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[Please feel free to forward to or print out for whomever you think might want this letter. Thanks.]
November 14, 2002
Dearest Brothers & Sisters:
Warmest greetings from Nigeria! I thought it might be nice to send an email mid-monthprayer/newsletter. For some of you, this may be the1st time finding out that I was coming to Nigeria, & for those people, I'm sorry. I tried my best to get the initial prayer letters out to everyone beforeleaving the States.
POP QUIZ!!!
Before I continue, let me invite you take a silly one-question multiple-choice Pop Quiz. From the following choices, choose the correct answer(s):
--Since Sid Wu arrived in Nigeria, he has....
A: stood under a 70-plus foot tall waterfall
B: dreamt that he was at the San Bernardino International Airport when the space shuttle landedthere.
C: watched a minivan full of people flip twice & crash right in front of his eyes.
D: played the board game Risk with 3 guys from NorthDakota.
E: been called "white man" over 100 times.
F: sewed up a torn ear and a forehead, & popped apus-filled boil.
G: thrown a tennis ball into a boy's large abdominalwound.
H: run (in his sandals & no socks) 100 yards cross afield that was swarming with billions of African fireants.(Answers will be found at the end of this letter.)
"SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN NIGERIA, SID?"
Well, thanks for asking! (hee hee) Some of you mightbe interested in my day-to-day life, so let me tell you my typical schedule. (I'll leave the exhaustive detail to those who are gracious enough to hear me out when I return.) Weekday mornings begin ~7AM when I clean up & eat breakfast with one of the missionary families fromAmerica, then go to the doctors' conference @ 8AM (the hospital has a Family/General Practice residency currently with 3 residents in addition to 2 other Nigerian doctors working there while trying to secure a residency position elsewhere). I informally led one of the AM reports on bacterial meningitis since I had a 2-month-old patient die of it last week. @ 9AM after the AM report, we split up & do rounds onthe wards. Mon-Wed-Fri I've been assinged to the Internal Medicine service. Tue-Thu I'm with the pediatrics team. This mix has been good since I'mable to see just about every non-surgical patient @some point in their hospitalization. Plus, I'm abel to interact with more of the residents here & engage in a lot of mutual teaching & learning. Depending onthe number of paitents & how anal I am, we finish rounds anywhere between 11AM & 2PM. Lunch is ~1:30PM. Usually around lunch I'll do some reading. Afternoons are a mixed bag. In addition to following up on things from the morning, some afternoons are spent giving lectures to the School of Nursing on the compound, reading, or in clinic. Additionally, I'm taking overnight call each Monday night along with another resident. Dinners are around 7PM. All the meals are a good timeof chatting with the missionary families & their guests. Weekends I've been worshipping with the local body of believers in the Seventh Day Adventist church here on the compound.
"SO WHAT ARE YOU LEARNING THERE, SID?"
Wow, that's a good question! (hoo-hoo) I think the1st thing that jumps out at me in answer to that question is the medical part of my experience. Inf act, as I was traveling to Ife from Lagos, I began to remember the sights, sounds, smells, & feelings I experienced as a medical student in Zambia 2.5 yearsago. I was getting SCARED b/c I felt inadequate & powerless to meet all the serious medical needs I felt I was about to see. Praise the Lord! Indeed I am indadequate in taking care of these precious patients, and already I have seen deaths occur right before my eyes (including an 8y/o daughter of a widow this AM not 30 minutes after arriving in the casualty/emergency department of our hospital), but I'm thankful now for the rigors of residency already under my belt, which have given me a lot more know-how in patient care. And although it's scary to think that I'm often thought of as the senior since there are no internists or pediatricians here (& the attendings are weighed down with other patient care & administrative work), I get great benefit outof rounding with the Nigerian FP resident. I find myself learning a lot about diseases unique to this area, how medicine is practiced with severly limited resources, & how social factors in Ife interact with dissease. I find myself sharing my own knowledge & experience, particularly on large areas of medicine that are not practically available in Nigeria although they're responsible to know about them for their boarde xams. It's quite stimulating, & I've been reading a lot about things like malaria, typhoid fever, & even rabies which I've never seen outside this continent. I'm also getting good experience outside my own field, esp. with trauma, as traffic is horrendously unsafe in this university town of about 30,000. I'm also learning about the importance of unity amidst the diversity of brothers & sisters in Christ. I'm having a great time fellowshiping here with the SDA missionaries & staff. Last Saturday I was tempted to just read & pray in my room instead of attending the nearby church service; I thought, "Well, I don't quitefit in there, & b/c of the accent I don't understand everything they're saying." A few moments later I was reminded of a recent lesson our Sunday School class went over: "You'd better get used to them (other believers) b/c you'll be spending eternity with them." It turned out to be a blessed time, I was encouraged, & (I believe) God was pleased. These lessons have been particularly important to me b/c of issues of disharmony in my own local church back home. I've strangely also come across a book I found on a missionary's shelf here: Philip Yancey's "Church: Why Bother? My Personal Pilgrimage" that's quite down-to-earth & thoughtful. You might like it.
