witchdoctor. Continue to pray that we learn how best to relate to the Mafa people that have so many different beliefs and understandings than we do.  In His Service, Greg

#96 Shanksteps – Selfishness

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#96 Shanksteps – Selfishness

 

How many times does the Holy Spirit have to scream in your ear before you finally give in?  What does it take for you to realize that you are self-centered?  For us it took the angelic face of a 12-year-old girl who appeared on our doorstep one evening.  

Her name is Dzaoda.  This courageous young girl is the very first female in her village to continue her education past elementary school.  Her mother and brother, who are from a village about one hour away by motorcycle, decided to send her to the Adventist Secondary School in Koza.   This is her first year here.  Up until now she has been living with her aunt here near here. However, last week, four weeks before the end of school, her aunt kicked her out of the house demanding that Dzaoda give her

two bags of millet or she couldn’t come back.  Dzaoda came to our house to ask if she could hide her books on our porch because she said that if she left them with her aunt, her aunt would throw them away.  (The school is right next to our house.)  She said that her mother was coming in 3 days to arrange everything with her aunt.  We offered that she could stay here until her mother came, and our guard thought it best for her to sleep on our front porch. We gave her a mat and mosquito net, and fed

her for the next several days.  

Now, at this point I know there are some of you saying, how could you leave a young girl outside like that. First, let me say that everyone here sleeps outside during the hot season.  You also have to remember that the people here live by the concept that if you “have” and I “need”, it is perfectly okay for me to “take”.  Unfortunately, the inside of our house would be too great a temptation for almost anyone, with all of the “American stuff” we have.  Even if they weren’t tempted to “borrow” any

of it, they would certainly tell all of their friends how “rich” the Americans were.  So, to avoid these and many other problems, we don’t usually invite people that we don’t know VERY well into our house. 

Several days ago we went out and she was crying. After calling our hospital chaplain over to help talk with her, we discovered that she was afraid that we would be angry with her and think she was a liar because her mother never showed up.  We assured her that we were not angry and promised to try to work things out for her.  Our Chaplain went and talked to her aunt and others who knew what was going on. Well, yesterday morning, we met the Aunt.  She said with her mouth that Dzaoda could come back

to her house, but with her tone/mannerisms, it was quite clear that she was not welcome or wanted.  So, yesterday afternoon, Greg drove Dzaoda to her village to meet with her mother and brother.  (Her father died when she was 7.)  Greg planned to drop her off, but made her promise to come by our house on Monday morning (to make sure that she was ok, and that she was planning to finish her last 3 weeks of school.)  He talked for a while with her mother and brother (all translated, as no one in the

village speaks French), and in the end, realized that she had nowhere to stay if she was to finish out the year of school.  So, Greg agreed that she could stay at our house until school ended.  

Last night, we again had Dzaoda sleep on our porch with the idea that we would try to find a good Mafa family to stay with in town.  Now, I have to tell you that for the past week as this saga has been unfolding, I have not really felt at peace about her sleeping and eating outside; despite the fact that she was okay with it; despite the fact that it was culturally appropriate; despite the fact that our guard was out there with her.  I have been continually rationalizing that it was okay, while in

my “mother’s heart” it was not.  So, after almost a week of struggling with the voice of the Holy Spirit (some would call it a conscience), we have taken her in as one of the family – rules and regulations included.   And finally, my heart is at peace with my head.  I also realized that if God wants us to take her in, then he would protect our “stuff”, or make us realize that we really don’t need it anyway.

It’s obvious that we are different from the people of Koza, but sometimes I forget how different.  I was again struck with how much we do have, and how little the people get by with.  When I was showing Dzaoda around the house, I realized that I had to teach her how to turn on the water in the sink, use the toilet, and switch on the light in the room.  We are so blessed, and yet unfortunately so selfish with our blessings.

Try not to use this reminder to point out how others are selfish, but look inside yourselves to see how you can share your blessings with those around you.

In the service of One who is completely unselfish, Audrey (and Greg and Sarah)

Shanksteps #95

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Shanksteps #95

 

There was a small hole in his upper back about 1cm from the spinal column. He was spitting up blood and otherwise felt OK. He was drunk on the local millet wine and couldn’t remember what the dispute had been about, but knew that his neighbor had done it. He said it was a thin piece of metal that was about a quarter of an inch across and imbedded about 6 inches in his back. They pulled it out immediately. He had some blood coming from the stab but it was slowing down. For me it was a diagnostic
difficulty. He needed to have a gastrograffin swallow to evaluate for esophageal injury. A CT scan with contrast to evaluate for any large vessel injury. And a bronchoscopy to evaluate for tracheal perforation. He had a normal pulse and blood pressure. I do not have the tests that he needed. And if I were to try to refer him elsewhere, they wouldn’t either. There is a CT scanner in Yaoundé (about a 3 day trip and 800km away). This is not feasible for the local population regardless of how
sick they are. It would take their years income, to just arrive down there. So I needed to treat him where we are. So I decided to treat him with antibiotics and wait and watch. If he became infected then I would have to explore his chest. That would cause other difficulties as I do not have a chest retractor, or good assistance, or general anesthesia… the list could go on and on.
We prayed for him daily and gave him IV antibiotics and he took nothing by mouth. We continued this treatment for a week. After about 5 days the spitting up blood stopped and his pulse and BP remained normal. He never developed a fever either. After a week I advanced his diet slowly and eventually he began a full diet. We praise God for healing him and that he did not get a mediastinal (central chest) infection.
We often have diagnostic difficulty in many patients we see. We have limited tests, plain xrays and ultrasound (thanks to your donations). Often I feel God prompts us on what to think about and how to treat some patients.

We are thankful for His healing. Greg