Adventures in the Main Theatre

After only my first week in Nigeria, I have already gotten more medical experience than I expected. I got to observe my dad’s first surgery in the ECWA Evangel Hospital, and wound up doing a little more than observing. The first case was a restricted airway: a two year old girl with advanced papillomas who had been given a sedative as part of a normal pre-operation routine. As a result of the sedative she started to go into respiratory distress and had to be taken into the OR immediately. I was given the job of keeping her breathing while my dad located a working pulse oximeter. They found one, and the patient was successfully intubated at an oxygen saturation of 60%. I do not think I have prayed more intensely than during that half hour just before she was intubated. But the surgery was successful and, thankfully, two days later the little girl is eating and breathing well and looks healthy.

During the second surgery that day, I found myself in the operating room (or the “Main Theatre”) with two ENTs, an ENT resident, a physicians assistant, and a nurse anesthetist, all of whom were scrubbed except for the anesthetist. So, I wound up functioning as the circulating nurse. I learned to open sterile packets and distinguish between 4.0 and 6.0 sutures.

Today I got a different kind of medical experience at Gidan Bege, a ministry towards orphans and homeless. A nurse and a doctor took me and my mother to the Muslim street women’s clinic. The clinic offers help to street beggars who have no other means to obtain medical care. They were short on help, so once again we got to jump in and do more than we expected. After one practice round with the nurse, I spent an hour taking blood pressures while my mom handed out pharmaceuticals. We enjoyed practicing our Hausa with women who spoke very little English.

I am grateful for how much I have been able to get involved with medical opportunities here in Jos, and I am looking forward to new experiences in the year to come!

-Emily

The Everyday People in our Life

Meet Zainab. She is my main house helper and is a real pleasure to work with. She was cleaning away in our new home getting it ready when we first came so she was one of the first Nigerians we met. Zainab comes everyday to help me around the house. Simple things like doing laundry are not so simple in Nigeria. First, you must have clean water! Then you have to hang the laundry up outside in between cloudbursts. Once the clothes are mostly dry, you then put them in the dryer only to kill the mango worms that will hatch and bore into your skins if you don’t! Our voltage is so low (if we have enough power in the first place) that using the dryer to actually dry doesn’t work.

Zainab and I are both learning a lot from each other. I am the first bature (white person) she has ever worked for. Westerners and Nigerians do some things very differently. Zainab has never used a washing machine or dryer before even though there are four people in her family. She has now been introduced to garbanzo beans, hummus, and German food. In return, Zainab coaches me on how to speak the Hausa language ( Sannu! Yaya yau? Yaya Maigida?) (Hi, how is today? How is your husband?) She also advises me on readily available food and prices and various other things like how to tie a proper headtie for Sunday church. I am very fortunate to have her!

Meet our guards: Joshua and Joseph, two brothers. They keep a watch over our house and our

neighbors’ house, the Sampsons, day and night. Crime and achabas (motorcycle taxis) are on the increase in Jos , so this is a very needed service. In the picture, note how bundled up Joshua is. Though it is 70-80 degrees depending on the time of day, many of the Nigerians are wearing sweaters and even parkas throughout the day. They think it is very cold. Meanwhile, Michael is sweating buckets! I hear Joshua tromping around our house every night in his rubber

boots patrolling our house.

And finally, meet the Nigerian kids who live across from our house. When they are patient, they wait outside the gate and try to catch our kids’ attention. When they are not so patient, they come to the door though most of them cannot speak English. They love to play with our kids who throw them around and teach them silly chants and hand games, but even more, they love to play with our soccer ball! Though much younger, they are quite skilled and have no problem getting the ball away from our much bigger kids. It made me laugh when they got us girls to sit down and ravaged our hair with their fingers in delight at our soft, fine hair! Each of us girls got our hair braided.

-Lisa

Day 8 of our African Adventure!

