Dieu est bon!

God is good! The pastor at church this morning told us to say this as we were greeting one another. It really is true...God is so, so good! Before I blog about this weekend, I wanted to post a few prayer requests. I appreciate all those praying for me and the team here in Gabon. I figured some specific prayer requests would be helpful:

1. The Hope House (the orphanage) here in Libreville is in need of a new house. They are renting now, and the owner decided to sell the property. So now, Pastor Israel and his wife (the couple who run the house) needs a new place for the orphans! They need to find something within 2 months. Pray that God would provide a place and the financial means to rent/buy it.

2. The first team is coming out next Sunday! They are from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Pray that they have a safe trip, and that everything goes smoothly (and all their luggage gets here! :]).

3. Gabon is still in a transition period with it's government. An election should take place in a couple of months, so pray that God's hand would be in that.

4. Pray for health for the interns and teams. A lot of us have been getting sick and having health problems (I had pink eye last week...ugh!).



Again, I'm SO very appreciative for all of you who have committed to pray for me this summer!!



So...here is what's been happening over here in Gabon:

This past week we worked a lot on the house, and we are almost finished! We have one more room to paint, and then it will be ready for the first team! It looks really great! Friday, we left to go on a medical caravan to a village about 3 hours away. After that caravan, we went to another village about 15 minutes down the road to set up camp for the night. A man met us who helped us get set up. He was like the chief's right-hand man. We nicknamed him Mr. Pamplemousse (Mr. Grapefruit), because he gave us lots of grapefruit from his trees haha. A lot of people pitched in to help us blow up mattresses and hang mosquito nets from the trees. After we set up, Pastor Jacob played guitar and we all sang songs. He taught us a few French songs. A lot of kids came and sang with us too. They were so cute!! We went to bed around 9 (we were exhausted). It was pretty hard to sleep, because there were roosters and dogs making noise all night. Not to mention we were right beside a road, so trucks drove by all night. But nevertheless, I did manage to sleep a few hours! The next morning we bathed off in a river. We did another caravan in that village, and then came home. I was so happy to get a real shower! Today we went to a church really close to our house. It lasted 3 1/2 hours....the usual. It's so crazy how long the services are here! I will never complain about the service going longer than an hour EVER again. I never knew how good I had it until I had to sit for 3-4 hours with no AC, sweating my butt off, and only understanding about 5% of what the pastor is saying! I have no excuse to complain about ANYTHING when I get back to Foothills :).

My make-shift bed in the jungle :)

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 :)

videos

here are some videos from the Hope House....

A LOT has happened the last few weeks, but I haven't had the opportunity to post. I'm in Bongolo right now, but when I get back to Libreville I will hopefully be able to catch everyone up! Enjoy the videos!

New Puppy!

Guess what we got Monday at the STMO center?! A new puppy!! His name is Titus..he is the cutest thing ever!

While I'm at it...here are the other pets of the house...first is Bandit (pronounced Bon-dee)

And.....Gentile (pronounced Djen-tee) with our favorite intern leader Leanne!


Yesterday we got to swim at a pool owned by the U.S. Embassy. Tim and Meredith are friends with someone that works there...it was nice!




Going to post some videos later...

Hope House and Ndjole

I have about a week to catch up on so hopefully I'll remember everything! Last week we worked on the house for a couple of days. We're trying to get it ready for when teams start coming out at the end of June. I used a drill and a chop saw! I love power tools (just like my mother:])! Last Thursday afternoon we went to the Hope House in Libreville. It's basically like an orphanage. We sang a few songs and did a skit for them. Then we just hung out and played. They were the sweetest kids.
















Friday, we left to go to Ndjole for the weekend. It's a village about 3 hours away that we are partnering with this summer. We went to scout out places to sleep and shower for the teams when they come out. We stayed at Pastor Phillip's house that was attached to the church. Friday we went to church as soon as we arrived...funny story: we were seated on the stage and after the preacher finished, a lady stood by the stairs and told me to come down. I was the first in line. I started to go out the door but she pointed near the offering plate up front by the band. I had no idea what to do, so I just walked up there and starting dancing with the singers. They looked at me like I was a MORON! Tim quickly informed us that we were supposed to walk around the plate and go sit back down. Talk about embarrassing moment...After church, we ate ANTELOPE! It was pretty weird...like beef I guess. The pastor and his wife were very hospitable and gave us their room to stay in. We slept in mosquito nets which was very strange. When I asked to go to the "toilet" they showed me a little wooden shack in the back (see picture below). Little did I know that it was just a hole in the ground haha! The next morning I went to take a "shower" (which, by the way, was in the same shack that the "toilet" was in, only separated by a wall)and there was 3 buckets with water. It was intense haha. By the way-the Pastor's son Arnold was the cutest little kid EVER...he is the little boy in the pictures. Saturday we toured the village with the pastor and saw the different places to get food and supplies. Meredith bought some fresh grapefruit which were DELICIOUS! (I basically ate that for every meal after:]). We went to the Ogooue River that runs near Ndjole and found a place for teams to wash off. When we got back, we watched the women prepare for dinner. We each got to help crush the manioc leaves that they cook and eat. Saturday night they had another church service...which might I add lasted for FOUR HOURS. We did some "special music" (Mighty to Save by Hillsong)..Zach played guitar and the girls sang. Sunday we had another church service and did special music again. I played guitar and sang along with Hannah and Torey(Sing to the King by David Crowder Band). They liked our special music a lot. Zach gave his testimony, too. After eating lunch, we made the long journey home and FINALLY got a good shower! I have never been so happy to see a shower and a real toilet in my life...Oh, Africa:)