"SO HOW CAN i PRAY FOR YOU, SID?"
I'm so glad you asked!!! (ha-ha) You can pray as follows:
1) my attitude. This has already gotten better some, but I still find myself often concentrating on differences between resources available to me here & Stateside. Please pray that instead I'd focos on the positives --what I CAN do with what I DO have.
2) a unique opportunity for multiplication. I plan to use @ least 2 of the 1.5 hour sessions with the nursing school for training on incorporating evangelism with medicine. Thankfully I've gotten a lot of training in this regard, but please pray for desperately needed wisdom to recall the info, re-package it as appropriate to the available timeslots & this culture, & present it clearly to this group. The great majority of people here on thec ompound & indeed in this whole region of Nigeria are culturally Christian.
3) planning for the future. I see more & more how important it is to have a good team while overseas. Please pray for wisdom regarding mission field,mission board, & co-workers for my fast-approachingfuture career.
4) humility & compassion for the here & now. I'm just here in Nigeria for a short month, so please pray that I'd be an encouragement to the long-term missionaries & staff who carry on the work year byyear (& PRAY FOR THE THEM TOO!).
THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS, EVERYONE! Please let me know how I can pray for you, too.
Only B/C of God's Love,
Sid
PS: Oh yeah!
ANSWERS TO THE POP-QUIZ: If you picked.....
A: ...you're right! Last Sunday we took a trip to awaterfall ~1h away & it was beautiful!!! It felt great to have all that water (from a natural spring) slam onto my body! I don't remember ever doing that before.
B: ...you're right! Psychosis is one of the rare side effects of mefloquine, the medicine I'm taking as prophylaxis against malaria. I don't think I'm getting psychotic, but as with my last trip to Africa, I'm getting very vivid dreams, CRAZY ones! The spaceshuttle one is the only one I care to share! Ha!
C: ...you're right! On our way back from the waterfall, about 200 yards ahead of us I saw a minivan blow a tire, lose control, flip at least once, & end up 1/2 way off the road. So this Land Cruiser filled with doctors & med students pulls up right behind them, & we storm out, stabilize them, & bring several back to the hospital where a few went to surgery for severe hand injuries. Thankfully there were no life-threatening injuries, & it was a good chance to pray with patients.
D: ...you're right! We had 3 senior med students from North Dakota come for an overseas elective. Theywere a fun bunch, & their month finished up just yesterday.
E: ...you're right! Ile-Ife is the birthplace of the Yoruba tribe, & also the reported origin of all humanity. "Oyibo" is their word for "white man." Here I am, a white man, & I didn't even know it!
F: ...you're right! With car accidents & all kinds of infections so common, I've done a few minor surgeries.
G: ...you're right! It was purely an accident! Dolapo is a school-aged boy who had serious complications to typhoid fever requiring multiple surgeries to his abdomen, which has not been healing well. He's also quite malnourished, which makes thisboy's situation quite grim. I gave him one of the tennis balls you sent with me (THANKS!) in order to tkae his mind off his body problems, & once while we were playing toss, I threw it into (well, actually,ONto) his wound which was covered with bandages. Needless to say, the impact was painful, & despite my profuse apologies, he didn't want to talk to me forover a day, until I suggested we protect his belly with a wash basin before started playing catch again.
H: ...you're WRONG! Do you think I'm crazy???!!!
God bless, all!
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