First week in Galmi

Still sorting through our emotions.  Just glad to be here and begin work slowly.  It did not take long to unpack as we only had some suitcases and the supplies we picked up in Niamey before coming.  The grounds are surprisingly large, and every bit as green as the areal photo's.  The hospital is the first building coming into Galmi from Niamey, so we have not seen much of the village yet. 

In our last blog we mentioned harmattan season.  Well, that has continued most of the week.  It was clear enough on Wednesday for planes to fly and SIMAIR came in and transported some personal to various locations.  Dust in the home is a fact of life.  It blows, we wash floors and dust, then all over again.  Everything is covered including computers.

On the second day we had a tour of the hospital.  The NEED is great.  The suffering is profound, the facilities are being stretched beyond capacity as are the number of staff to care for the patients.  We were struck by the patience of the people to wait for service in numbers I have never seen in a N.A. hospital. The hope and progress made on the rebuilding of the new hospital cannot come soon enough.

Our first impression of our home, was that it was bigger than expected.  Love the kitchen, lots of counter space to do baking for our many guests we will be hosting.  The pink bathtub is not our first, and we are glad for the brown geometric design shower curtain we picked out before leaving Canada.  The bathtubs narrow down considerably more here then in N.A. they go down to 13 inches wide. Our bedroom is huge, but will be divided so an office space can be made in it.  Currently the desk is in the living room area and we would like to save the area to entertain our guests.  Grace was delighted at the size of space to make a garden behind the house and is eagerly planning for the future.  The hospital has a strong water supply so watering is no problem.

We need to purchase our own furniture here, so this week we ordered a table to be made at the workshop on the hospital station as well pantry shelving for dry goods.  We were quickly convinced it would be good idea to purchase a freezer, as that is where we will want to store our flour.  This prevents little critters from making  a home in the flour.   Plus Grace will need to have a good amount of food prepared in the freezer for the many hosting occasions.  This week carrots have come into season, they are sweet and delicious. 

Each morning each department starts its day with morning devotions.  The guest house devotions are done in hausa and the office devotions are done in hausa or french.  We are both finding the work interesting and will require a huge learning curve.  We are grateful that we could come when there is still people in place who can share the knowledge.  Grace's job is a 24/7 job, with guest and short term people coming and going anytime of the day and any day of the week.