A year of marriage.

Hello,

It’s Andy this time, and I am afraid my blog and my time to share so it will be more technical than medical but we have some exciting updates to share!

Firstly, on a personal note, tomorrow marks mine and Hannah’s first wedding anniversary! I can’t quite believe that it has been a year already, and that whilst we are in our first year of marriage we have been able to make this leap to live and work in Africa.

If you’d said to me a couple of years ago that I would be in Burundi working in a clinic i’d have said ‘you’re crazy!’. We’re not really doing much to celebrate tomorrow, as we did so a few weeks ago by spending a day, and a night at a holiday resort on the banks of Lake Tanganyika which was absolutely stunning!

A couple of months ago we spoke about a patient called Deborah. She’s the beautiful little baby that choked on an orange pip and stopped breathing. She literally died for 2 minutes went completely grey and limp. Hannah and Nadine were able to resuscitate her and dislodge the pip after 2 minutes of not breathing! Everyone at the clinic was concerned that she would be brain damaged due to the lack of oxygen during this time. If you want to see this blog again, here’s the link: http://faulknersinafrica.blogspot.com/2014/04/shammah-lord-is-present-general-medical.html

Deborah & her Mum

Anyway, Deborah came into the clinic this week looking very healthy and happy and seems to be as you would expect for a baby of her age which is an absolute miracle. Her mum was returning to pay back some of the money she owed to the clinic for her treatment - I think the staff are quite glad that she still has a debt outstanding as she will be returning again soon!

A couple of weeks ago Josh and his parents Jan & Craig visiting from Canada went to visit Kibuye Hospital, a hospital we regularly transfer patients to when they require surgery, or more prolonged care. Kibuye Hospital is run by American doctors, nurses, and surgeons who have moved to Burundi permanently to run this hospital and provide great care. Whilst they were there, they were shown an incubator which had been made for premature babies delivered at Kibuye. Craig suggested to me that we could build something similar for Shammah, and initially I was sceptical because it appeared too easy to replicate, I wasn’t sure it would work and I know roughly how much such a unit could cost in England. Having said that, I have spoken to staff there who have actually used the unit, and said it worked well.

This week, I began constructing the unit from photos, and rough plans Craig had drawn up and on Thursday this week finished the framework for the Incubator. Photos of progress to come on next blog!

Shammah has begun delivering babies now, and so far has had one successful delivery and one where the baby unfortunately passed away after only hours of life. Having this incubator could mean the difference of life and death for a young premature child, currently at Shammah there is no midwife (we are currently seeking funding) and as such Shammah can only offer maternity services for ‘uncomplicated births’. Having said that though, Shammah could be presented with an unexpected premature birth.

We are very excited, as next week we welcome two sets of visitors to Burundi YFC, Gitega;

St Thomas Church, Fair Oak - St Thomas Church will be spending around 1 week with us in Gitega getting involved in various activities within Burundi YFC, Gitega and Shammah Health Center as well as running an outreach programme for children int he local community whilst they are on their school holidays. St Thomas Church is the church Hannah grew up in, and the church we were married in. As such this visit means a lot to both of us, and it will be great to see friendly faces and share in more detail some of our experiences whilst they are here. We will also have the opportunity to go to see the Batwa (pygmies).

Jassy Mugisha - Jassy is the daughter of Hellen (director of Lina Medical Services) and staff member at Lina. Jassy will be coming to observe the work at Shammah Health Center with a view to learning how to run a successful clinic and making comparison between the different systems used in each in order to improve the way Lina is run and generate revenue. We are very excited to see Jassy, as from September onwards we will be working closely with Jassy at Lina as well as living in her home. Jassy will be with us for around a week, and will overlap the St Thomas Church group so there will be opportunity to spend time together, and visit the Batwa (known as Pygmies). This is something Hannah and I have wanted to do for a while, and gives a rare glimpse of what life in Africa may have been like in times gone by. We will try and take some photos and post them on our next blog if possible.

Short update regarding work in Nairobi at Lina Medical Services:

We would like to take this opportunity also to thank SFL Mobile Radio (www.sflmobileradio.co.uk) for offering to provide us with VHF radio communication equipment free of charge and their advice to assist us with communication between the clinic, Ambulance service personnel, vehicles and Lina Foundation.

This is a huge blessing and the equipment is worth £000’s. At this stage, whilst implementing the Ambulance service and Lina Foundation this equipment would be unaffordable. The addition of this equipment will mean we can speak free of charge on a private radio network that requires little maintenance, and ongoing cost.

Lastly, if you have any contacts in the medical field who may be able to supply us with old medical equipment, out of date dressings or other items of use for the clinic or Ambulance service then please get in touch with us on andy_faulkner@hotmail.com

If you would like automatic email updates for our blog, please follow this link to sign up (it’s really quick and easy and saves looking via the website every time)

http://eepurl.com/T0TPr

Thank you so much for your support again, pray with us!

Andy & Hannah x