Life updates in Mongu, Zambia

I know it has been a while since I have written, so I’ll give you some updates on things in these parts :)

       I had the opportunity to spend Christmas and New Years with some friends I have grown close to over the last year. We went traveling to some of the neighboring countries around Zambia. It was a trip I am so thankful for; just the opportunity to see different cultures and customs and meet new people made the holiday so very special. From my travel companions and the people we met along the way I learned how important accepting others is...their strengths and their weaknesses. However, along with the fun of stepping out of my everyday routine, I also started to miss my life here in Mongu.

As we were coming back into Mongu I felt an overwhelming joy to be back in a place so familiar, with familiar faces all around me.

       Since being back time has moved fast and things are back to normal amongst the craziness:) The MIC program is still going strong. I am always amazed by the healthy, strong, and big babies with so much life, all carried in on the backs of their strong, loving mothers. Some of the mothers’ stories break my heart but week after week they are there at the MIC house for education lessons and to get milk to feed their babies.

From them I learn, among many things, to not sweat the small stuff. They help me to keep things in perspective.

       The hospital has seen some changes in the new year. On Children’s Ward where I work we now have a new nurse in charge. She is a religious sister and is truly bringing new motivation and new life to the ward. She is very well respected and works very hard. The nurses under her, including myself, are all working on teamwork and ultimately making the ward a better place for the patients. Also, 24 energetic nursing students and 4 instructors arrived from Canada and are spending 6 weeks at the hospital. They are rotating through all of the wards at the hospital and some out patient programs. They are bringing with them awesome energy and zest for the nursing profession. The situation at the hospital can be a bit shocking and exhausting, but I see in them great perseverance. From the new Sister in charge on the ward I am leaning great leadership skills and how important it is to lead by example.

       I have also taken on teaching “English classes”. I use the term class very lightly because it’s actually more just practicing conversational English with two doctors from the Congo who pretty much only speak French. They are staying indefinitely with my friend who is a doctor at Lewanika General Hospital and are learning English so that they can hopefully work as doctors in an English speaking country very soon.

They asked me to practice with them in the afternoons. They study all morning from medical books and English CDs and then I show up and see what they have learned. So I go over to their house in my free time, speak english, eat some amazingly delicious food, and play with the twin ten-month-old babies of my friend and his wife. They all have really become my second family and I feel so at home with them. I think I have learned a lot more from them than they have learned English, but there is still time. I appreciate so much their openness, selflessness, and truly treating others like family.

       As you can tell I am still learning each day that I am here. I am so thankful for all the people in my life and the gift of friendship God has given me, in all these people and in many more.

Nicole Tardio, Incarnate Word Missionary