Notes from Nigeria
The HSU web log is back up after a short hiatus, and we’d like to welcome readers back with a note from Nigeria. The format is designed to be informal and to give readers a feel for some of the behind-the-scenes happenings at the University. Some stories will be big, some will be small, but hopefully, all will be worth a look.
HSU physical therapy faculty member Dr, Phillip Palmer, his wife Elayne, son Luke, and two physical therapy students are currently on the ground in Jos, Nigeria. Jos is so remote, even Google Earth took a long time getting there.
Dr. Palmer is working in the Evangel Hospital and students Eryn Mikel and Jamie White are completing a portion of their clinical rotations there. Elayne and Luke are working at the Transition House, a ministry to “street boys.� The group arrived last week and will work with the Jos community until Aug 10.
The group lost the struggle to stay awake after multiple flights and a 4-hour drive by jeep. Exhausted, they missed some of the beauty of the Nigerian wild.
Frankly, the driver nervously working his prayer beads as the elephant crossed the road would have kept me awake.
The group spent their first day adjusting, unpacking, and setting up schedules. Adjusting may take a little longer than a day, “One thing that challenged me right away is the hospital,� says Eryn,�hardly nice enough for a storage room in the United States. In some rooms, there are about 20 patients, all with different problems and levels of involvement. Every room smells of urine, mixed with body odor and who knows what else. Sometimes I just want to cry just looking at it.�
Jamie asked one of the local doctors, “How does anything ever heal here?� “By the grace of God," answered the doctor, “by the grace of God.�
Luke spent his first day on an outreach trip to the city’s worst slums, “We were there to administer medicine to those in need. This was the area where the blind, lepers, and rejected people live. We walked through narrow alleyways between houses that weren’t really houses. The state in which the people are living is hard to describe in words.
Check in from time-to-time for an update on the mission as the HSU group struggles to bring light, and find light, in a truly desolate land.
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