A Layne Post
This week I thought I’d give you guys a little glimpse into a week with Casa Ahavá. It is a little difficult to give you an exact picture because each week and each patient varies, but in general here an overview of what is involved:
Each patient is on a 21 day schedule of receiving their Chemotherapy. The day before Chemotherapy, the patient needs blood work done to make sure all is well enough with their body to be hit with such strong doses of medication. That means they need to arrive before or at 7am – leaving our house between 6 and 6:15am to get a simple blood draw. Granted nurses are there and easy to comply with, this is a quick process and the patient can return to the house with Jon as soon as finished. If the results prove the patient is healthy enough to receive the cycle of Chemotherapy, they will return the next morning before or at 7am – leaving our house between 6 and 6:15am. They are then admitted for at least 1 night and depending on how their body responds, they return the next day or a couple days later. (At times the nausea and vomiting that Chemotherapy induces requires a day or two of IV re-hydration.) In general, Jon does these runs so that I am able to sleep in a bit and then get the girls up and going when they are ready.
From time to time a patient will simply need their blood work done for the doctor to see and get a general idea of the patient’s health, so we will then take them, again, first thing in the morning, and then return home with them as soon as they done.
So all of that to say, Jon is usually doing about 2 morning runs to the hospital a week – up at 5:30am, out the door at 6:00am, and then home usually between 9 and 10am. If things have gone slowly for one reason or another, then Jon will visit with the other patients at the hospital during that time and not return in the afternoon. If things move smooth and quick, he comes back, and then he or I return at 1pm in the afternoon to visit. During a normal week, Jon will visit 4 afternoons and I will visit one, spending anywhere from 1.5-3hrs at the hospital chatting with and trying to encourage patients. Post-Chemotherapy a Casa Ahavá patient or patients will just come home with us after Jon or my afternoon visit.
1 morning a week around 9am we offer a little Bible Study over muffins and tea and then do a general house-keeping meeting to make sure all is going smoothly in this little community.
1-2 nights a week we invite the patients to eat dinner with our family. If the patients have had a rough week, due to pain or recovering from Chemotherapy, this number may increase, though they’ve been wonderful about taking care of one another. They make their own food for the most part and do their own grocery shopping at small local markets on our street. Our little Heller family tends to receive 1-2 meals a week at the courtesy of our sweet Eliza.
In the morning you will usually see the patients moving around, making breakfast and tea, doing some laundry by hand even though we’ve offered the machine, sweeping their kitchen, sweeping our yard even though Jon has showed them the rake 100x, picking up dog poop, or trimming some trees. Sometimes this is the time they’ll go for a little walk or do a their grocery shop.
Lunch time they tend to eat in their kitchen, and sometimes on especially nice days you may find them eating on the table outside.
Everyone naps or at least lays down for 1-2hrs in the afternoon.
Typically, the girls and I (or Jon if it is his afternoon home) spend our post-nap afternoon outside on the lawn with whoever is out there. For the most part, Mozambicans think the house is for sleeping and spend a majority of their time outside. Eliza likes to crotchet the day away, either sitting in her black plastic chair outside the kitchen, giving her pot of food an occasional stir, or laying in the grass shooing our large dog. The men like to sit outside and listen to their radio or watch TV inside their room.
After 7pm, and sometimes earlier, we usually don’t see anyone again until the morning.
Weekends are low key. Sometimes we’ll have a visit from a sister or brother-in-law. A game of croquet may be enjoyed in the lawn. The patients enjoy attending church with us on Sundays.
So maybe that gives you a little glimpse? I hope so. Overall the patients have overwhelmed us with blessings and community and have required very little outpouring on our part. Thanks for your continual prayers. We still currently have 3 patients – Papa Zakarias, Tia Eliza, and Tio Tomás. We are in discussions and prayer over our 4th right now – please join us! We would like to add one more woman to our community before little Karasi joins us – our 5th Heller!