Waiting

Meanwhile we are still hoping and praying that MAF will get their papers soon for us to fly to Bardai, we had tentative plans for the 25th of August, but it is looking unlikely. After a lot of phone calls to St Thomas' in London, we were eventually able to confirm that we need to be in the UK in November. So, we plan to stay in Bardai for the next 2 months and then return to the UK, where as well as completing pre-op appointments, we will spend November doing church visits. The procedure for Mark may not be until January, but we still aim to be back in Chad by February, when we will be having a visit from a couple from New Zealand who are interested in working in Bardai.

Earlier in the year we were invited to meet the Minister of Health, this took place in July. Unfortunately without Dr Abdelkerim, due to a confusion over dates he was still in Bardai. When we arrived at 7.15 am for our 7.30 appointment we were ushered from the waiting room into a large conference room and the minister slipped out of his back door, avoiding the others waiting and joined us! He then met with us for about half an hour .We had a good conversation which was followed up 4 hours later with typed minutes by email and a Facebook post on the Ministry of Health page.

We found out that the minister takes a special interest in the Tibesti, as although he is not from the region, he had lived and worked there before going on to higher education. After thanking the minister for the new solar energy system and the Emergency department which is under construction, we discussed the perennial problem of hospital staffing. A large number of medical and nursing staff had recently arrived in the Tibesti, but unfortunately, not quite such a large number stayed. The hospital has only one doctor of the three that were allocated and it is no better in the health centres as, for various reasons, many came back to Ndjamena. Along with the fact that the 'nurses' that have been sent have very little practical experience as they are trained as nutritionists and not general nurses, this means that we haven't heard about the transformation that we expected. Once we had explained the situation, he told us that he also found it difficult as the Minister of the Civil Service decides the first appointments of newly recruited staff and so he, as Minister of Health, has little say. He did however, write an email immediately explaining the problems and our needs to the Minister responsible. We also discussed the lack of Leishmaniasis drugs, a situation that is getting very serious as the WHO who has supplied them has had substantial budget cuts this year. (At the suggestion of the Minister, we even approached the British Embassy to see if they had funds, but none were available. In fact they apologised that, due to their own budget cuts they couldn't offer us milk with our tea.) Finally we are hoping for a fruitful outcome with regard to the X-ray for Bardai and as we now have the ministers personal Whats app we can contact him should we have further questions.

We feel that, despite the very real problems that we face, we are very encouraged by the ministers interest in the work and also that Dr Abdelkerim plans to fly up with us and stay in Bardai for several months. He is currently getting 200kg of medicines ready for the flight. All this will really help our work at the hospital so is great news.

In July just before we had planned to go to Bardai we spent a week near the river in Ndjamena relaxing and swimming (in the pool not the river ) and watching Hippos (in the river not the pool). It was a good time. We have been happy to have good contact with Ruth and Rebecca during our time in Ndjamena. Ruth has moved house and it was good to be able to communicate well as plans for an initial move didn't work out at the last minute. We are glad to say she is now happily in a new place and along with three other flat mates, there are even cats which she loves. Rebecca unfortunately had a bike accident and had quite severe concussion ,she is much improved, but is on a phased return to work for her new job at St Thomas' hospital which is part of a three year General Practice training programme.

We thank God for:

-Marks good health

-Good contact with the Minister of Health

-Dr Abdelkerim returning to Bardai

-Ruth's new accommodation

-Rebecca's recovery from her concussion.

Please pray for:

-A flight to Bardai to take place.

-Good relationships and collaboration with the new doctors and nurses.

-A good few months in Bardai, hopefully using our newly acquired language skills .

-Leishmaniasis drugs to be obtained.

-Marks treatment to go to plan so we can be back as we are hoping.

Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. Psalm 33 (20-22)

With love Mark and Andrea

We will be returning to the UK at the end of October and will be available for Church visits between the 7/11/2025 and 5/12/2025.

Please contact BMS if you would like us to visit.

P.S.We were excited that MAF received the necessary papers last Friday and had planned to fly last Monday.

Unfortunately a series of events involving a motor bike running into DrAbdelKerims car and MAF finding the papers were incorrect mean we are still in Ndjamena. The motorbike issue is solved but the papers are  not .Please continue to pray for this.