Today was the eight day mark for our time in Nigeria. It has been a fast eight days. Every day since we came here we’ve done something. I think part of the reason the days have just flown by is because we still lack routine, so the days aren’t as defined as they’ll be once school starts… which is TOMORROW! I still can’t get over that. This summer was too short. It will be nice when I have a really long summer next year though. Especially since it will be the summer between highschool and college. I’m sure I’ll need the time.

But yes, getting back to Nigeria and what’s happening here, things have started to be more consistent… or I’m getting used to the inconsistency. One of the two. But either way, it is starting to feel like home here. We have power most of the time, almost clean cold water, and increasingly clear hot water. And my bedroom is starting to be mine. The walls are still pretty bare and it there aren’t many decorations that are mine, but I think I’ve adopted what is there as my own and now it’s starting to be more like home. The friends that I have been making here have been helping with that also. I’ve spent a lot of time with Caroline Carlson since we got here and I can see us getting to be really good friends.

In more exciting news, school starts tomorrow! Senior year! Whoot whoot! The Samsons (our very helpful and extraordinarily kind neighbors) are coming over at 7:30 to show us the “bus stop” for the morning carpool to the hillcrest compound. There will be a lot of us in there. It sounds like the van that is taking us will be completely full. Plus me and Sterling will be doing sports and staying on the compound after school so I’m sure I’ll get the chance to hang with some of the girls in my class.

Oh and there is actually a cute story that goes with the picture that I'm posting with the blogs. This morning, Sterling was kicking a soccer ball around while he was waiting for his ride to the Hillcrest compound to get here. Outside of our gate there was a crowd of little Nigerian kids just watching. So after a little Sterling saw the kids and asked them if they wanted to play at which they all said yes and started bouncing around because they were so happy. But anyways, my mom, Emily, and I were all inside at the time and we saw them so we took a picture. It was too cute.

So, yes. Life here thus far has been very exciting and I can’t wait because I know it will get even better.

~Hannah, 17

Sterling Adapting

I’ve started soccer already with the Hillcrest soccer team here in Jos. The players here are very skilled because they have been playing soccer all of there life and they play in their freetime here. There are a few boys on the team that could possibly have soccer scholarships if they played in America. Having not played in two years I am far behind most of the kids. There are a few boys that I am better than but they are Americans. I have also met a guy named Gabe Dvorak. He is also interested in baseball and his dad is trying to get two teams together to play against each other so that we don’t have to give up baseball for a year whenever we come. Gabe is also very much into basketball, and he and I plan on practicing a lot during the year to build up our skills so that we can be starters on the varsity team.
I am still adjusting to the poor plumbing in our house. Every morning we have to run our water for a few minutes to get all the dirt and rust out. The water is a dark reddish brown when it is clearing out and then turns pretty clear for the most part. The tap water is not safe to drink, if you drink it you are likely to get typhoid disease, also you could probably get tetnus from all the rust that is in the water. We have a water filter that purifies the water and we store that in water bottles that we have purchased here in Nigeria. My water heater is also malfunctional. There is no device on it that will stop it from overheating, and it ends up boiling very hard. I discovered this the hard way one morning when I tried to use hot water from my sink and it shot out the usual reddish brown dirt water and then cut off. Within a few seconds a horrible smelling, burning hot steam was shooting out of my faucet. My room smelled strongly of sulfur for a few hours. I have learned my lesson, though I am still too scared to even try to use the hot water for fear I will forget to turn the water heater off and have a similar experience to my first.


Sterling Mitchell (15)

