Hello again!
So much happens every single day here that I have trouble coming on here and thinking of all of it. I’ll try to hit the high points, though.
Yesterday I finally completed my CASPA, the national application for PA programs. That was a huge weight off of my chest. Last night’s sleep was the best I’ve had in months. Really.
Also yesterday I scrubbed in for my first surgery. No, I didn’t perform it, but did help. It was a C-section, which I’ve actually watched online before (if you didn’t already know, I’m kind of a nerd), so I had a good idea what was going on. My job was to help suction, push the baby out, and hold and cut sutures. All the work of scrubbing and not breaking the sterile field made me very nervous. As of now, surgery is not in my plans for the future except for what I’ll do in training and in the ER. Doing just surgery every day would really get to me. Ah, but the miracle of life, especially being right there for that little girl’s first breaths, was just as wonderful as the natural birth I observed Dad helping with a few months ago.
The people and the pace here are very relaxed. “In a hurry” is not really a familiar concept to most Togolese. Patients wait for hours, even days, to be seen, some traveling from very long distances away. There are quite a few things about medical work here, such as the people’s easy-going-ness that are actually advantages that working in Togo has over the U.S. Overwhelming documentation work and insurance woes are not really in the picture here either. At the first the insurance thing sounds iffy, but then I realize that a lot of the deal with insurance is so doctors won’t get lazy or careless. It’s safety for the patients. But here in Togo, the doctors are people who gave up successful and well-paying practices to come live and work here…they found better incentive than merely not being sued. There’s a bigger reputation than their own on the line. This is true for U.S. doctors, too, of course.
Today was partly spent doing some running, which I haven’t really done since arriving here almost 2 weeks ago. Thankfully there’s been lots of soccer and street hockey for exercise. So today it was just running. Once around the compound is a kilometer, so I went 5 times around, making it a 5K, or basically 3 miles. Every day or two I plan to run, early in the morning before it gets hot (today I ran at noon, which was foolish), adding an extra K or 2 each time, thus getting my distance back up to 7 miles like it was when I left the States. Hikes to the waterfall also work well for exercise on non-running days. ‘Gotta watch out for snakes and scorpions, though!
Scorpions, yes, that reminds me. I also went scorpion hunting with my cousins today. We found 11, a record number for a single hunt. The next best record was 9. We put them in a bucket then brought them to one of the trees that’s covered in fire ants (most of the trees seem to be), and let the ants attack them. It was better than army men! The ants won, though admittedly Nate, Steven, and Ryan added a handicap to the scorpions, pinning them to the tree with blowgun darts. Watching all the ants communicate in order to successfully attack the scorpions was quite a marvel. I consider how ants can show us more things than how to not be a sluggard. Communication!
Tonight we had a special potluck dinner for Alex and Amanda Pummel, who will be leaving on Monday to return to the States. They’ve been here 4.5 months, and were planning to stay longer, but decided that Alex would go back to school and, of all things, go into Physician Assistant school. Sounds like a good plan to me. It’s been great having them around, and getting to know them a little better. They’re great people.
Well, I’m sure there’s tons of stuff to write on here that I can’t remember right now. Hopefully internet will be up later when I remember some more of them.
In the meantime, worship well in everything you do.
“Worship is an end in itself.”-John Piper, from “Desiring God”
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Friday, July 4, 2008
End of week tally: Awake = 100 hours, Sleep = 20 hours...yeck!
Greetings, from Togo!
It is such a treat to be writing to you all while I’m out here. ‘Wasn’t sure if/how that would work.
I’ve still yet to catch up on sleep, but being a college guy, it’s not that unusual to stay in this semi-conscious state for many days. Hopefully tomorrow, being the weekend, will afford a little sleep in time.
Even with just the trip over here I knew I was in for an adventure.
Boarding the plane Monday at noon, Piper’s “Desiring God” kept me company the flight to New York. There I met a team of pre-med students from WorldVenture who were heading to Mali via Casablanca, so I hung out with them before and after that second flight to Morocco. They had two extra pieces of pizza they were going to throw away, but they gave them to me instead. Not expecting to eat for two day, I savored them like a death row inmate’s last meal. Well, okay, not THAT dramatically.
