(Photo: Not Africa.) As I looked outside the other morning, I saw a white dusting had fallen. Everything was covered! The sky was grey and I could barely make out the distant palms. Could it have been? Had Sub-Saharan Africa succumb to the climate change and we had snow? It was almost Christmas! Did Santa come early? That would be great but no, it cannot be snow. It is a literal dusting. The winds from the north (the Hammadamramlam winds or something like that) are bringing down sand and everything is covered. I watched as dust blew in my open window, covering my newly painted table. My allergies are all out of whack and I haven't had clear sinuses for months now. Its not as bad as southern California but Zyrtec is still my best friend. The year has come to a close. We celebrated Christmas with a nice Christmas Eve program that Kim (whyweshouldgo.blogspot.com) collaged together using songs and Bible text to tell the nativity story followed by the Christmas classic "Its a Wonderful Life." Our celebrations kept going! Even yesterday we invited our friends and families to watch "The Grinch" in French. It was quite silly and everyone enjoyed the exaggerated performance of Jim Carrey. Not only has it bee a great year with new experiences and friends, we have made great progress with our programs here:
- We have expanded to manage a nutrition program
- Relationships have been formed at all clinics in our district
- The dream of a mobile clinic has been put into practice
- Our Community Health Volunteer Program is referring more people
- Communities outside of our own are approaching us to visit them with our health education programs
I am actually most excited about of those five things: the mobile clinic and the communities approaching us. The mobile clinic has been a dream for so long but due to blockades at the government level, we were never able to do them until now. We need to raise some initial costs to really get it flying but I have faith that it'll come in. With the communities coming to us, that implies that people have been sharing their experiences with those around them. We had all of our dental cases for 3 weeks referred from one village. People are beginning to see the value to invest in their health. I am encouraging you to help out a little. Invest in their health as well. Ok, so maybe I'm doing more than encouraging: we need YOU to keep these programs going and YOU to really start the mobile clinics. We need YOU to take out that credit/debit card or mail that check. We are tax deductible so head on over to ahiglobal.org to make your donation! Just make sure to label it "Bere Project 21." Happy Holidays! Hopefully I'll be better about blogging now that the internet is doing a little bit better.......just a little though. Zachary Gately zchgtly@gmail.com zgately.com +235 91122492 L'Hopital Adventiste de Béré ATTN: Zachary Gately 52 Boîte Postal Kelo, Tchad Africa