Market Adventure

Friday went a little more smoothly than the past few days. Most of us are getting more adjusted to the time change, though the transition is not even close to being complete.
We were picked up at 11:30 by Kauna (Pronounced “Ka-oo-na” but said all together very quickly) and she was our guide around the market. Driving is still nerve racking as there are constantly achabas (motor bike taxis) passing you three inches from your bumper. However it is fun to look out the window and wave at the small children. They’re faces light up and they wave back with a big grin. I also get a kick out of seeing all the animals that wander along the side of the street. They don’t have stray dogs here, they have stray goats. All the items were so colorful and fun looking in the market! It was great just to be able to look around, though I could hardly take my eyes off the ground because the sidewalk was very uneven and full of potholes. We stopped into a couple of fabric stores and in each one you felt like you were walking into a parrot shop. We are each supposed to pick out a print that we like so it can be made into a traditional Nigerian outfit. We’ll where these to church, weddings, funerals, and most other Nigerian occasions. It was so funny to see each of our different tastes! I had my eye on a bright green with blue streaks, while Emily was looking closely at a more neutral green color that had trees printed on it. Mother fell in love with a fabric that was just a solid print of her favorite color; an extremely bright fuscia pink. We all groaned.
Kauna led us all around the market and the back alley, and we bought some basic food. It was amazing to see people walking around with large, shallow, metal bowls full of peanuts, bananas, and other fruit on their heads. We even saw someone walk by with a goat head balanced in his bowl! It was gross, but cool. We did get hassled a little bit when dad took a picture of the market place and a lady walked up, obviously very angry, saying “You snap my mother! What is the problem!?” None of us could think of anything to say except “Sorry,” but Emily was very witty and replied “Oh, I’m sorry, but she is just so beautiful that we couldn’t help it.” At this, the woman calmed down and said “Thank you.” And let us go. In Nigeria, to “Snap” somebody is to take a picture of them. You have to be careful and ask if you may take a picture of someone because many of them don’t like it or believe that when you take a picture of them you are taking away a part of them.
All in all, it was an adventure filled day that taught us much about Nigerian culture, and left each of us with fond memories that we will cherish ‘til the end of our days.

Camille Mitchell (age 13)

Arrived to Nigeria

We made it finally! We had an uneventful trip to Abuja. After staying up to 12:30 am, we took our 26 boxes and suitcases to the airport the morning of 7/28. We had some concerns since many of the workers at Lufthansa had gone on strike on 7/27. The warning was that Frankfurt would be most affected. Our worries were allayed and we arrived at Abuja, Nigeria one hour early. Dr. Cindy Anthis, wife of Dr. Joel Anthis, was there to receive us. Customs clearance was a breeze.

During the four-hour layover in Frankfurt, Hannah, our 17 year old daughter, connected with us as planned. She had spent 4 weeks in Germany for her part of the exchange. We are one happy family again.

Our first night was at a guest house in Abuja. We traveled on the morning of 7/30 from Abuja to Jos. Normally there are multiple security stops along the way, but this time we drove through without a single stop. The seasoned missionaries on the van were quite surprised.

We arrived to our home here on the Evangel Hospital compound. It is very large and grandiose appearing from the outside. Looks can be deceiving however. The home has been vacant for several months and has never been lived in by a westerner. We as westerners and especially Americans are rather spoiled and have different expectations for cabinets, sanitation, plumbing and cleanliness. Though there is much room inside, we have had to work a little to get some electricity and plumbing issues worked out. Apparently there has already been much preparation to get the house ready, and for this we are greatly appreciative. It would have been untenable without the hard work of Kim Sampson and many other people here on the compound. Now, 36 hours after arriving, we have mostly clear water running from most taps. Most of the toilets are working. We have electricity to most outlets most of the time. We do however still have a short list of bugs (and mice) to work out. But things are looking brighter.

I will visit the clinic tomorrow. We still have to do some shopping and start preparing our own meals. We have one house helper hired. We will need more to keep this large place clean and functioning. We need to get a van for our family soon. I am not looking forward to driving where the size of your vehicle determines ride of way and and a customary distance between vehicles is inches. Driving in Nigerian traffic is exciting to say the least.

Michael Mitchell, MD

SIMCO Completed

We completed the two week SIMCO (SIM Candidate Orientation in North Carolina. We now have a better idea of how to adapt to working in a developing country and maintaining good relationships with our national hosts as well as fellow expatriates.

We are still acquiring our supplies for the year. Lisa filled two carts at Target last night.

Today is the last day at Kaiser for Michael. The kids are visiting with friends. There is still a lot of "work" to be done. We will start stuffing boxes soon.

Has anyone seen our kids?

We leave in 4 days, July 28th.

Michael Mitchell, MD