Zambia Day 3 - A Change of Plans

So hard to believe what God had in store for the team today.  As I remind my team daily, FLEXIBILITY is a must!!! And today we needed both!

Our schedule changed and we started by visiting Child Life Touch Orphanage.  I was excited to see how the team jumped right in and seemed as if the children and house mothers were dear friends.

Karen, a member of our team presented the children with notes of hope (mentioned earlier) that her daughter’s school sent and the children cherished them.

Leonard and I went on a shopping spree to fill their home’s wish list while the rest of the team did physicals and played with the kids and cared for them.  Leonard and I returned with much needed groceries to sustain them for THREE MONTHS!  In addition we purchased a BRAND NEW STOVE because theirs was broken. The sincere gratitude and joy was immeasurable.  True tears of joy! The morning was full and amazing!

We were gearing up for our first day of Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) training at Arthur Davison Hospital - a government run pediatric hospital. Our class size was 18 and ranged from midwives, tradition birthing assistants and nurses. The Clinical Director of the hospital, The Hospital CEO and some other very important men offered me and the TPM team their sincerest welcome and gratitude for coming to teach and encouraged the class to embrace the teaching and opportunity.

I felt very validated and encouraged by his support of the program.  The class went better than I could have anticipated with great excitement and energy by the “learners.” We had 9 people agree to be master HBB trainers and teach other classes throughout the year.

We then toured the NICU (neo-natal intensive care unit) and PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) and exhausted as we all were, we were just as energized by the response we received from our first class.  God is good!

We are trying to get pictures out as often as we can.  We have limited connection where we are but are working through cell phones with global chips to send you what we can.  This, so far, has been an amazing trip and trust me, the people here are overly appreciative of what your gifts and donations have provided for them.  Again we thank you so much for your support.  YOU ARE HERE WITH US!!!

Until tomorrow,

Melissa