We flew out a few hours later. Next to me was an Algerian guy who works as a taxi driver in NYC. I’ll call him Eddie, since he kind of reminded me of that guy from Uncle Bruce’s church. Eddie goes home to Algers to visit his mom twice a year, one of them being for Ramadan. We talked about politics, economics, war, medicine, city life vs. country life, family, and some other things. But never got into religion much, beyond that he prayed a couple times while we were flying. Just sat there raising his arms, palms up, muttering a lot. My first instinct was to do that same, but pray out loud to the LORD, then I realized that it’d only be earning disrespect points. Later it occurred to me that the entire plan was full of Muslims, as a good amount of others also did some prayers towards the end of the flight when the sun was coming up.
I arrived in Casablanca early Tuesday. And no, there was no sleep had up to that point.
At that airport a couple people with really interesting Middle Eastern accents told me in quite broken English that I was to get aboard a bus and go to the hotel. Not wanting to leave the airport, and definitely not wanting to pay for a hotel, I kept declining. Then one of them finally said the word “Free.”
Yeah, that caught my attention.
“Free?” I repeated.
Sure enough.
So my 14 hour layover was spent in a 5-star hotel enjoy lunch on the airline’s dime (would’ve been dinner, too but I left early enough to make my flight. I caught 3 hours of sleep, and actually talked for 10 minutes to Mom on the international cell phone we’d gotten just before I left.
During that lunch I ate with two French teachers who are Roman Catholic missionaries, one who teaches physics, the other history. Neither of us knew the other’s language, so it was handy that I’d met a girl my age from Switzerland who spoke both English and French. She joined us at our table and translated between us all. She was on her way home to Geneva after 4 months in Ghana working in the orphanages, and she’s also a believer. All four of us had a great time conversing about the Church, and life in Africa, and life in France vs. America vs. Switzerland.
Also in the hotel I met a couple who were missionary translators, but I can’t recall which country they worked in. The man in particular enjoyed speaking to another American in English, and he went on and on about their work. It was fantastic to hear about. And I just marveled at how many believers I was meeting….in Casablanca!
Finally, getting back to the airport, I stood in line to board the plane. A girl in front of me, a Togolese native, had been living in France and studying to be a lawyer. Apparently she went straight to law school without any real undergrad. (I don’t really understand how that all worked).
She wanted to practice her English with me, so we conversed about school and Togo and other small talk things. I told her how much of a loser I felt like, coming overseas knowing only English, while she knew French, Cahvea (sp?), and Ehvae (sp?), and working on English. (The two weird ones are native Togo languages, I think).
She laughed. Probably in agreement.
On board the plane, the guy sitting next me also wanted to practice his English with me. And again I felt stupid knowing only enough Espaniol to order from Taco Bell. He helped me expand my French vocab a little, though. I wonder…if you know a few phrases in a lot of languages, can you add them up to say you’re at least bi-lingual or something?
Anyway, he didn’t know what to talk about. So I asked him to just tell me about himself, however much or little. Along the way I would help him with his grammar or pronunciation (“pronunciaSHONE” as he kept saying it. oh, those French speakers.)
So he told me his dad is Togolese, his mom European, that he lives in Paris working as a Jurist. He is married but no kids yet….
…and on he went. It was very fascinating to hear him go. Just whatever came to mind. His English was very good, save for the Frenchie sounding words here and there. He really did well imitating the way we say our “R’s” in America. Otherwise it was very British-sounding English. So an interesting mix.
Eventually he starting talking about lies and the truth, and I mentioned how it reminded me of Paul writing in Romans about how evil men suppress the truth and exchange it for a lie. He lit up, asking “Wait, are you a Christian?” Immediately he followed with “Because I am, too!”
It was fantastic! Two Christian brothers meeting on a flight from Muslim-laden Morocco to Togo. Who would’ve known that we’d sit next to each other and everything!
We talked about so many things, and I came to realize he is quite well-read in the Bible, and loves the LORD greatly. It was very encouraging to talk with him, even in my extremely tired state. The LORD gave me strength to stay awake and continue. I realized what a rarity it was for him to talk with both and English speaker (and thus practice his English) as well as a fellow believer. Even the Mr. Bean flicks they were playing weren’t going to distract me from this amazing conversation.
