dumela

well this week has been an interesting week at the center of excellence thus far.  we have attended training for local doctors, nurses, teachers, prison guards, and other occupations as they learn the proper assessment of hiv and how to handle someone who has it.  hiv is a highly stigmatized infection.  there are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to hiv and most people do not handle it well.  it is especially stigmatized in the united states because the u.s. does not come in contact like people down here do.  about 1 in every 4 people that you pass walking down the street in bots has hiv.  as sad as this sounds, it is a part of life down here.  a lot of people think that they are different because they have the "bad guy" in their system, but it's just like anyone else who has an infection. most of the time hiv is the smallest case for the child.  with hiv comes other diseases. so usually the child is truly suffering from another disease or infection that was caused by hiv.  

today was a very interesting day for us.  located next to the coe is the princess marina hospital which has a ward for pediatric oncology.  they see a lot of cancer down here due to all the hiv cases.  dr. sloan is a doctor out of houston who has uprooted his family to serve for at least three years down here in gabs.  he is the only pediatric oncologists in the whole country.  he has done a fantastic job going to villages and seeking out patients because often times the child is left alone and eventually passes on due to the lacking of treatment.  so today we saw ten sweet little faces in the oncology ward.  it was definitely the most eye opening, humbling day since i've been here.  we administered chemo to five of the patients.  the patients had all different types of cancer such as lymphoma, brain tumors, and other forms. some of the cases were so severe that patients had amputations of legs and the removal of the eye in two of the cases.  we saw a patient today that had relapsed to an incurable type of cancer.  these children are warriors.  they are fighters and they have the face of hope.  what they need is love and prayers.  it is incredible to see how these families are so dependent on faith.  every morning the coe and hospital holds morning prayer for all of the staff and patients admitted.  their trust in the lord is truly admirable because most of them only have a few more days to live but they are still smiling.

it puts a lot of things into perspective for me.  don't forget to smile.  it's contagious.  remember that you might be the only slice of jesus that someone sees in a day.  don't let them get a misrepresentation of our savior due to a frown on your face.  jesus has walked down every path that you will go on so take every challenge as an opportunity to show jesus to others.  he has conquered all for our sake.  for the sake of a sinful face, but a face that finds their hope in the lord.  he is so faithful even in the smallest of things. the lord is doing big things down here.  continual prayer for the sweet faces that we are seeing and the salvation of this place! the lord is unstoppable so we need to pray without seizing.  

until next time,
natalie