8 pm, May 9, Harare, Zimbabwe

We made it. =) After a bit of nerve-wracking time getting through immigration/customs (questions asked like such as "are you leaving anything in Zimbabwe?"), we met Nancy Everswick, our ministry supervisor, Dave Jereb, one of the new missionaries in Harare, and John Christiansen, whose daughter graduated from Cedarville this year. We packed our belongings into the cars and headed out. We saw some giraffes along the way. Nancy explained a lot of things.

The name Zimbabwe is derived from the Shona word "dzimba-dza-mabwe", which means "large houses of stone." This term is in reference to Great Zimbabwe, an ancient city whose ruins are now a protected site. This tower at the Harare airport is a modern structure built in a style reminiscent of the structures once found in the city.

We got to the mission house alright. Its a lovely place. Roomy and welcoming. We met Baba and Amai Perfect, who work at the house. Shared our testimonies, expectations, and fears. Unpacked and reorganized. Ate Zim pizza (peri peri chicken!). Experienced our first power outage, and got to use our headlamps. =) We just wrapped up our food planning. Now I'm wiped out. Orientation tomorrow!

Scenery on the road from the airport into Harare.

9:30 am, May 9, Ethiopian Airspace

We're on our way! Its crazy to think...we're in Africa! Slept in Ethiopia last night. Got up this AM for breakfast (with Ethiopian coffee and mango juice to drink) and headed off to the airport with few problems. Those few problems being: A-Steph and Sarah blew the fuse in their hall last night. B-returning to the hotel twice. The first time for a man who missed the bus. The second was for a man's wallet, but really, we think he was feeling bad for the first man's companion, who also missed the bus, and wanted to help him out. :P The second missing man turned out to be my "seat buddy" from the flight before, aka the guy who had his seat wayyy far back and didn't put it up when we landed. :P

Ethiopian coffee is da bomb.

 The bus ride was fun. We were able to hear from a recent speech therapy grad who is going to work with kids in Cameroon. We also talked to a woman who is returning to Zimbabwe after 20 years in the US. After one month there, she started on the path from CNA to LPN to RN. She now runs her own personal care home in the US, but is returning home to Zimbabwe to start a clinic.

Sudoku-one way I pass the time during flights

I'm enjoying this plane. Its a Boeing 787 Dreamliner (?). More leg room, a USB charger for my itouch, and touchscreen tvs. Woah. =) Oh, and an Ethiopian country music mix? Win.

Our touchscreen computer/tvs that welcomed us in multiple languages!

Father, thank you for all you are showing me in your Word. I don't want this to be merely a mountaintop experience. 

5:16 pm, May 8, Addis Ababa

Well, we are stranded in Ethiopia for a night. Our flight unexpectedly rerouted to Rome, where our 2 hour delay made us miss our connecting flight from Addis to Harare. Only one flight per day, so they paid our bus fare and put us up in a hotel for the night. We have beds, three meals from the restaurant, and a shower. We had to check our carry-ons at Washington when we switched airlines (and the weight limit dropped from 40 to 15 lbs) so no extra change of clothes, among other things. But honestly, after brushing my teeth and taking a shower, I feel like a new person.

Ethiopian Airlines

The flight honestly did not seem as long as it was. We spent 15-16 hours on the plane, including the 2 hours stop in Rome, but it wasn't too bad. God definitely blessed me with the ability to sleep. I alternated between sleep and waking about every hour. The meals were pretty good, but those grape things in the crepes were rather sketchy. I surgically removed them and soldiered on. I didn't even finish my Ted Dekker book (Thr3e) or kill my itouch, so there is hope for tomorrow, as well as the flight home.

Tri-lingual Bible found in my room. The Gideons are everywhere!

