The Gimbie Chronicles

After that things seemed to flow pretty well.  He told me about some guys that were in there first few years of college (like me) that went over last year and did a documentary, medical work, and also some business work.  They just happened to live in Spokane and they were almost back from their trip.  I only had to wait about a week before I could get in touch with one of them.  I talked to Justin Davis.  We had a great conversation about his experience and what it was like and what exactly he and the other two did.  At the end of our conversation he gave me the contact information for Gimbie Adventist Hospital.  I got in contact with the volunteer coordinator over there and she began asking me questions and also asking for my resume.  I got her my resume and answered her questions.  I remember on question in specific.  She asked me how I would feel about leading a group.  I thought about he question very carefully and decided to just tell the truth.  I told her that I would be “terrified”.  I also said that I am always up for new challenges.  After I sent that email I waited.  The emails that went back and forth were within a day or two.  I waited for about a week and a half thinking that my answer to the leadership question had done me in.  I emailed her and within a few days on April 7 she sent this back, “We would be happy to have you here at Gimbie. Let’s start preparing for you to come!…”  I was shocked and extremely excited.  I still am.  From there my goals shifted from looking for a position to preparing for a position.  Everything that I did was one more step closer to Gimbie and I liked that prospect.  Get vaccinations, one more step.   Get a passport, one more step.  The more I got done the longer the list of things seemed to get.  I found out that there are at least 3 other student missionaries from the United States going.  One from Walla Walla, Nick and two from Southern Adventist University, Cassie and Bobby.  Nick, Cassie and I are going over to do mostly medical work.  Bobby is going to do other projects.

From talking with the hospital, the other Student Missionaries and looking things up on the internet I found many details out.  The terrain is pretty mountainous.  The hospital is at about 6500 feet above sea level.  Because of this Malaria is not much of a problem.  The rough terrain also made Ethiopia the only county in Africa not to be colonized.  Because of this the still predominately speak native languages with several dialects.  Most of the people living in areas around Gimbie live off of less than a dollar a day.  The main hospital has 71 beds. There are six rural clinics surrounding Gimbie Adventist Hospital.  The farthest is more than 100 miles away from the hospital.  The internet is generally very slow and a lot of the time unreliable.  There is so much more to know too.

Gimbie Adventist Hospital keeps up a blog: http://gimbieadventisthospital.blog.co.uk/

The three guys that went over made a documentary.  It is on youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQl1pS0-jBE