May team, day 8

​The team awoke to the sounds of roosters crowing, birds chirping and the children of the residential program getting ready to head off to school.  Shocking weather forecast for today:  hot and humid.  We did get a little rain in the afternoon, but not enough to cool things down.

Although our days are usually packed with countless tasks which need our attention, we did get a chance to watch in awe the work of a local tree trimmer (note photos below) remove a large tree that could do extensive damage to the CRC or Mercy Hospital if not addressed.  The gentleman was standing well over one hundred feet off of the ground, with no safety ropes, swinging a hand axe, only in Africa.

Jessica and Bill B. did morning rounds with Dr. Kannah at Mercy Hospital visiting eight patients ranging from pre-op to labor and delivery.  Jessica (physician assistant) supported Dr. Kanneh with two hernia surgeries later in the day.

Ken B., Bill B., Leo F. and Dave H. spent their day testing various options for delivering reliable internet connectivity to Mercy.  Challenges remain (which means it still isn’t working), but the team remains confident.

Ilene and Vickie G. continued their quest to finalize work on a spreadsheet that will be used by Mercy personnel to streamline the tracking of drugs and their usage.  Vickie spent most of the day working in the Mercy Pharmacy and Drug Storage Room (it should be noted that this room is air-conditioned and probably why she spent so much time there) and has developed a keen understanding of their organization and layout, and is hoping to dramatically increase their productivity.

Bill H. started his day at the CRC morning devotion/staff meeting to which Mercy’s Business Manager and Matron were invited to begin consideration of initiating similar meetings at Mercy.  Bill H. also met with Kim Sprout to discuss ideas for maintaining the progress developed this week with both the Mercy and CRC staffs.  Finally, Bill H. met with Jinnah (Mercy Hospital’s Business Administrator) to review the draft interview matrix. 

Illene H. assisted in developing a spreadsheet format of the final version of the interview matrix to greatly simplify the evaluation of the results.    

Kim Sprout took Bill B., Jessica and members of Dr. Kannah’s team on a tour of the Bo Government Hospital.  The tour included visits to their Maternity, X-Ray, and Operating wards, and the team at Bo Government Hospital were very gracious and forthcoming with advice and suggestions on how we could best work together.

Ken B., Leo F. and Dave H. spent part of their afternoon configuring the laptops in the Streams of Knowledge classroom with the latest anti-virus software.

We ended our work day with the residential children in the great hall for Wednesday’s Devotions.  It was the first time the new speaker system was unveiled, and the CRC staff and children went out of their way to dedicate the speakers to God’s glory.

With one day of work remaining, we are all conscious of the work left to do, and nervous we will leave anything left undone.  Lord please bless this team as we do the work you have placed before us.

(Filed by Leo Fox)