We got into Togo at 3 AM. Uncle Russ, Steven, and Nate met me at the airport. As we were leaving, this guy (whose name I’ll not mention at this point) came up and we hugged. It totally took Uncle Russ by surprise.
Ah….
So finally, the last few days, as I’ve been in Togo…
I’ve been waking up very early, basically with the sun, and going on rounds with Uncles John and Russ, as well as some tag-a-long action with the short-term surgeons here. ‘Got to see a huge fibroid removal/hysterectomy, a couple hernia operations, the end of an appendectomy, and then dozens of clinic cases. U. John let me put a cast one of the patients. Also I’ve helped with other little things, like handing supplies into the sterile surgical field, pulling up patients in bed, holding limbs while splints are applied, and other random things.
I’m learning tons.
I’ve also been teaching guitar to my cousins Steven and J.T.
Last night we had a little impromptu jam session (I guess most jam sessions are).
We probably played 25 to 30 worship songs that I’d brought over.
Other spare time has been spent talking with other missionaries on the compound, and then working more the CASPA. Tonight it was reworking my rough draft of the narrative portion. I’m much more satisfied with how this version is going. Yes, indeed.
LORD willing, I’ll have the CASPA done and sent in within a couple days. Internet is apparently more reliable that I’d thought, so I’ll probably be able to do most of it from this end. We’ll see.
Tonight, on the 4th of July, it was so strange. All the missionaries had a big cookout, with American food. And they all wore red-white-blue. We even had firecrackers that we lit off right before I came here to write this blog entry. Very interesting, celebrating our country’s 233rd year (is my math correct?) while in another country.
Well, all the cousins are watching “Elf.” Kinda weird timing, but whatever. I suppose it IS winter here…even though we all sweat so much. But really, the weather is gorgeous. Eventually I’ll post photos on here of the area, the compound, the hospital, and the Briggs and Ebersole’s houses.
But I don’t want to be a stinker and not watch at least some of the movie with the guys. I told them to go ahead and start it since I’ve seen it a few times.
Well, it’s been a joy writing to you all. Sorry if it’s really boring and “we did this and then this” type of writing, but frankly I’m surprised I’m even still awake enough to write coherently at all. Maybe I’m not!
Catch you later.
Worship well.
It is such a treat to be writing to you all while I’m out here. ‘Wasn’t sure if/how that would work.
I’ve still yet to catch up on sleep, but being a college guy, it’s not that unusual to stay in this semi-conscious state for many days. Hopefully tomorrow, being the weekend, will afford a little sleep in time.
Even with just the trip over here I knew I was in for an adventure.
Boarding the plane Monday at noon, Piper’s “Desiring God” kept me company the flight to New York. There I met a team of pre-med students from WorldVenture who were heading to Mali via Casablanca, so I hung out with them before and after that second flight to Morocco. They had two extra pieces of pizza they were going to throw away, but they gave them to me instead. Not expecting to eat for two day, I savored them like a death row inmate’s last meal. Well, okay, not THAT dramatically.
We flew out a few hours later. Next to me was an Algerian guy who works as a taxi driver in NYC. I’ll call him Eddie, since he kind of reminded me of that guy from Uncle Bruce’s church. Eddie goes home to Algers to visit his mom twice a year, one of them being for Ramadan. We talked about politics, economics, war, medicine, city life vs. country life, family, and some other things. But never got into religion much, beyond that he prayed a couple times while we were flying. Just sat there raising his arms, palms up, muttering a lot. My first instinct was to do that same, but pray out loud to the LORD, then I realized that it’d only be earning disrespect points. Later it occurred to me that the entire plan was full of Muslims, as a good amount of others also did some prayers towards the end of the flight when the sun was coming up.
I arrived in Casablanca early Tuesday. And no, there was no sleep had up to that point.
At that airport a couple people with really interesting Middle Eastern accents told me in quite broken English that I was to get aboard a bus and go to the hotel. Not wanting to leave the airport, and definitely not wanting to pay for a hotel, I kept declining. Then one of them finally said the word “Free.”
Yeah, that caught my attention.
“Free?” I repeated.
Sure enough.
So my 14 hour layover was spent in a 5-star hotel enjoy lunch on the airline’s dime (would’ve been dinner, too but I left early enough to make my flight. I caught 3 hours of sleep, and actually talked for 10 minutes to Mom on the international cell phone we’d gotten just before I left.
