Recently I've found myself humming this song at various points in my day. We sang this in choir sometime in high school (a shocking number of years ago) and it came back to me one day as I watched the clouds rolling out of our valley and the sun breaking out over our town.
The Storm is Passing Over - Detroit Mass Choir
(If you're interested in the history of this song - or at least, the original composition and composer, you can find it here: https://hymnary.org/text/courage_my_soul_and_let_us_journey_on)
"Stormy" is a good way to describe the last month, both literally and figuratively. Kenya has received more rain that in can safely handle, and flooding has displaced many people, taken lives, and swept away planted crops. Kids were unable to return to school when originally scheduled. Meanwhile, the doctors who work at government hospitals went on strike, followed closely by the clinical officers (mid-level providers). Last week, the nurses announced that they would also join the strike from Monday May 13. For those who can afford to pay, private hospitals remained open. For those who cannot afford to pay a huge deposit to enter a private hospital, or who have an emergency, mission hospitals like ours remain an option - so we've been absorbing a lot of extra work. Last week in the course of about 36 hours, I did 11 surgeries - not an terribly unusual number for me, but the majority were gynecologic emergencies (ruptured ectopic, ovarian torsion, tubo-ovarian abscess to name a few), rather than c-sections which usually make up 80-90% of my surgical cases.
On Tuesday afternoon, the government announced that they had reached a deal with the government-employed doctors who are now returning to work. From what I can tell, the nurses have therefore called off their strike. The last few days have been dry and sunny, with only a small amount of rain at night, and though the ground is still boggy ("squelchy" is the word that always comes to mind), the kids will be returning to school next week.
During the busiest days of the strike, though tired and worn, it was easy to remember to lean of God's grace - to get through a day (and night), to pray for a healthy outcome for a mom and baby, to remember that my continuous efforts will never be enough to pull a patient through a life-threatening illness - but that God can do all that, and more.
The storm might be passing over. Or, as our 4-year-old neighbor keeps reminding us, this might just be the calm at the eye of the storm. We may be facing a lighter and easier week ahead - or maybe not. For now, we're basking in the sunlight, thankful for the respite, and joining in singing "Hallelujah" - praise be to God!
