My apologies for the long silence. My time in Singapore was pretty busy except in the evenings when I took advantage of the time and place to stretch my legs and get some exercise after a day of sitting in meetings. And to explore the city to the point that I actually got blisters on my feet! So I didn’t have much time to write.
When I got back to Burkina, I learned that a member of my staff who had returned home to Canada suddenly to be at the side of a friend reported to be dying had herself succumbed to a severe case of cerebral malaria and was in intensive care and on life support in the hospital. It was seriously touch and go for a while. During the first 12 hours, the doctors were not convinced that she was even going to make it! I was kept busy not only trying to catch up on two weeks worth of backlog that I knew was going to occupy my first days back, but also keeping in touch with the family to get the latest updates, communicating the information to our personnel and others that needed or wanted to know, and mobilizing people to pray for her.
We’re thankful that our colleague survived those first difficult hours and days and is now out of intensive care and off life support. However, the road to recovery is likely to be a long one and we don’t expect her back here in Burkina anytime soon. This means finding people to take over the numerous responsibilities that she carried. Quickly. And bringing them up to speed without any procedure manuals to speak of. Also quickly. The term “baptism of fire” comes to mind...
I'd better go and find some pails.
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