last night at bongolo.

Tonight is our last night at Bongolo. Tomorrow morning we're planning to get up to watch the sunrise (and hopefully get some great photos), then we'll pack up for the 2-hour car ride back to the airport. We should hopefully arrive in Libreville sometime Friday evening (I say sometime, because these flights are routinely delayed).

It really is amazing what God has built here at Bongolo. Its not like anything that you would find in the US, of course, but it works for Africa and is quite awe-inspiring. The three missionaries who first came here over 30 years ago are still here, and I can only imagine how it must be for them to look around, in light of what was. Because the medical care here is cheaper (and better) than in Libreville, people come from all over the country for surgeries. And in addition to medical care and surgery, there is an eye clinic, dental clinic, maternity ward (with equipment for preemies), prenatal care, lab and x-ray facilities and HIV/AIDS counseling. It is estimated that ten percent of the Gabonese are HIV-positive, and many discover this during prenatal screening.

Yesterday afternoon and this morning, we spent some time helping Meladee Davis sort through the depot (a huge storage area filled with tons of medical supplies). The sheer volume of items in the depot is overwhelming, and Meladee has struggled to organize it since she doesn't have the medical background to know what everything is. Kelli and Heather (a summer intern, who is a nurse) were able to make some significant headway for her, and Anna and I sorted and folded what we could without getting in their way.

Meladee and her husband Paul are just two of the huge number of people it takes to make this whole thing work (like any hospital, I guess). They are here for their retirement, and they're completely self-funded. Paul oversees maintenance for Bongolo ("the station"). Tonight they took us to dinner at Ditchi's (sp?), one of the two restaurants in Lebamba, the town right across the bridge from the hospital (the other restaurant is the Barack Obama cafe). We had fried chicken, topped with a spicy sauce, and french fries - and it was delicious. Ditchi's is special because its a sit-down restaurant that actually has an air conditioner (though its not working currently).

Its hard to believe that our trip is almost at an end already! I'm ready to leave Bongolo (there is much more for Kelli to do here than me, though it is absolutely beautiful), but there is a part of me that isn't ready to leave Gabon all together (especially Hope House). Then there is the other side of me, that is eager to get home and see the friends and family I've missed, but mostly to get on with the work that God has called me to do - even though I'm still figuring out what that is!