Assorted images

Naomi and the Cayanje construction: both look beautiful!  

Home-made dog-drawn carts :) 

Rainy season obstacles.

Pediatrics ward painting event! Art therapy. 

Broken bone Award

We were in the OR when someone said the kids were outside waiting.... Eliel gave the executive summary that Zeke had fallen off the roof while swinging on a nearby tree branch (en route to show Naomi how she should get off the roof), fallen on his arm (which was now crooked) and was lying in bed. Daniel checked him out (I said I would probably just start crying), brought him to the OR where our wonderful friends Annelise, Jamba and the surgical team kindly set his bones, plastered him up and gave him a fresh start. First broken bones of the Ribeiro-Cummings family: this was an Award Zeke was very proud of. :) PS we do NOT, as a rule, climb roofs

Happy New Year (Boas Entradas)

Greetings from rainy Huila province in Angola! We celebrated a warm, wet Christmas with gifts sent through a visitor earlier in the month to supplement our local "plaça" purchases for each other. I received a nice, warm herbal bath that i almost drained away through the confusion of thinking my bath was in the usual bathing bucket. Priscila had a magical way of making our time quite special.

Since our last post, we welcomed the De Sousa family to Kalukembe for a week before Christmas. Dr. Eduardo and Jocelyn (FNP) both were a delightful help in patient care at the hospital and they also helped in our continuing medical education two-day seminar at the end of the week. They serve at a surgical hospital in Lubango, and we are very thankful for their loving hearts for both our patients and colleagues. Jocelyn's parents and her four children also kept our kids busy with crafts and cookie-making when they were not out playing.

The nursing housing renovation project is also underway! Hope you enjoy those and other pictures below!

Cerebral and other severe forms of malaria have been burdening the local population in recent months. It's one miraculous recover i never tire to see when a seizing and unconscious child one day will be sitting up and eating breakfast two days later. It's also a very heavy burden when one sibling dies and the family is torn whether to remain at the hospital for the other one's care or abandon the care to return to the village. It is not easy for parents (most of our patients with severe malaria are children), navigating decisions made with other relatives regarding financial and health priorities. Please pray for our patients and their families; for our colleagues to give treatment proactively and caringly in spite of poor overnight staffing; and for improved prevention efforts, including that mosquito nets will be available to everyone.

Mahulo is a burn patient who suffered contractures and an infection at an outside hospital, but survived a 25% body surface area burn. Thanks in part to your support, he received contracture release operation and some skin grafting! His right elbow had been stuck with his hand in the "Thinker" pose before operating. Since this photo, he's been discharged and getting outpatient dressing changes. We celebrate his progress!

Rain never slows Zeke's dancing down! So far this season, the rains have been good for southern Angola crops. For this, we are very thankful given the previous dry rainy season

Enjoying a sunset on the beach with Eliel. Happy new year!

A somewhat "before" picture of a room in the staff housing area. The walls were already done before this picture was taken.

New metal shutters are replacing the old ones. And there are other old windows that had been sealed off that are now opened up again and given new shutters, too. We don't know the progress of the funding to date, but we had 50% needed to begin last month. Thanks for your support! 

Dr. Eduardo De Sousa at the continuing education course. Our audience included doctors and nurses from area government hospitals and clinics as well as nurse clinicians from our hospital and some of IESA's remote outlying clinics. Dr. Eduardo, who used to work with poly-substance abuse patients on Ojibwe reservations in Minnesota, talked about domestic violence and pregnancy. It was very well received and we are really thankful for his experience and openness to bring culturally sensitive topics like this to the seminar. 

Priscila giving a talk on vesicovaginal fistulas at the same seminar. Most of the seminar was focused on Maternal and neonatal health and care. Audience participation was as high as ever. . . especially because almost everyone acted out different patient scenarios Priscila provided. We are thankful to the Fistula Foundation and individuals who support ongoing education efforts!

Children of hospital staff sharing their approval at the building progress in their neighborhood. Thanks for making a difference in their lives!

Photos by Art

Amidst all his camera equipment, Artur used doll "stuffings" that have been given to our patients on the Children's ward. Hurray for early Christmas presents!

We had the pleasure of two visitors last week: Dr. Laura Smelter from Christian Health Service Corps and Artur Gajda, a cinematographer from Canada. Though the focus of Artur's trip was capturing videos of Kalukembe's story and our experience there, he did take a few stills. These are just a few to share with you now. I am amazed how with an artist's eye, these pictures tell the story of our community and its beautiful people in ways our words struggle to describe. His website is found by clicking here. 

Men in traction treatment for their long bone fractures on Men's ward

Zeke and Priscila walking in the patient villa

Antonio Chijenge, the leprosy program nurse. 

Daniel Pascal, one of our OR instrumentists/casting techs/minor proceduralists/etc. 

Children looking in on the nursing, lab and Bible school graduation that was celebrated last Sunday 

Neonate with skin infection on Maternity ward.

Priscila with fistula patients and family members on Women's ward. 

Priscila with EF, celebrating together a successful recovery from surgery 

Nurses Daniel, Rosie and Fedi in our ICU and preparing the "paozitos," which are cotton rolled onto sticks that are then sterilized and used for cleaning wounds or preparing skin for procedures.

Thanks, Artur! 

Kalukembe Staff Housing

Are you looking for an early Holiday present? We are! Some of our staff at Kalukembe live in these crumbling adobe homes, often without latrines or cooking spaces. We are looking to raise $90,000 for repair of 18 homes, latrines, and kitchen structures. If you would like to join us in celebrating early, you can support by going to this: Kalukembe Housing Project  ! Please write HOUSING PROJECT

Fall 2019 Letter

Coping with loss, living with hope.

We gain lots of things coming here, including the experience of loss. Eliel, just days before his 6th birthday, had fallen in love with his sweet Bunny. He tenderly cared for him, hunted for green leaves even in dry season, and would share stories and draw pictures of his friend every day. Suddenly Bunny took ill, and in a matter of hours we watched Bunny die, helpless and disbelieving. After local fashion, we buried him on the same day, surrounded by friends, there to help carry Elie's grief. It's been several weeks now, and Eliel still talks about Bunny, his memories. Death, very real to us, continues to be ever present. But today, as I sit here listening to the deafening pounding of first rains and the shouts of joyful children, I'm hopeful. We are thirsty: He is the Living Water.