Ruths Report

Newsletter 28, March 2014

Nyangatom and Soddo Christian Hospital

The people in the picture belong to the Nyangatom tribe and they travelled 2 days to reach the hospital. They live close to the Kenyan border and heard about the hospital through a mutual friend, who helps them to translate the Bible in their own language. The lady who is on the left of the picture belongs to the tribe and came to the hospital looking for treatment for her long standing liver disease. Soddo Christian Hospital is situated in Soddo, a town with about 80,000 inhabitants in the South of Ethiopia. Soddo is the capital of the zone in which there are close to 3 million people. About 25,000 patients visit Soddo Christian Hospital on a yearly basis.

There are 2 hospitals in Soddo town but it is not enough to cover the health need of the population. Very often the beds in the hospital are completely occupied and emergency patients are admitted and treated on stretchers in the intensive care or in corridors. There are busy operating schedules. In newsletter 24 I wrote about the ct-scanner that was donated. The scanner is now in use. And we are also very happy with the radiologist who is working here from Norway. Through donations the hospital was able to purchase an ambulance. There is a shortage of physicians in Ethiopia. Fortunately the government is educating more physicians. On the picture (left) is Moges preparing for surgery. The pink fly swatter comes in handy. The operating rooms here do not have air pressure systems and occasionally an insect enters. For more background information about this and other patients here, see also www.tesfa-hope.org, newsletters 8 en 15 February, written by a surgeon from Norway. At the moment I am assisting with coordinating travel arrangements for visitors (and missionaries. We have about more then 140 visitors a year. And I am trying to improve my Amharic language skills.

1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

For the story with this picture, see next page

Thank you
We would like to thank the Juliana school, N-joy, 4you2 and the reformed church from Aalten very much for their donation. We were able to buy good stethoscopes and pulse oxy meters for the anesthesia nurses. They will be able to monitor their patients in a better way. As seen in the picture on the previous page, they were very happy with the gift.

Food, meat and Christmas

Ethiopia has a different calendar. There are 13 months in a year and it is divided in to 12 months with 30 days each and a 13th months of 5 days. It is 2006 at the moment and we are 7 years behind the Gregorian calendar. Christmas is a big holiday and celebrated here in January. For the holiday people slaughter sheep, goats or cows. Our hospital staff slaughtered 4 cows in the hospital compound and the meat was divided amongst the hospital workers.

Meat is being sold here in small shops without coolers and is often not fresh. When people can afford they slaughter a cow, goat, sheep or chicken themselves. We get our meat fresh from the slaughter place and make minced meat with a little grinder.

Ethiopian dish: injera and wat, a sour pancake of tef flour and different kinds of vegetables and meat.

Cows are being slaughtered on the hospital compound and the meat is divided and put on plastic and banana leaves and divided amongst the staff.

Points of praise For safety and protection For the hospital For the start of the small rainy season

Points of prayer: For the management and compound of the hospital For safety and protection For Moges end year exam in June

Moges, Ruth, Efrem, Yonatan and Selome Mulu-Droppers

Soddo Christian Hospital, PO Box 305, Soddo Wolaitta, Ethiopia, Africa www.soddo.org, www.paacs.net, ruth.droppers@gmail.com. Mission organization White Fields Foundation (Stichting Witte Velden) in Hilversum, Netherlands, for donations: IBAN: NL89 INGB 0001 4851 37, mention Ruth Mulu-Droppers, email: stgwittevelden75@chello.nl ,