Monday, July 5, 2010

I kept dreaming that the other missionaries were waking me up to see patients during the night. “Michelle, this woman’s baby is very sick, you have to come NOW!” I had to smile when I woke up; it took almost a year of working at the hospital before I started to have dreams about my job, but in just over a week the needs of the people in Bukotelo had become so heavy on my mind I was already dreaming about them. We sang together (my voice was back!) and had morning devotions. Muereka and Zukiswa were supposed to leave Bukotelo that day so Busiku went to make arrangements for transportation.

Muyereka, Panji, and I headed over to the school at 8:00am to see the rest of the people who needed medical care. When we saw the last person we went back to the house, only to have more people come to the house. A few of the women had walked from a village several Kilometers away to see the doctor. They sat on the front porch and in the grass in front of the house waiting for Muyereka to assess them and their children. It was afternoon when the patients left the house and Busiku returned to tell me that I would be leaving with Muyereka and Zukiswa. I packed my suitcase and then went for a walk into the village with Panji. We stopped at a tiny store and said goodbye to some of our Bible study contacts.

Back at the house we had lunch and waited for transportation to come. We waited until it was time to prepare for the crusade. Once again, the generator would not start. We sang and I told the children a story before the crusade began. Just as Nelson and Gift were standing to give the message, a vehicle arrived to take us back to team Matthew in Muchinshi. We were quite a distraction as we left the crusade site, I still remember the children saying “bye-e!” and shaking my hands. We climbed into the vehicle with our luggage and started the bouncy ride. We were making good time until we had a “puncture.” There was no spare tire so we had to walk the last 8Km to Muchinshi. I was glad that the others knew the way; everything looked unfamiliar in the darkness.

In Muchinshi, we went to the houses where the missionaries were staying and waited for them to return from the crusade. There were lots of hugs and smiles when the misionaries returned; it was nice to be back with team Matthew and Erin. We went to bed tired but very happy.