Nicaragua '13

JANUARY 13, 2013
The Nicaragua team met today in Lincoln at Sue & Karl Tillinghast's.  We were commissioned at their church, First Presbyterian at the 11:00 service.  We had a great meeting with lots of discussion on our travel plans, finances, supplies & totes, gifts, devotions, etc.  Tamra has lots of neat ideas on things that she has in store for children's ministry so that will be fun to see what all she has planned. 

At this point, it looks like we will be working with 4 physicians from Nicaragua; plastic surgeons & ENT physicians.  We don't know yet how the surgery schedule for the week is going to be worked out but we have learned how to be flexible and will deal with whatever is handed to us. 

Everyone is getting so excited for the trip.  Our medical supplies are all packed in totes & we have 1 or 2 more to pack with misc. supplies.  But once again, one of the worst parts in preparing for this trip is to figure out how we can get everything we need for 10 days into our own personal carry-on size bags weighing no more than 30 lbs.  Believe me, it is NOT easy (especially for us girls)!  

Our mission trip will be Feb. 7-17th.  We will be posting to this blog site as internet service is available.  

Keep us in your prayers!
Carolyn Athey

KENYA HERE WE COME

Things are moving right along with our plans to travel to Naivasha, Kenya where we will work in the District Hospital.  I've included a slideshow of the Kenya team.  We had a team meeting this past Sunday where all but 2 of the 19 members attended so we could meet and talk with one another.  Several have been there before so their experience is valuable.  We will not all be on the same plane, but will arrive in Nairobi all the same evening within and hour of each other.  We'll stay the night in a hotel there.  They say it's near the Israeli embassy so is heavily guarded.  I guess that's good to know.  We'll have 3 vans, 2 for people and 1 for the supplies and luggage.  On the way to Naivasha there is both a baby elephant preserve and baby giraffe preserve.  I guess for orphaned animals.  We'll probably get to stop there if time permits either on the way to or back from Naivasha.  They also say Lake Naivasha has hundreds (thousands?) of flamingos and hippos.  We'll get out on a boat in the lake at some point and see them.  Yes..... we'll be careful of the hippos.  It's interesting how many folks have warned me about them, as if people from Nebraska would know more about hippo safety than the people who live there and will guide us.

I just got a call from Louise at Federated Church tonight with another 20 receiving blankets and baby hats.  The ladies there have already made us 25 hospital gowns.  I'm afraid we won't have room for surgical instruments.  We may have to rearrange and take fewer drapes or something.
I also received an e-mail from a Kenyan general surgeon today, who we will work with there.  He will get me in touch with the local ENT, Dr. Anne.  Since there is ENT there I may not have to take as many instruments as usual, but that's unclear right now.  They apparently do not have a microscope for ear surgery so that saves us an ear tray, but tells me there is probably a lot of need for ear surgery there.

I want to add photos and stories of our team, but don't have time right now so will do it another time.  The blog is a little cumbersome to sign in and we get lots of spam comments that need to be deleted from foreign advertisements it seems so it's a bit of a nuisance to have to screen them all.  I will write more when I have time.

We're being commissioned at Federated Church this Sunday and following that with a Baked Potato Bar fund raiser to help cover costs.  Thanks to everyone who has helped so much.  This will be the biggest adventure yet.  I feel a little bad about not going to DR Congo and will keep it on my list.  I received and e-mail from another missionary who put off a trip there for the same reasons we did.  The government is unstable, and although the mission site where we would have been working isn't in the direct line of the trouble, we didn't want to get there and then have riots in the capitol which could close the airport and lock us in.  In the mean time, I gave up on my French lessons for DRC and got a "Teach Yourself Swahili" CD/book set from Amazon yesterday, so now will try to learn a few words.  If I can say hello, goodbye, wait here, excuse me, please and thank you I'll be happy. Someone once told me Swahili is the hardest language in the world to learn.  I don't know if that is true or not. Lucky for us, the 2 national languages in Kenya are Swahili and ENGLISH!!  Woo Hoo!!
Nila Novotny