This past week I have truly felt the hand of God. At the begging of the week I had news from home that my dad wasn't doing very good and was admitted to the hospital. I'm very close to my parents so this news was a bit difficult to receive being so far from home. They were only able to give me small updates every now and then. My heart and mind wanted to start racing with worry and fear. I recently started a book called "Come Thirsty" by Max Lucado (highly suggest if you're looking for a good book). The night before I got this news I was reading a chapter about fear and worry, the titles being "In God we (Nearly) Trust" and "Worry? You don't have to", how appropriate right? We have a God who is in control and in every situation he knows what is best. Lucado says "No struggle will come your way apart from His purpose, presence, and permission". Since God is in control why worry? Worry is irrelevant according to Jesus, "Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?" (Matt. 6:27). I was reminded of this verse "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present you requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7). When I wanted to start worrying God placed this reminder right in front of me. I started to lay those worries down in prayer, and as the day went on I had a true peace. And for an updated on my dad, he is home and feeling much better. We are very thankful for his health :)
These reminders are also helpful for work right now. We have been very busy these past weeks. Generally we see about 30 patients a day, well we have been having anywhere from 45-55. One of the nurses I work with has had to leave unexpectedly and we will miss having her around. This leaves two nurses to manage the patient load so we are nervous about the weeks ahead. I'm sure we will get aid from the ward which will be very helpful. We are going into the week in prayer.
On to the adventure of the week! This past weekend, I had the opportunity to travel to Kindia, a 4 hour drive, to visit the agricultural site which is sponsored by MercyShips.
The car travels were an adventure today. We left the port at 4:45 am for a 4 hour car ride. We started out through the port on the main highway and continued on this paved road for the next couple hours. Although it was paved there were many pot holes, the roads in Guinea are terrible. We swerved and bumped the whole way to and from. This was my second time going on this highway and thankfully we didn't have to drive on the other side of the median against traffic, that was crazy.
In the cars around us, people pile into cars and pile the roof of cars full of merchandise. We saw many cars packed and the outside stacked with stuff and on top 1-3 people just riding along. I don't know how they stayed on with the swerving and the bumping. Oh and the buses! The buses fly past and then swerve around the potholes as they go! They’ll even go off the road to avoid them, nearly causing them to tip over as they do. We followed one for a bit and several times we thought for sure they would fall on their side.
The reason for this weekend adventure was to attend a graduation at an agricultural site. MercyShips not only focuses on medical but they try to extend services like agriculture. The program is called Food for Life.
The main goal is to train up men and women so they can go back into the community and educate, the motto - educate educators. It was set up in 2012 on a family owned farm. This particular family wanted to use their location initially as a spot for people on vacation (mainly tourists). Their dream to use the land slowly turned into a desire to use it as an education location. When MercyShips was in Guinea several years ago they found this family and together established an agricultural program. A program to help teach organic ways to farm, how to farm produce people don't think possible for the area, and to help people get started with their own businesses.
Things we saw included fields of cabbage, pineapple (which I learned grows on a small plant), carrots, and corn. They worked on composting, starting plants from seed in beds to then plant later. They learn about a system called aquaponics.
From my understanding they raise fish in a tank they feed, then their waste and water is recycled to water plants. The plants have pebbles at the bottom to filter the water through so that when it waters the plant the water is filtered and drains from the plant and then pours back into the fish tank.
The graduation was all in French with occasional translation to English. It was a significant event to which the mayor of the town and a political figure from Conakry were present. The family who owns the farm were very proud to host the event and held a lunch for everyone after.
On the way back to Conakry we had planned to stop at a hotel for the night. Just about a mile from our turn we got stuck in traffic.
We finally reached our place after about an hour. The reason for the traffic was a semi truck had tipped or the trailer broke but they had lost bags of what we think was cement. It's been four hours and the traffic is still backed up out there. There were only a few men working on getting the bags picked up. It was hot outside and very humid, we thankfully had air conditioning but the cars which we passed and had waited with didn't and on top of that they had tons of people crammed inside.
We reached our location and were able to enjoy being outside in the shade, having a nice cold Coca-Cola. The water pump wasn't functioning properly so had to wait to shower. All day we have been mentioning how nice it is to have fresh air, how it’s quiet without the engine of the ship, and you can actually hear crickets and wildlife. We enjoyed the evening sitting together outside enjoying dinner, chatting, and playing heads up. It's been nice to get away and see a little more of Guinea.