During that lunch I ate with two French teachers who are Roman Catholic missionaries, one who teaches physics, the other history. Neither of us knew the other’s language, so it was handy that I’d met a girl my age from Switzerland who spoke both English and French. She joined us at our table and translated between us all. She was on her way home to Geneva after 4 months in Ghana working in the orphanages, and she’s also a believer. All four of us had a great time conversing about the Church, and life in Africa, and life in France vs. America vs. Switzerland.
Also in the hotel I met a couple who were missionary translators, but I can’t recall which country they worked in. The man in particular enjoyed speaking to another American in English, and he went on and on about their work. It was fantastic to hear about. And I just marveled at how many believers I was meeting….in Casablanca!
Finally, getting back to the airport, I stood in line to board the plane. A girl in front of me, a Togolese native, had been living in France and studying to be a lawyer. Apparently she went straight to law school without any real undergrad. (I don’t really understand how that all worked).
She wanted to practice her English with me, so we conversed about school and Togo and other small talk things. I told her how much of a loser I felt like, coming overseas knowing only English, while she knew French, Cahvea (sp?), and Ehvae (sp?), and working on English. (The two weird ones are native Togo languages, I think).
She laughed. Probably in agreement.
On board the plane, the guy sitting next me also wanted to practice his English with me. And again I felt stupid knowing only enough Espaniol to order from Taco Bell. He helped me expand my French vocab a little, though. I wonder…if you know a few phrases in a lot of languages, can you add them up to say you’re at least bi-lingual or something?
Anyway, he didn’t know what to talk about. So I asked him to just tell me about himself, however much or little. Along the way I would help him with his grammar or pronunciation (“pronunciaSHONE” as he kept saying it. oh, those French speakers.)
So he told me his dad is Togolese, his mom European, that he lives in Paris working as a Jurist. He is married but no kids yet….
…and on he went. It was very fascinating to hear him go. Just whatever came to mind. His English was very good, save for the Frenchie sounding words here and there. He really did well imitating the way we say our “R’s” in America. Otherwise it was very British-sounding English. So an interesting mix.
Eventually he starting talking about lies and the truth, and I mentioned how it reminded me of Paul writing in Romans about how evil men suppress the truth and exchange it for a lie. He lit up, asking “Wait, are you a Christian?” Immediately he followed with “Because I am, too!”
It was fantastic! Two Christian brothers meeting on a flight from Muslim-laden Morocco to Togo. Who would’ve known that we’d sit next to each other and everything!
We talked about so many things, and I came to realize he is quite well-read in the Bible, and loves the LORD greatly. It was very encouraging to talk with him, even in my extremely tired state. The LORD gave me strength to stay awake and continue. I realized what a rarity it was for him to talk with both and English speaker (and thus practice his English) as well as a fellow believer. Even the Mr. Bean flicks they were playing weren’t going to distract me from this amazing conversation.
We got into Togo at 3 AM. Uncle Russ, Steven, and Nate met me at the airport. As we were leaving, this guy (whose name I’ll not mention at this point) came up and we hugged. It totally took Uncle Russ by surprise.
Ah….
So finally, the last few days, as I’ve been in Togo…
I’ve been waking up very early, basically with the sun, and going on rounds with Uncles John and Russ, as well as some tag-a-long action with the short-term surgeons here. ‘Got to see a huge fibroid removal/hysterectomy, a couple hernia operations, the end of an appendectomy, and then dozens of clinic cases. U. John let me put a cast one of the patients. Also I’ve helped with other little things, like handing supplies into the sterile surgical field, pulling up patients in bed, holding limbs while splints are applied, and other random things.
I’m learning tons.
I’ve also been teaching guitar to my cousins Steven and J.T.
Last night we had a little impromptu jam session (I guess most jam sessions are).
We probably played 25 to 30 worship songs that I’d brought over.
Other spare time has been spent talking with other missionaries on the compound, and then working more the CASPA. Tonight it was reworking my rough draft of the narrative portion. I’m much more satisfied with how this version is going. Yes, indeed.
LORD willing, I’ll have the CASPA done and sent in within a couple days. Internet is apparently more reliable that I’d thought, so I’ll probably be able to do most of it from this end. We’ll see.