The airport felt pretty crazy. After flying over the plateaus and scrubby farmland of Sudan, and then the mountains, canyons, and patchwork farmland of North Ethiopia, it was fascinating to see the city. The construction projects are a mixture of concrete and wooden poles. The streets are filled with buses and their ceaseless honking. The colorful signs are written in both English and Ethiopian Arabic. We saw an outside winding staircase with no railing leading up to "Kitchen World".  But before we saw all these things, we had to get new boarding passes. We had to go through immigration individually, and I had no idea what the agent was asking me. I just handed him all of my papers. He started asking "hotel voucher?" which I did not have (since there was one voucher for the five of us) and I did not know how to explain why. He saw Kristy with the voucher and said "friend?" "Yes, friend!" I exclaimed gratefully. We got the voucher from her, and with some work, he explained that I needed to stand and look at a camera. "Finished." he stated finally. Then I was free. The next adventure was the bus.

We all piled into this little bus and drove through Addis' crowded streets to our hotel. We passed people selling shoes while sitting on mats and donkeys being led on the sidewalk.
The hotel is nice. We have two people per room, a bed each, and a decent shower. The food here is good too. The meat was very tasty, although some of the vegetables were unrecognizable.

Zimbabwe Diary, May 7

Since many of my emails were lost due to the uncertainty of the internet in Zimbabwe, much of my records of my trip are gone. However, I do have my notes from my journal, which I will be typing out here for the enjoyment of the general public. ;)

On the place to Ethiopia. It seems unreal to say that. I remember filling out that application last semester. So much has happened since then. Getting to know the girls in my group, reading about Zimbabwe, packing supplies of the hospital, learning the meds, and everything related to those giving support. I feel like so much has happened in the past two weeks, and even two days.

Steph, Kristy, Me, and Sarah-shot at the Bean in Chicago

TEAM Orientation in Chicago, February 2013

Thank you Father for for allowing us to gather practically everything on the last minute list of needs that we were emailed. Thank you for the random steak dinner with the Maytermers at Dr. Hartman's. Thank you for Steph's good humor and Campus Safety's willingness to let me into the BTS to rescue my passport. Thank you for Amy's group and Steph's brother Tim, who were willing to let us crash at their places.

The supplies I had packed in my suitcase-everything from stuffed bears to bandages to gloves to coffee.

Its been such a blessing to meet new people, and a big adventure. I can already cross DC off of my list of places visited. Now I'm crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Soon I'll be landing in Europe. Then to Africa. Craziness! The thirteen hours on the plane aren't too unbearable yet. We've made some good progress. Not halfway though. Its 5 pm? Not sure what time zone... Honestly, I'm not too nervous except for getting through customs.

Diagnosis Delirium

Its been a while since I've written. I've got a lot of new thoughts in my mind, and with those new thoughts come a new name for the blog. Why "Diagnosis Delirium"? Well, according to Merriam-Webster, delirium is "an acute mental disturbance characterized by confused thinking and disrupted attention usually accompanied by disordered speech and hallucinations" or "frenzied excitement". I laughed when I read these definitions recently, and thought of how they both apply to nursing. The life of a nursing student is full of its ups and downs.
There are those times that we've spent more hours in class than we have sleeping, when we talk about disturbing things we've seen at clinicals over the dinner table, when we're up late at night memorizing the signs and symptoms of acute coronary syndrome. During those times, we become strangers to any friends outside of the nursing program. We drink copious amounts of coffee and other caffeinated beverages. We ignore everything we ever learned about good sleep habits, healthy eating, and exercising regularly. We carry textbooks that weigh more that dictionaries. We use silly phrases like "King K lives in the castle of the cell while Sir Sodium circulates outside" to remember electrolyte concentrations.
These things we do in order to pass our tests, to avoid failing out of the nursing program, and to one day graduate with our Bachelor of Science in Nursing. But behind all those things, what truly drives us is a desire to help others. In the end, a diploma is just a piece of paper, but the satisfaction one gets from serving someone in need is what makes all the work and the late nights worth it. However, when I do receive that piece of paper one day, less than I year from now, I expect that I shall experience the second definition of delirium. :)

In the future,the blog shall be a recording of the life of your average senior nursing student. I also hope to get some more of my notes from Zimbabwe up. Until then, cheerio!