Fairly Official Update #1
I know it's been a 3day weekend for many of you and you have a lot of
emails to read. Make sure you get to this one though, it is long but
worth your while. If you work in the health field I have specifically
sent this to you because it may spark some interest in your heart and
those of your co-workers. Rad, thanks. -Courtney
Burkina Faso News #1
Health Centres
"NASADA! NASADA!" the children chant as they giggle and chase after
our car while we carefully manoeuvre through streets of mud and
puddles the colour of carrot juice. Upon arrival a group of women
smile and bow their heads, fold their hands and ask "Lafi ba" (the
Moore word for "healthy?" The local greeting). Each woman is sitting
down on a sack waiting for their share of the relief food that has
been donated by a German group. The rains are two months late this
year and the 10 million people who depend on their crops for food are
starving. Literally, they are starving to death. The old widows smile
toothlessly, their scared and wrinkled faces joyfully folding together
in grateful thanks. I shake each of their hands and sit among a few of
them. They ask if I am healthy and if my family is well, this is the
first time I have met them.
We sat under the shade of the new health centre buildings. They are
two simple buildings, one for general health and the other for
maternity. Both are empty, waiting for funding to fill it with life
saving equipment. An old widow to my left is coughing badly. "Est-ce
que tu as la médicine?" Her friend asks if I have medicine for her. I
said no. There I was, a westerner at a medical clinic and I could not
help. None of us could understand why. They can't understand how a
white woman can't have medicine on her. I can't understand how they
are so sick and I am so healthy just because I was born in the West.
That's it, that is the only reason I will live a long happy and
healthy life. It was nothing I did, just as it was nothing they did to
be born here, in a slum of the third poorest country in the world.
I sit awake in my bed under my mosquito net every night and think
"This is way too much to deal with, I can't help everyone. Why did I
even come?" Then I think of the few widows that we gave food to. They
will live another day to care for their families.
Yes, my goal is to save the world. No, that goal is not too big. With
every life touched there is a new tiny dent in the misery so many
humans live through everyday. When I give just a little to change just
one life, their world is forever changed. And I am that much closer to
my goal. Reminds me of Philippians 3:12-14.
Forget about the UN, the World Bank, G8 and the IMF. The people here
may never hear of them or see the work they do, for those projects are
on far too large a scale. I am witnessing the work being done here at
such a personal level. The staff was all born and raised here, the
understand all too well the issues here and have a huge heart to help.
There are several clinics up and running already in the most needy
places in the country. In the few weeks I have been here, I have
acquired that heart. You see, the problem is not too large. The
toilets need to be finished at the health center, it would cost about
$10. In fact, to get this whole center up and running and save the
lives of thousands of people each year it would be about $1,000. A
nurse's salary per month at this health clinic, once it is opened,
will be $60. See, once it is broken down, the issue is no longer
intolerable. A good example is me. Many people helped support my
finances for this trip and I heard some say they could not give much
(for some that meant $10 for some that meant $100). If everyone
thought what they could give wouldn't make a difference and didn't
help me out I wouldn't be here saving lives. Really, we are all
helping to save these lives I just get to represent you all.
I had this vision the other day of Western nurses getting together
behind a nurse here. And a group of people with a heart for the well
being of fellow humans raising the money to open this clinic. The body
of Christ working as one like in 1 Corinthians 12.
I have wondered if this will be real to you. I could write a thousand
pages trying to tell you how real this issue is and how easily you can
help, but you can also lead a horse to water… I have been praying that
God stirs your heart to action.
God bless your comings and goings.
With love,
courtney
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