Joining bones (and mission partnerships)

dhThese notes are about the CMF Developing Health Course 2014.

The focus of today is Orthopaedics. I made notes on the whole course in 2012 – you can read about this day here.

Each day I’m just going to write about things that impacted me, and things I need to read later…

New Relational Partnership…?

We started this morning with a meeting with the missions agency that phoned me last week. Katherine, Joen and Neriah all came out to Oak Hill college with me, ready for the meeting. We met with a lovely chap with an accent that can best be described as “miscellaneous”, since he has lived in about 5 countries for significant periods of his life. His wife was also there.

Just that little fact made me feel more comfortable: if you meet with a corporate CEO, or similar, there would never be such an immediate focus on relationship, on meeting our family as we meet theirs.

UBurn Contracture Healednderstanding the concept that he is not alone in working – as a married couple, all our work, to some extent, is done in partnership.

Anyway, it was a thought provoking meeting, that may lead to a long term partnership: more on that as it develops…

Orthopaedics

Due to our meeting, and my general tiredness, I missed most of the morning, by the earnest, funny and heartfelt Chris Lavy (I sat with him at lunch, he was awesome). I did catch two recommended websites for finding recommended physio techniques and general reference material: Summit Medical Adult Health and WheelessOnline.com.

However, I managed to attend most of the afternoon sessions with tutorials and workshops on fitting people for casts, putting legs in traction, and how to splint burns.

I think the biggest take home message for me was that burns need appropriate splinting, for at least 6 months to prevent developing significantly disabling contractures (see right).

Ideally you want a burn to heal within 2 weeks, as that makes risk of contractures much less likely.Burn Contracture Healed

The Hidden Introvert

The Mission Agency asked us to identify our Myers-Briggs types: Broadly, Katherine is an INFJ, and I am ENTP. Which is nice, as the conventional wisdom is that having 1 field the same (possibly) makes for stronger relationships. It’s interesting to read through – not a massively evidenced based approach, but an interesting window to use to inspect your own mentality.

Unsurprisingly, I am classified as an Extrovert. But, I have a hidden Introverted side that I never knew existed…

This week has been socially intense, making instant, deep, wonderful friendships with people from all over the world, but with fairly similar visions and life views to me. I’ve had a fantastic time, but it has been hard work. For the first time… ever… I had to go and spend an hour in my room on my own this afternoon!

I was excited about this: Vicky Lavy pointed out that the fact that after an hour I was back out, talking to everyone, means that I’m unlikely to be at risk of reverting to total extroversion…

Africa and Zulu

The evening talk was a chat with Peter Saunders. His story was slightly haunting for me: around 20 years ago, he felt called to work in Africa for a year, went to work in Kenya for a year with his wife, a 1 year old and a 3 year old. They felt convinced they would end up in Africa long term: but never lived there again…

My last activity before bed was my first Zulu lesson with my SA friend Linda. I discovered my first concepts of Zulu prefixes, and learnt to say Kubu Hlungu Ikhanda (My head hurts).

I am not fluent yet.

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