A long-awaited post :)

Before I start blogging....I had to put these pics up. This is right down the road from our house. It means "beautiful Tam-Tam bar"!!! hahaha!! All the interns know my mom (because she friended them all on facebook haha)..and I told them how a lot of my friends at home call her Tam-Tam. So now, they all call her Tam-Tam. One of the interns spotted this while we were driving and we all cracked up! Love you momma :)

So I'm sure many of you have by now heard all the craziness that has been going on in Gabon (even though it really wasn't that crazy on our end). But for those of you who don't: the President of Gabon died after 41 years of presidency. Most communication was shut off for about a week, including the net. Now everything is back to normal. (For more info you can email my mom...I can't put much on the blog for different reasons). ANYWHO...now I can finally tell everyone the adventures we've had the last couple of weeks! I don't remember everything, but I'll hit the high points :]. For starters, a couple of weeks ago the interns and Leann got to go into Libreville alone (without Tim and Meredith aka our parents haha). We took one of our friends from Libreville with us, Yoann. His mom, Mama Jeannine, helps us with medical caravans. He is 19 and we definitely couldn't have made it in the city alone without him! We went to a place called Paradise where they have cheeseburgers and REAL MILKSHAKES!! Ah, it was so good. We took a taxi there. There were 6 of us not including the driver, so we put the 4 girls in the back and Zach and Yoann got the front. On the way we got stopped by the police for having too many people in the car and had to pay a fine! I bet that taxi driver was like, why did I pick up a bunch of white people?! While we ate, we spent a lot of time laughing with Yoann, because he would say the funniest things. He is still learning English, so his word choices were quite humorous. For example, he said that the salads were a "melting pot of vegetables." haha! Another funny one: He was talking about going to a soccer game by himself...he said he was going to go "lonely" instead of alone. He spent a lot of time laughing at our meager attempts to speak French as well. When we were about to leave I decided to get a milkshake to go, so I told Yoann to ask the waitress if they could do that. She said she could and pointed at Zach's empty water bottle. We all kind of looked at each other...then figured out she meant she could just put it in the water bottle! Haha....I said sure! I didn't care...and that milkshake was definitely worth it! On the way back, we got another taxi driver who had a decked out taxi...I'm talking about lights, stuffed animals, beads, the works. He was also listening to Akon (the Gabonese LOVE Akon because he's from Senegal). While driving home, he randomly stopped on the side of the road for a potty break. Only in Africa...

My milkshake "to go" haha

(L-R) Leann, Hannah, Zach, Torey, Me, Yoann

Last week we went to Lebamba where Bongolo hospital is located. It's about 8 hours away (10 hours by taxi-bus). We had a wild ride there, let me tell you! Our taxi driver was Roman...and he was a hoot. He had a girl in just about every town we stopped in. One time we stopped to eat, and after we couldn't find Roman. We later found out that he had gone to get a haircut! Haha...he was really funny. The roads in Gabon are really bad as I've said earlier, so driving for that long can really make you sick. He thought it was hilarious that the roads were so bad! He would drive extremely fast, smiling the whole time and would occassionaly look bad to say "Se bon?" (are you good?) We also stopped at a hotel where they randomly had a fenced-in area with a pelican, antelope, and deer in the back. There was also a white-nosed monkey in a cage. The scenery was really pretty everywhere we went. We could see the mountains in the distance...it was beautiful.

When we FINALLY got to Bongolo, we got to use the internet! I talked to my mom and consoled her, because she was crying uncontrollably (just kidding :]...although she did alert most of Georgia when we were out of contact for 2 days...haha. gotta love moms :]). We stayed with a missionary family-the Kelly's. They had a POOL! The first day we took a 3 hour tubing adventure on the river that runs through Lebamba...I didn't get to take any pictures since we were in the water, but it was BEAUTIFUL. It was pretty chilly though. The next day we took a tour of the hospital. It's amazing all the stuff they have in the middle of the jungle! We saw newborn babies, TB patients, AIDS patients, people going to the dentist, and much more! All the patients and nurses were so sweet and welcoming. They also have a large surgical ward and people from all over Gabon come to have surgery because of the affordable prices. Bongolo hospital is a private Christian hospital, so they want to make care affordable while also spreading the love of Jesus. It's awesome :).


We saw a precious newborn baby in here...
This is a surgerical suite:

All the meds!

When a patient registers at the hospital, they have to have one family member that will agree to stay and cook for them. This lady is preparing fish for one of her family members that is a patient at the hospital.

A little boy who is waiting for his legs to heal.

This is Bongolo falls...the community gets all their electricity from here.

Hopital de Bongolo-a view from the top of the hill.
Pediatric Ward
Surgeries for the dayAfter touring the hospital, we cleaned out the Kelly's attic. That night we had a bonfire with SMORES (we were all so excited!). We left Friday morning at 6am. On the way, we stopped at a gas station and I heard everyone saying there was a chimp just hanging out there! (I didn't have my contacts in..so I really couldn't see). Roman (our driver) said it's name was Ben. Next thing I know, I'm looking out my window and it's like RIGHT THERE! It was then that I realized I am afraid of monkeys that aren't in a cage. I screamed and slammed the window shut. It didn't help that the interns had just finished talking about that monkey in the States that killed that lady...UGH! All monkeys should be on a leash or in a cage if you ask me. We finally made it home around 5pm that night. Saturday we mainly slept and rest, and yesterday we went to church. Last night we FINALLY got internet again!!! It was great to be able to talk to my parents and Aaron:). That's all for now! Thanks for reading :)