Busy Busy

Hi Friends

Its been a while since I last wrote and so much has happened, from training courses to a visit from dad and of course a wonderful trip home. Where to start? well I can tell you aboutmy adventures into Mbabane for my last trang workshop back in august for TB. Thos was a week long training about anything from diagnosis, warning signs, prevention to treatment. Of course being so remote here in Bulembu and not having a car of my own, transport issues can become tricky and have to arrange several different people to assisst.  We had a team visiting from the uk who were coming to Bulembu from Hawane so I would head back with the minibus. ( literally said hi and bye to the team!). I then stayed overnight at Hawane and travelled to my hotel the following morning, only realising when I got there the venue for the training had been moved!!! eventuallly the hotel staff took me to the correct hotel, which was nice because  then realised we had been upgraded to a 5 star hotel, very nice indeeed!!!!!! the training was very long and had so much information given to us, I made some new friends and really enjoyed the week. thankfully most of the teaching was in english :).  As I got back to Bulembu I went with a friend to pick up dad the next day. We had him doing may different tasks, fixing electrical equipmnt, going out with the plumber, fixing wooden tables, fixing boilers. He certainly enjoyed his stay,and it was good for me to be able to show him where im living. We had a few invites for meals at friends houses, I must admit I saw more of Bulembu while dad was visiting than ive seen since ive been here. We were then also able to borrow a car and went to visit a bit more of the country. Was a bit surreal at times having dad with me here in Bulembu and also having a friend from Church back home here aswel ( was great to have you here Grahm Brewer). At the end of dads visit we stopped in Kruger park for 2 nights which was great and got to see the big 5. Our first night, while we were looking for our accomodation I didnt expect to be sleeping under canvas, what an experience but this was more glamping than camping as we had proper beds to sleep in :)
Going home was really lovely, although the travelling seemed to take forever. I really enjoyed catching uo with many friends a family, travelling from 1 side of the country to the other, i even got to see the sea, which i miss. I found 1 of the biggest challeges at home was everything seemed so compact wth no space, prefering to spend time out in the open countryside. Im so grateful for the many friends I was able to catch up with and soon time ran away too quickly so was unable to see everyone. Hopefully next time I will be able to catch up with those i missed. The most important person I wanted to catch up with was special hugs from my best friends little miracle. I cant believe I will miss her first few months, she will be 8 months when I see her again next :( but soo so grateful for answered prayers, even if they did take 10 years to be answered! Its all about Gods perfect timing though. I was asked to speak to the grand adults at their weekly coffee morning at church while I was home. I had no idea what was going to happen until 5 mintues before I spoke! they seemed to appreciate what I said and its so good to know the older generation are cheering on the younger generation.

Ive been back 2 weeks in Bulembu now, arriving home ( yes home :) ) to find there was another workshop to attend. Every 6 months the ministry of health and our friends in america organise a data review where every clinic in the country is invited to attend to discuss the progress of the countrys health services, hopefully coming out with awards for good practice. We as a clinic have won many awards in the last few years, but sadly this time we didnt get any, but generally speaking the rest of swaziland is improving their standards of care accross the board, leading to a healthier nation and less people dying. These sessions are always good for networking, as a lot of the time the best way to get things done is by buiding relationships and asking favours for our patients. This experience has given me some ideas of how to improve on some of our own practises, not that we are peforming under where we should be, but jut a few adjustments to make here and there. I love the fact that we work as a team in the clinic and we can implement the ideas we have together as a team.

With regard to rain in the country we have had a little bit but not enough to even make any difference as yet, please would you continue to pray for the rain this dry land so desperately needs. On a personal note, its good to be back but has been hard at times, missing home, getting back into a routine, knowing my next visit home wont be till next year. Ive been told a few times now that this is normal and the first few weeks back are always the hardest. Ive been reading an amazing book by Galdys Aylward a uk missionary to china back before the war, such an inspiration to hear her struggles, everything she went through and still she carried on fighting and doing what God told her to do.Its about being in the right place at the right time, all being in Gods plan. Im certain this is where im meant to be, in the middle of Gods plan for my life, and yes I do have days where I miss home and days where I miss my mum, and dasy where the workload seems too mcuh, but I know God is with me and has put amazing people around me  ( here and at home ) to support and care for me as I support and care for my patients. I hope to add some photos if I can but still not great at this blog thing :) Life group and braai tomorrow looking forward to spending time with friends.

Will blog again soon :) much love to all following my journey x