More on Monday

The sun woke me bright and early Monday morning but I continued to rest until about 8. At 8:30 I was about to shower...when the power went out. Time to change plans! ;-)
I ventured out of my room around 9 am Monday morning, praying, "God, I can't do this without you! Please let me find an IMC worker!" About 100 yards from my room, I ran into Dr. Richard, who showed me where food is (key finding!) and where to get clean drinking water. (Thank you, Jesus, for an IMC worker!) He introduced me to Drs. Kristina and Matt and we ate breakfast together and they answered a barrage of questions. Then Drs. Richard and Matt took me to the guesthouse where I was given a local phone and a little more information. And had wifi that worked for a little bit! We then journeyed to the Ebola treatment center, which I was nervous about entering for the first time. I met several staff members, and one is from York, Pa! She played field hockey at Kraybill Mennonite and went to Lancaster Mennonite. And she knew a gentleman I grew up with that went to LMH!! "It's a small world after all...!"

I saw the layout of the center, found clean water (!!) and the health office.
Then several of the docs took me to downtown Lunsar where I could exchange money and buy some bananas:) One doctor's daughter works with a Christian organization in Freetown. I asked if he was a believer--praise God for answering my prayer request! I was hoping to meet one believer, and I did day one!! Dr. John has been here ten days and will be here the majority of the time I am here.

At two pm, I met up with Kelly, a nurse who has worked with IMC for 5 years. She was on the ground with IMC when we opened our first clinic in Liberia and has been working with Ebola since September. She is now one of the trainers. She began my orientation and about an hour later we learned one of our cooks from where we are staying is sick with vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain. We then went on an hour+ quest to try to locate her and get her to the ETC. Monday night several of us were on the edge--if she does have Ebola, that will be a big thing. Please pray for her healing-her name is Betty. We should know in a day or two if she has Ebola.

Well!!  Thanks for reading such lengthy posts!!
Catie--would you believe the first constellation I found Sunday night was the Orion? I do have a friend from home!!
Jay & Isaac--I know what a Tyvek suit is now!! We use them each time we go into the Ebola zone.
Amber--they have laughing cow cheese here!!
My Tica family--they also have Nutella! :-)
CVRU buddies and Louann: THANK YOU for sending food along with me! I was so hungry Sunday night!!
medical friends: Some unofficial studying over the last 4 months leads us to believe the liver is the first major organ to go into failure. I believe that's why individuals with Ebola bleed so much:-( Also, and no one can explain this, but hiccups in an Ebola pt is an almost certain sign of impending death. Anyone have any ideas as to why that would be? Also, if a person can make it past day 9 he or she generally survives.
We have been unable to save the babies of pregnant women. Often, Ebola is a death sentence for anyone under 5, older than 60, and for pregnant women. The few women that have survived--we have lost the child in the womb, with the exception of one woman and her baby in Sierra Leone. She is several months along. We do not know if the baby will test positive for Ebola, if the baby now has immunity, or if the baby has had developmental problems since his/her mom contracted Ebola. We have lost all the rest :'(
The strain of Ebola we are fighting is Zaire. We believe if you survive you are immune for life but we aren't 100% sure. We also do not know if you survive the Zaire strain--if you would be immune to the other strains or if your disease progression would be less severe? So much about this disease we do not yet know, but we have learned a good bit during this current outbreak!

Praise God with me for a safe arrival with all bags, for meeting an IMC worker fairly quickly at both the airport and at base, and for friendly co-workers who are willing to answer the plethora of questions I have had!!
Please ask that I would recover quickly from my cold--I am coughing often which leads to headaches. Cough + a headache means I am one symptom away from being quarantined---even though I brought both my cough and headache with me from the US!