Our team of 5 Mercy Shippers and 1 Government staff did great. We achieved all of our goals, scheduled 27 kids for orthopedic surgery in the next few weeks, saw amazing things and returned safely.
On one of our first days we travelled a road that allowed us to average under 30 km per hour (18 mph)! It was filled with holes, was narrow, had a lot of truck traffic and had super fine sand so everytime someone passed you it was like driving in a whiteout. That led to many discussions and the final decision that we loaded our trucks on a cargo train in Brazzaville and flew back to Pointe Noire.
While we were up country, I had a cool experience. We stayed with a mission family in a small town named Ollombo. While I was helping them in their storage shed I spotted a box marked "Samaritan's Purse" (an organization that works to provide Christmas presents to kids in third world countries while sharing the Christmas story). They were presents being stored waiting for distribution this Christmas. This was very cool as friends of ours back in Owatonna oversee this for our church! I took pictures and sent them back to our friends who were thrilled to see the outcome of the project!
We had a couple days of rain so that made some of the roads quite muddy. We got to play with 4-wheel drive, both low and high range, and found that the winch mounted on the bumper really will pull you out!!
We continue to do our regular jobs, screening for me is becoming much calmer and more routine, school is now completing the first quarter for Denise.
Here are some pictures of the upcountry trip . . .Enjoy!!
What a wonderful adventure! It looks like a very pretty place. I am glad everything is going well...can't wait till your next update!
ReplyDelete