Lazy Days

Lately working day shift at the hospital has been pretty lax. Most days, we have about 5 staff working with 20 ish medical, surgical, and maternity patients. I've been blessed to be able to work the last couple of days with Emily-- her taking care of the surgical patients, and me taking care of the maternity patients.

One day this past week, there was seriously nothing to do. All the dressing changes were done, vital signs taken, and we were just waiting for noon to come so that we could give the medications. As we sat in the nurses office wondering what to do, one of us said, "Why don't we get the guitar and sing to the patients?"

It has been a long time since we've sung to the patients, which used to be a weekly Sabbath afternoon activity. So we excitedly ran over to the middle house to grab the guitar. When we got back, we had to figure out what to sing. We sang "Lord, I Lift Your Name on High" and we also decided to sing "God is so Good" because it's simple and Emily knew it in Nangjere, and we both know it in French.

We set out on our mission, and began singing to the patients. They loved it! They were laughing and smiling the whole time. At one point, we were in the maternity ward singing, and we told them to sing along with us if they caught on. So, two of the ladies began singing with us. Then we asked them, "How do you sing this in Gumbaye? And how do you sing it in Arabic?" They were more than willing to teach us, and we thought it was awesome that we were learning a song in so many languages. I now know how to sing "God is so Good" in 5 languages, almost 6, but the Moundung language is really hard and I keep forgetting.

After the maternity patients, we moved on to the isolation ward where there are some AIDS patients, tuberculosis patients, and sometimes pneumonia patients. While we were singing in there, one of the patient's family members, a very large, outspoken lady, started singing to us in French. We thanked her and said that she sang very nicely. That was all the encouragement that she needed to get up, stand right in front of us in our faces, and sing the song again. We laughed and thanked her once more for her beautiful song, and went outside to sing to some more people.

As we were walking out, one of the Arabic women who had heard us singing in the maternity ward motioned for us to come with her. We followed her to her grass mat on the sidewalk outside the ward where a few other Arabic family members were sitting. She wanted us to sing for them. So we did.

We sang "God is so Good" in Arabic for them, and then taught them to sing it in English. It was such an awesome experience to have these two Arabic women and one Arabic man singing "God is so good, God is so good...." It just made my heart so happy to be there with these people that I can hardly communicate with, praising God in different languages.