Pancakes and a Doctor

This week has proved to be another interesting one. Nothing real different happened and the flying is down a bit, but we still managed to find some interesting things to write about. First off we had our normal Saturday pancakes and when Micah looked at his he had a comment that it looked like the continent of Africa. Then he had to tear off a little piece of another one and make Madagascar to complete it. (as the picture shows)

The rest of this blog is a couple of stories that Kurt is relating after spending a night up in the Nuba mountains in Southern Sudan. Sorry there aren't many pictures to accompany it, but hopefully the story will help understand even a little more what kind of work we're doing.

Last week I was in the Nuba mountains at a place called Kauda. It’s a compound that Samarian’s Purse has built and houses quite a lot of their staff who are working on various projects like the church reconstruction project, some farming and water initiatives, and such. Every two weeks we make a rotation into Southern Sudan which is kind of the lifeline for many of the Samaritan’s Purse programs working there. We take things like building supplies, vehicle parts and tires, electrical parts, fruits and vegetables, medicines, and just basic supplies that are difficult to find in Sudan. We normally will fly up from Nairobi with the airplane loaded down with the supplies and staff. Last week we had about a ton (2,000 lbs) of supplies and 15 people on the way up. We stop at Loki which is a paved airstrip just on the border of Kenya and Sudan where we get fuel and our official government clearances to fly into Sudan. Then from there we branch out to numerous destinations and start dropping off our supplies and people, plus start picking up people who normally will ride with us until we return to Nairobi. On Wednesday we flew to Webuye, El Doret, Loki, Yei, Yirol, Rumbek, and then on to Kauda which is where we stayed the night. The next day we flew to Kurmuk, Piere, Juba, Kapoeta, back to Loki and then to Nairobi.

During the evening in Kauda I had the chance to talk with one of our passengers who had left Nairobi with us and was still with us awaiting to be dropped off at a town called Kurmuk the next day. His name is Dr. Atar and he is a Sudanese Doctor. Educated in England I believe. We got talking and he started telling me about how things were during the war in Kurmuk. (around 2001-2004) He isn’t from there originally, but felt God’s hand leading him there before they even had a clinic or hospital in Kurmuk. When he first went there he said that they didn’t have any medical supplies so they would send porters over into Ethiopia to try and find some basic things. About the best they could come back with was plain white cloth and salt. Many injured and wounded soldiers were bandaged with the reams of cloth and salt. Can you imagine! Then he had a visit from a British official who promised some hospital supplies. She said that she would send an airplane three days later loaded with supplies to an airstrip located about 20 miles away and that they wouldn’t land unless they saw him there on the ground waiting. Well it was the rainy season and they didn’t have any way to get there because of the bad roads except to walk. The day before the plane was supposed to arrive he was finally able to arrange for about 10 people (and a few soldiers to protect them) to travel and they started out in the afternoon. During the night the traveling was so difficult that they had to leave everything along the path (including all of the guns from the soldiers except one) to just be able to make it there the next morning. When morning came they were still a little way from the airport when they saw the airplane arrive and start circling. They ran the rest of the way and got there just in time for the airplane to land and off load the supplies. Then they took three days to return with all of the supplies. It took 300 people to carry everything back and the supplies kept the hospital going for the next three years. Once the north figured out that the hospital was up and running they also tried to bomb it many times. They had bomb shelters built right in the hospital and many times had to spend tense moments in them, but were never hit directly by the bombs which were 55 gallon drums filled with fuel and a detonator rolled out the back of Russian antonov airplanes.

One other story he said was the first time he attempted to use anesthesia. There was a guy who had a big growth on the top of his head and he needed it removed. He had ketamine which can be used as an anesthesia. He didn’t have any way to intibate or help him breathe however so decided to use only half a dose (1cc) to keep him sedated, but awake so he could continue to breathe on his own. His assistant drew the dosage and gave it to him, but soon after that he stopped breathing. That was about 3pm and they started doing mouth to mouth to keep him alive. There were three people and they continued to do mouth to mouth until he started breathing on his own again at 8am the next morning. (that’s 17 hours of mouth to mouth!!!) In the end he survived, but Dr. Atar figured out that his assistant drew the ketamine up to the first line, but it was measured in 2’s so actually had given him the full dosage instead of half. Samaritan’s Purse came in and started assisting the hospital and now send supplies, Dr’s, and equipment to Kurmuk. It is one of our main stops in Sudan. It still is a difficult place to live and work, but now they say that if you need a spinal it is the place to go. They are well known for their ability to deal with difficult and emergency cases. We also help with transporting medevacs into Kurmuk instead of having to bring them all the way down to Kenya. It is a definite bright spot that God has blessed in an extremely difficult environment.