Tonight, on the 4th of July, it was so strange. All the missionaries had a big cookout, with American food. And they all wore red-white-blue. We even had firecrackers that we lit off right before I came here to write this blog entry. Very interesting, celebrating our country’s 233rd year (is my math correct?) while in another country.
Well, all the cousins are watching “Elf.” Kinda weird timing, but whatever. I suppose it IS winter here…even though we all sweat so much. But really, the weather is gorgeous. Eventually I’ll post photos on here of the area, the compound, the hospital, and the Briggs and Ebersole’s houses.
But I don’t want to be a stinker and not watch at least some of the movie with the guys. I told them to go ahead and start it since I’ve seen it a few times.
Well, it’s been a joy writing to you all. Sorry if it’s really boring and “we did this and then this” type of writing, but frankly I’m surprised I’m even still awake enough to write coherently at all. Maybe I’m not!
Catch you later.
Worship well.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Temporary Transplant
Okie dokie folks (.....folkies?),
Today I'm gonna start blogging here and push pause on the Debtor Blog until the trip's over.
Why, you ask?.....yeah, I s'pose the other'd work just dandy, but heading back overseas after so many years feels more like a separate chapter, a total different thing in some ways.
It's also part of my brilliant plot to take over the world by making a massive blogsite root system using free blogspot blogsites.
The latest: Our family travels up to Chicago on Sunday. We'll hopefully get to see Aaron and Annie while there.
Monday morning flight out, 13 hour layover in Casablanca and finally, two days later, arriving in Togo.
Woot!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
It's on!
Yay, yay!
Just a moment ago the mail came. One was a large express envelope containing my Visa for Togo. Woot!
The other day I got my yellow fever vaccination, which thankfully has yet to affect me in terms of feeling cruddy at all. Pretty sweet deal.
And finally, in working out plane tickets, I've got round trip tickets from New York to Togo, and am now working on the "From Here To New York and Back Again" tickets.
Official dates of this trip:
Leaving= June 30 and arriving late in the evening July 1 in Togo.
Returning= July 31 arriving back in New York, and possibly staying a few days out in New Jersey with relatives, but should be back in Illinois by August 2nd or 3rd, the LORD willing.
Thanks for your continual prayers and joined celebration with me for the plans thus far working out very well!
Blessings,
Andrew
Monday, June 2, 2008
Visa, Funds, and Other Such Updates
(Above image: This is a photo of the L`Hospital Baptiste from ABWE's Togo website.)Greetings, gentlefolks of the blog-reading world,
Today I'm working on final details in regards to getting my travel visa. Hopefully that will be all worked out with enough margin time before heading out so I won't have to spend my last few days in the States rubbing my hands together hoping saying "Come on, come on!" like a man who's put all his money on a mediocre racehorse.
As of now, a rough figure of funds raised comes out to be about $2,000! Very cool, since most of this came from CD sales, a few concerts, and several very generous donations. Essentially all word of mouth, since I never did write an "official" letter about the trip. Actually, it was one of my goals that any letters I send out would be to simply inform and not have to ask money for the trip. So I'm pretty close to reaching that.
This blog essentially works as that letter, just in piecemeal form. So thanks for swinging by and checking it out.
At this point, however, I WILL say that there's a little over $1,000 still to raise for this trip. If you would like to send any support, in a monetary form, sure, but also in the form of perhaps a letter or even just a comment on this here blog with an encouraging note or that you are and will be praying for the trip, I'd really appreciate any and all of that!
Currently I'm working a ton in the ER at St. Mary's Hospital here in Decatur, IL. This has been my summer job for a few years now, and it's something I heartily enjoy, though the long hours do tend to wear on me after a while. Hopefully whatever money still needing to be raised can be helped via my work this month.
Thanks already for your prayers and thoughts for me thus far and for coming days. It looks like departure date is June 30 with my return to the U.S. slotted for July 30, if all goes according to plans and the LORD wills it.
Peace to you all,
Andrew Costerisan
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Vaccination(s)
Aunt Susie just sent an email with some more info, including what I'll need vaccination-wise. Apparently yellow fever is the only one to get. That doesn't sound too bad. According to CDC, it must be received at least 10 days before travel. Can do.
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