Hygiene and positive thinking

How can you teach a hygiene class about washing hands to avoid germs, wearing shoes to keep worms from entering your body when you enter a latrine or drink boiled water when the only water that the impoverished can collect is sewer water? This was a question that my friend Robin faced this week. She is a nurse who is giving hygiene education to ex-prostitutes. She had to throw away her entire curriculum because these women and their children are drinking water running out of toilets and drain pipes. They can not afford to purchase clean water. And why boil sewer water when you can’t afford the coal to boil it as well? And really, what would boiling water do for sewer water??

It is one of the aspects of our work that is terribly frustrating. The basics are so difficult to come by. We have one particular area that has no water wells at all and the families are drinking run off water as well as muddy pond water. Obviously, it is one of the major problems for sickness in Rwanda.

Amber helped Rebecca Romero in the medical center in Mutete Village last Friday. She gagged as she watched one little child playing with a water bottle filled with the filthiest liquid she had ever seen. Even in the health center, sick people are trying to “heal” while they drink germ infested water. It is a terrible predicament.

On another note, I have been experiencing panic attacks since last Thursday. I believe the situation with Vianney is triggering feelings of powerlessness which I have struggled with in years past. There is so little I can do to remedy or even speed up the process. I think the most difficult part is accepting God’s sovereignty. I hate suffering of any kind. I can’t stand to watch my friends, my children or even strangers in pain.

There was one positive thing I was able to think of today. It was the fact that my children have faced a lot of personal struggle and pain during this trip to Africa. As much as I wanted to take them home to relieve them of their discomfort, I have seen how the adjustment has made them stronger. They are much more capable than I believed! For instance, in America they can’t go 30 minutes in the car without turning on the DVD player. Now they drive for 3 hours and feel a bit crabby from being cramped, but they handle it fine. And they are pretty picky about what they eat in America, but they have grown in their tastes as well.

My point is that I am starting to process the fact that there is always a strength that comes after the struggle. I am praying for Vianney to gain strength, but I am also asking God to help me get stronger too. It is easy to feel like giving up… but this is God’s mission and it will happen as he directs it to. I am finding that I want to trust Him and I am praying that He will, “Help my unbelief.”