Blog Oct 1, 2017

We have made it to the exclusive travel restriction travel ban club.  Trump put Chad in with North Korea, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Yeman, Syria, and Venezuela.   He dropped Sudan from the list.  We think it primarily restricts people from those countries from entering the USA.  We don't think it affects us.   There have been protests in Chad and the Chadian radio said something about the American embassy being closed but we have checked and it is not true.   We hear that there was an incident that a Chadian flew a plane with weapons for ISIS somewhere from Russia and not sure what all is involved so now the ban.   There could be repercussions later but don't know.  So far as we know the ones that already have visas etc are not affected so our replacements should be able to get here ok.   It would not affect the surgeon coming from Argentina anyway.   It is not clear what all the restrictions are for Chad yet.   
Rainy season from almost daily rains has totally shut off the past two weeks so the flood waters are receding.  Only one place now requiring a canoe to get from Kelo to Bere.  Vehicle travel should be able to go soon although will be deep water holes.   Hopefully the rains will not come much more so people can get to the hospital and also be able to harvest their crops esp rice before long.   September has been one of the slowest months for a long time for the hospital.   It should be picking up before long we hope.   We have had 2 with bladder stones, two prostatectomies,  a strangulated hernia with dead bowel resection,  a tubal abcess  and some routine hernias in the past 2 weeks.   
Our emails are drbland42@gmail.com and  dfbland01@gmail.com   
Rollin and  Dolores Bland 
Hopital Adventiste de Bere
Boite Postal 52
Kelo, Tandjile,  Chad,  Afrique
Blog  www.weareamissionarybland.blogspot.com