Oh my dear family and friends, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
MAY THIS NEW YEAR BRING YOU CLOSER TO GOD
AND A GREATER AWARENESS OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN YOUR LIFE
I hope you all received the quick e-mail I sent you a few weeks ago, as you probably noticed, the computer keys stick at the cyber, which makes it difficult to write from there. I have not had much time to go to the cyber cafe and when I do go; the Internet is very slow, which is frustrating for me. When I come home at night, I am tired and there usually is no light, so I haven’t made time to type from my laptop, but will make a greater effort hereafter. I apologize for this lengthy newsletter and hope that as I make time to write at night, I will be able to e-mail you more frequently, so my newsletters will be shorter.
“WELL", I left the US on November 16th and arrived safe and sound to Nigeria on November 17th, unfortunately I didn’t arrived to my village until the 19th. I arrived in Lagos, Nigeria on the 17th to fly out to Owerre the next morning. I missed my plane in Lagos because I went to the wrong airport. I spent an extra night in Lagos to take another flight the following day. Departing the plane from Lagos to Owerre on the 19th was a Rotarian whom I had met while in Nigeria on my previous visit. We talked and you can probably imagine how delighted I was to find out that he is the New District Governor of the Rotary Club in my district. It was by the Grace of God that we were on the same flight and that he was only a few rows in front of me! I met with him a few weeks later and together we called the contact person from my rotary club in the US, who has been working tirelessly with me on a water project for my villages. I will be attending rotary meetings with The District Governor, as often as he is able to arrange rides for me, as the meetings are quite a distance from my villages. We stay in contact weekly by phone. It is my prayer that 3 bore holes/wells will be the outcome through the gift of Rotary!
I am adjusting back to life here in the villages, although it is much harder for me than previous times, which I will explain in another newsletter. I was greeted with statements such as: "Chukwu Gozie Gi (God Bless You)… You came back!" Followed by hugs and kisses and many smiles… "How are your pecking/children?… Your daughter’s graduation?" … "Your family?" I am touched as they remember I went back for Anna's graduation and for the genuine interest in my family... "Onyeocha you are big" which I came to understand, does not mean FAT!!! -But healthy (phew-ha ha)! … "What did you bring for me?" I reply "A Bigger Onyeocha!" as I round my arms in front of my stomach and we laugh together. After the exchange of laughter, hugs and kisses, I am quickly brought back to the reality of life here in the villages, as I am told of the numerous deaths of their loved ones, while I was in the US. Tears “well” up from my heart, their faces change from joy to sorrow, as they share the stories of their deceased with me. The gunshots, signifying another death or the start of a burial, continue throughout the day on a daily basis. The wailing of mourning as a result of yet another preventable death and the cries of sick babies and children wake me from my sleep many a night. Too many people are dying due to lack of clean water and the inability to receive medical care and/or authentic medicine Can YOU IMAGINE, being deprived and dying due to this merciless way of life? Untreated Water-borne diseases, Malaria, Typhoid, Rheumatic Fever, High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, HIV/AIDS, Malnutrition, Childbirth etc., are claiming the lives of so many impoverished people here.
On or about December 24th, as I was walking into my complex, I met a man who was bringing his wife to the mortuary. (If you remember from my first newsletter, I live next to the mortuary.) With tears in his eyes, and a look of heartache he told me that it is inconceivable to him how he took his wife to the hospital a few weeks ago, to bring her back as a "corpse" for Christmas. I offered to go into the mortuary with him as he brought in his wife. It was difficult for me to walk in, but I drew up the courage as I contemplated how his grieve, was greater than my fear! I have always avoided going into the mortuary, for fear of what I may see, and my fears were validated. I gasped at the number of bodies lying in the mortuary. This was an experience I hope I do not have to repeat.
As I wrote to you last time, Emmanuel is back in the hospital. We went to The National Orthopedic Hospital in Enugu, on December 23rd. Ironically this is the same time last year that Emmanuel went into the hospital. Last year he went in with a sense of hope and joy... and now he goes in with a sense of despondency and despair. The hospital is in another state, so it is very difficult for me to see him, which adds to Emmanuel’s distress. I do not have the funds for transportation to the hospital, so we talk briefly on the phone throughout the week. He had a biopsy and bone scraping on Dec. 30th, which will take two weeks for the report to come back. He will then undergo another surgery, pending the results of his biopsy.
