Sat August 25, 2012
We are back home in the states and I will be back on call tomorrow evening.
It has been a very intense time of training, service, education and witnessing.  We are glad we went and glad we are back.  I want to go back but not sure when that will be
brad

Katy's Conclusion

Going to Niger was not hard. Leaving was hard.

Seeing the oppression and poverty was not difficult. Leaving people in that state was difficult.

I am glad that we have stories and pictures now to be able to spread the word about Galmi Hospital. Because people need to know. People have reacted with horrified surprise that a place as abjectly poor as Galmi exists. How can you care about people you do not know are there? Or respond to a need you do not realize? We and you are no longer ignorant. We can no longer say we do not know. Please don't pretend you don't know.

I'm so thankful to have been able to visit Galmi and work in the hospital there. There is so much suffering that I do not have words for it. There is so much compassion and love too.

I am so astounded by how much wealth we have here in the West. How can poverty like what I've seen here still exist? Seeing these people of Niger - their courage and strength - it sets a fire in your heart. And this fire I've got isn't going out.

I don't know how to conclude, or how to sum up my thoughts in a quick blog post about Niger. But actually I don't really want to wrap up Niger in a little box and tie it with a bow. I am not concluding then, because I am not ending my connection or relationship with Africa. I am not cutting myself off from the oppressed or the marginalized or the poor to pretend they don't exist.

So here is to beginnings. Cheers.

Aug 20 We Go to the Capitol

Aug 20 we go to the capitol:Niamey

Stephen Montgomery is the Director of Galmi Ministries.  He is a passionate advocate and visionary for the ministry, CEO/administrator and  IT Geek all rolled into one who has been serving in Galmi for almost a decade.  He is the principal promoter of the new maternity unit. 

Chad Windsor is the chief construction engineer.  He grew up as a missionary kid in Nigeria.  He did his stint in the US marines Hooya! Now he and his wife are raising their two children in Galmi for the last 10 years.  The entire hospital complex is being rebuilt and then the old sections that are falling down are being demolished to make room for further new buildings.  Chad is bringing a new level of excellence and durability to the hospital which will ensure that the ministry will continue for many more decades to come.

The capitol of Niger does not have a starbucks, McDonalds or any fast food we would recognize but it does have “seven-eleven”!!

This is where the SIM HQ is located as well as the national missionary boarding school :  “Sahel”.  We went to the US Embassy Rec Center for dinner, RnR and to visit with a broad mixture of missionaries and global community.  We caught up on the Olympic standings and Nascar, we watched some international “church league softball”.  We shopped for souvenirs at the “Grand Marche”.

Brad hands Stephen a check of Winnemucca Christian Fellowship's generous gift donation to Galmi. It will go towards building the new maternity ward!

SIM Air

Parker, another missionary headed to Galmi, and Katy, before take off to Galmi

Brad checks the propeller

Katy

We wear matching blue plaid

On the way back from Galmi to Niamey Katy falls fast asleep

We are flying from Galmi to the capitol: Niamey

Aug 19

SIM Air

 Kevin Rideout   knew that he wanted to be a missionary pilot when he was 12years old.  He grew up as a missionary kid in Nigeria and was fascinated by the missionaries who did their service in the air like angels delivering what was needed, people and supplies just in the nick of time.  Kevin studied the specialized field of mission aviation at the Moody Bible College, one of only two suh programs in the US.  Currently, He is the sole pilot running Niger SIM AIR the main provider of air courier service thoughout all of West Africa.  His partner is due back next week and his brother is about to join him as well.   He and his wife are raising their 4 children here in Niamey while he flies to a variety of mission stations all over western Africa.  They have 2 (sometimes 3 planes and pilots ) They put close to 1,000 hours per year in the air flying a Cessna and a Piper.  There are probably less than 500 people in the world that do what he does: fly little planes, heavily loaded for many hours long distances in very extreme conditions and very remote from all support and in multiple very foreign countries.  He does all his own maintenance and repair and must administer a complex program with a quarter million dollar budget which operates on a shoestring in the sense that most of the money goes for fuel and maintenance of his 20yr old aircraft with very little left for extras or miscalculations.   If Chad Wnsor, Stephen Montgomery and Kevin Rideout were not doing what they are doing in support of the Galmi Mission Hospital then it would not be able to have the impact that it has had over the last 50 years.

 We have two days here waiting for our flight out of Niger

Brad

Pictures- Joe, Esther, Newborns

This is part of a newly built wing of the hospital.
It is not finished yet, so it is not in use yet

Dr. Starke shows Katy around the new building

Brad and Dr. Starke were classmates in medical school. It's that connection
that helped us hear about, and travel to, Galmi

This is the foundation of a new radiology
building. It is being filled with dirt

The construction crew works long hours of manual
labor. The hospital is so grateful for their dedication

Here you can see that the foundation is almost completed

Chad, an ex-marine, is an SIM missionary and  construction
boss. 

He grew up in Nigeria as a missionary kid and has
served in Africa and Galmi for many years

Esther, the gynecologist, checks in with a patient
in the hospital

Esther personally checks in on her entire ward every day with an
entourage of nurses and that cart. This area is the overflow ward.
There is not enough rom for these patients in the hospital.

The OB Ultrasound machine is badly in need of replacement
due to its age

Healthy newborn!

New baby in the incubator in the one-room neonatal ward

The Worst Place on Earth to Be a Mother

The Maternity Project

The United Nations has rated Niger as the worst place on earth to be a mother (Norway is the best).  It is a complex calculation. The main factors are the very high death rate of pregnant women and their babies.  Other issues are the very extreme lack of health care access and the multiple ways that the women are oppressed with lack of opportunities such as very low literacy/education.  Malnutrion and high malaria/TB/HIV all disproportionately affect women.  Women having babies suffer in ways we in the USA just cannot understand, it is beyond our frame of reference or ability to understand.

SIM Galmi Hospital has had maternity care at the core of their mission for 50 years and for the last 2 years has been their top priority in gearing up a new effort to make an impact on behalf the women and children in their district.  A team of US engineers has designed a new Maternity unit.  The fund-raising is well on its way they have raised about one third of the necessary $250,000 needed.    The foundations have been poured for the new facility and if additional funds come in the project could be ready by the end of 2013!  

Stephen Montgomery is the Director of Galmi Ministries.  He is a passionate advocate and visionary for the ministry, CEO/administrator and  IT Geek all rolled into one who has been serving in Galmi for almost a decade.  He is the principal promoter of the new maternity unit. 

Chad Windsor is the chief construction engineer.  He grew up as a missionary kid in Nigeria.  He did his stint in the US marines Hooya! Now he and his wife are raising their two children in Galmi for the last 10 years.  The entire hospital complex is being rebuilt and then the old sections that are falling down are being demolished to make room for further new buildings.  Chad is bringing a new level of excellence and durability to the hospital which will ensure that the ministry will continue for many more decades to come. 

Newborns and Cholera

New mama sporting sutures after her successful c-section

Katy and Esther check in on a new patient who has been
tentatively diagnosed with cholera. One cholera patient
easily turns into a thousand, so the situation is being
carefully monitored. We can only hope that the disease is
not in the town well, but that this is an isolated incident.

Katy coaxed a smile out of this little girl, and was so
excited about it

Grandma holds her newborn grandchild

Newborn!