The government Hospital in Buchanan

This is another of the handful of government-run hospitals that service the entire country. This is the operating room. The picture is of the operating table lights turned fully on. They have asked us to provide new ones that work.

This is one of the above average hospital beds. None of them have any bedding because they don't have any and the washer and dryer are broken.  We will be getting them a new washer and dryer.

 This is a picture of the autoclave that doesn't work all the time. As you can see they had a fire in it.

The problem is the government doesn't have any money to give them for new equipment. They accept patients here free of charge. They just make do with what they have and each year the quality of care deteriorates. They are prioritizing the equipment they need the most and we will try and purchase it for them. We only have about $100,000 to spend on them but in this case it will make a huge difference.

I do not want to get sick here. I think the policy for senior missionaries is to put us on an plane and send us to another country if hospitalization is needed.

The hospital in Buchanan was about 3 and 1/2 hours away from our apartment so we stayed overnight with the senior missionaries there. This is where they live. They are on the third floor and the young missionaries are on the second floor. It made us appreciative of our apartment. They have no electricity so they run on a generator. It is loud all of the time. The town they live in does not have any restaurants you would ever want to eat in and only very  modest grocery stores.

On the other hand they have a nice Ocean View and are only a couple hundred feet from the water

The couple's name are the Ericksons. They are from Wyoming. They have 10 children. Their youngest is serving a mission in South Africa.

On the day we left the Ericksons were taking all of the missionaries in the area to Zone conference. There were six Young missionaries. Four squeezed into the back seat and two in the truck bed. The closest missionary in the truck bed is a very big guy from Tonga.

This is Duport Road Health Clinic, we finally got money to the contractor to start the remodeling. He just finished putting on the shiny new roof. The old one leaked so bad.  Delivering mothers and new babies get wet if they happen to be unlucky enough to have the delivery during a rainstorm.

He's installing all new electrical in the building. He had to cut the cement walls to put in the conduit and the junction boxes. In addition he will be repairing all the bathrooms and improving the drainage around the building.