His mother, if you recall from before, is a poor widow of 8 children and has verbalized to me, that she feels helpless as she has not had the means to provide him with the medial care he has needed and feels a failure as his mother, as she did not have the funds to treat the wound which had returned. She also, is unable to go to the hospital and it is breaking her heart. I can empathize with her pain and have encouraged her to contemplate again on "The Blessed Mother's" suffering as she stood by, in prayer, watching her son Jesus suffering and dying on the cross. As I listen to her cries and the cries of so many here, there are no words that can take away their suffering. A suffering that is unjustly endured by so many here! I hold on to the prayers and love I can offer them, and pray that, in time through the love and compassion of others, they will be granted the basic necessities needed for life.
I have met with my Eze (king), Eze Boniface and have requested that a representative from each of my 12 villages drives me to each village to do health screening and to visit the dying and homebound. Eze Boniface will call a meeting of the 12 chiefs from each of the villages to make these arrangements for me. He continues to be supportive of my mission in his villages. My vision is to set up Blood Pressure/Diabetes centers in each of the villages and to train volunteers to screen the poor and homebound and to provide health education. In doing so, I will have more time to minister to the homebound and dying. I am in need of 13 BP machines (electronic wrist machines) and Diabetic strips/control solution for either OneTouch Ultra 2 (LifeScan) or FreeStyle Flash (Abbott) Blood Glucose Monitoring System. If anyone is coming to my area in Nigeria, I ask you to bring me any number of these items that you can, as I am not able t obtain them here.
I have gone to the Local Government Office and spoke to the Chairman and asked him to make arrangements for me to meet the Governor of Imo State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim. He has begun to make some positive changes in my state and I hope that he will be of some assistance to my needs for the poor and sick. To date, I have not had a response from the Chairman, so am looking into other avenues to meet the Governor.
When I entered Nigeria, immigration stamped my visa for only 3 months, so I have to apply for an extension, as my return ticket is for May and 3 months is not enough time here to make headway. I will apply at that time for a residential visa.
I also have made contact with Amaka, the woman who's NGO I am now a part of (Isaiah 58 House). I have spent a few weekends at her home and she has been gracious and very supportive of my vision. Her spirit of compassion and self-sacrifice for the less privileged and neglected is an inspiration to me. We have become good friends, as we share the same passion.
I am beginning paperwork to open my own NGO, thanks to the help and guidance of two individuals that I met in my villages. They have been an unexpected gift from God to me, as they offer their time, expertise and compassion to my mission. I am touched by their selfless efforts!
The children, as before, are teaching me Igbo. , and are very patient with my pronunciation and me. They work so hard, at such young ages, selling goods in the market, working in the farms, trekking long distances to fetch water and to gather firewood. Those that attend school also trek long distances to the school. I try to bring a smile to their faces with puzzles, stickers, games, songs and bubbles-oh they love the bubbles! The children’s sunglasses are a hit, thank you!
I do not want to tire you out with such a long newsletter, so I will write more to you in the next newsletter. Hopefully I can send it out sooner, so as there will be less for you to read. Please know that I love you all so very much and hold you in my daily prayers. Without you, none of this would be possible. Your love and prayers have touched so many here, and carry me throughout the days and nights. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Please continue to keep all of us in your prayers.
I will end with one of the prayers I wrote in an earlier newsletter:
SUFFERING AND DEATH
CONTRIBUTED BY
CONTAMINATED WATER,
COMPOUNDED WITH AN INABILITY TO RECEIVE PROPER MEDICAL CARE
CONTINUES TO PLAQUE THE POOR IN MY VILLAGES.
A SUFFERING THAT IS UNNECESSARY AND UNWARRANTED
AND THROUGH HELP,
CAN BE STOPPED.
AFTER LIVING AMONG THESE PEOPLE,
AND WITNESSING THEIR SUFFERING,
THEIR RELIEF
HAS BECOME MY PASSION.
A PASSION THAT IS ATTAINABLE THROUGH INTERNATIONAL COMPASSION.
THROUGH THE GRACE OF GOD AND HEARTS OF LOVE,
I PRA Y THAT
MY PASSION WILL BECOME YOUR PASSION!
CHUKWU GOZIE GI (GOD BLESS YOU)!