Bong Mines

This past Saturday was Bong Mines. It is one of two places where everyone says you have to go while you’re here. I’m still recovering two days later because it was such an active day! It’s an old abandoned mine that was destroyed during the war. Again, everything has been stripped from it that can be taken away. There were people at the mine hacking away at it and removing more bits to use wherever they take them. I got incredibly dirty climbing around the building, scrambling up and down old broken staircases and getting sooty and oily. It was a lot of fun to explore.
I need to backtrack to the beginning of the day. We took a train to the mine. We drove our land rovers onto a flatbed car and rode on the roof of the vehicles as the train rolled away. The view was awesome from up there and I got some great photos of the surrounding villages as we passed by. We also got to ride at the front of the engine. Safety standards aren’t quite as high here! ☺ We were fine though. Don’t worry Dad, I’m being careful!
After the mine adventure, we went hiking through the jungle and up a waterfall. That was the best part of the day. It was just a lot of fun and great to be out in God’s amazing creation. In the city you just see pollution and derelict buildings.
We also stopped at a local hospital and toured it. They only had one oxygen and suction machine and one baby incubator, otherwise they had very little modern machinery. The hospital was big and quite clean however. They just need the funding to actually operate it to its full capacity.
We had a bumpy 3-hour car ride home, but thoroughly enjoyed our steak dinners that were waiting for us at the other end! That was quite a treat!

Sunday morning I went to an African church. It was super hot, and I sat in the wrong section by accident. I was in the kids section and was totally smothered with children crowded around me. I never really can catch on to the words of the songs because they don’t enunciate very well, but the singing was lively and wonderful anyway. The sermon was quite understandable, which was really nice.
We didn’t get back until after 2 in the afternoon, and as I was exhausted after an active weekend, I just hung out the rest of the day and watched “The God’s Must be Crazy I” this evening after ship church.

Today I worked day shift and had 4 pediatric patients! Apparently I’m going to be a pediatric nurse by the time I get home! One of the little babies had a raging fever. I hope he’s going to be alright. I spent the last half hour of my shift holding him against an ice pack to bring down his body temperature. Even with the ice pack in my arms to counteract his heat, I think I got a little overheated by the little furnace.