Friday 21 January 2011
Hopital de Guinebor II is officially open
For up to date information and pictures please search for BMS World Mission , there is an article and pictures on the home page ( for the next week). Later can use the BMS search, put in Chad, and you will also get articles on our carbon offset eco project and other background info for Chad, including a job advert for doctors and nurses. Please feel free to apply.
Saturday 8 January 2011
A time of Jubilee is coming
The steady throb of lorries 
rolling passed the hospital has now stopped.
The new road in front of the Presidential palace complete with parade ground with transplanted palm trees and triumphal arch is finished. The sound of the lorries has been replace by those of the Chadian Air Force practicing flying a flight of 5 attack helicopters in tight formation, and a pair of ground support jets pulling impressively tight turns as they arch over the city. Ruth and Rebecca were late for school yesterday stuck in a traffic jam behind some slow moving tanks. They have seen troops mounted on horses and camels parading past their school and even a military band. Next week three days of public holiday will be used to mark 50 years of Chadian Independence, with the main parade on the 11th January. The President is proud and wants to celebrate with the people and the world. We hope it will be a great day for all.
A man, Isaiah the prophet once spoke of another way of celebrating a jubilee; Jesus used his words at Nazareth to explain his ministry.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
Because he has anointed me
To preach good news to the poor.”
We too will be doing a bit to celebrate this Jubilee. The official inauguration of the hospital will be on the 4th day, Thursday 13 th January. This is purely coincidental and will give us some organisational problems but it will be good. The Minister of Health is the Patron for the day, Bert Oubre ,CEF President, is coming from the USA, many officials’ village chiefs and missionaries are invited. The American ambassador will be there, representative from Exxon Mobil; and even the British High Commissioner to Cameroon is prolonging his stay after the 50th anniversary celebrations.
So these are the plans for the coming week, but what of the past month. The hospital has been open in a low key way. About 25 outpatients a day, 8 babies delivered and a few mainly children as inpatients each night. Last night this peaked at 11 a third of our capacity, so word is getting around. We also did our first two operations yesterday and both patients are doing well one gynaecological and one general surgical.
Actually I missed most of it, having fallen ill with typhoid on the opening day, 9th December 2010, I spent most of the past month in bed and the responsibility for running the hospital and doing 80% of the on call has fallen on Andrea. She has been amazing running the home, organising Christmas for us all and looking after me it mainly in bed. The initial treatment was working well but I relapsed and required to be in one of our hospital beds on a drip for 2 days followed by 14 days of intravenous antibiotics which finished last Tuesday. I am now back at work since Wednesday working at 100% already which is amazing.
So much good news, something to celebrate.
Happy New Year to everyone.
rolling passed the hospital has now stopped.
The new road in front of the Presidential palace complete with parade ground with transplanted palm trees and triumphal arch is finished. The sound of the lorries has been replace by those of the Chadian Air Force practicing flying a flight of 5 attack helicopters in tight formation, and a pair of ground support jets pulling impressively tight turns as they arch over the city. Ruth and Rebecca were late for school yesterday stuck in a traffic jam behind some slow moving tanks. They have seen troops mounted on horses and camels parading past their school and even a military band. Next week three days of public holiday will be used to mark 50 years of Chadian Independence, with the main parade on the 11th January. The President is proud and wants to celebrate with the people and the world. We hope it will be a great day for all.
A man, Isaiah the prophet once spoke of another way of celebrating a jubilee; Jesus used his words at Nazareth to explain his ministry.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
Because he has anointed me
To preach good news to the poor.”
We too will be doing a bit to celebrate this Jubilee. The official inauguration of the hospital will be on the 4th day, Thursday 13 th January. This is purely coincidental and will give us some organisational problems but it will be good. The Minister of Health is the Patron for the day, Bert Oubre ,CEF President, is coming from the USA, many officials’ village chiefs and missionaries are invited. The American ambassador will be there, representative from Exxon Mobil; and even the British High Commissioner to Cameroon is prolonging his stay after the 50th anniversary celebrations.
So these are the plans for the coming week, but what of the past month. The hospital has been open in a low key way. About 25 outpatients a day, 8 babies delivered and a few mainly children as inpatients each night. Last night this peaked at 11 a third of our capacity, so word is getting around. We also did our first two operations yesterday and both patients are doing well one gynaecological and one general surgical.
Actually I missed most of it, having fallen ill with typhoid on the opening day, 9th December 2010, I spent most of the past month in bed and the responsibility for running the hospital and doing 80% of the on call has fallen on Andrea. She has been amazing running the home, organising Christmas for us all and looking after me it mainly in bed. The initial treatment was working well but I relapsed and required to be in one of our hospital beds on a drip for 2 days followed by 14 days of intravenous antibiotics which finished last Tuesday. I am now back at work since Wednesday working at 100% already which is amazing.
So much good news, something to celebrate.
Happy New Year to everyone.
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