This is what I found right outside the postpartum ward today. I was just going around the corner to go in and what to do you know? Someone parked their supplies right outside the door.

I decided that if I was an ant or another small creature on a tree, this might be my view:

But I am a person so I get to watch beautiful sunsets....

Kevin

Getting to see kids again that I knew when I was here before is really fun. Here are some pictures of Kevin when he was a little guy and then four years later.

Twins again: Kate and Abigail

I did my first twins delivery this week! Well, not my first, but the first one where I delivered both babies myself. The mom came in completely ready to have the babies and I got there just in time. I was working triage because we are short on nurses, but they called me to maternity.

The first baby was born head first and the second one was breech, but came out with no trouble. It all happened pretty fast and there was so much to do thankfully one of the midwives was there with me and helped a lot.

The second baby needed some resuscitation and a shot of epi but within a few minutes she was breathing on her own and doing well. The mom asked me to name them, and she wanted one after me, so I named the first baby Kate and the second one Abigail, after one of my sisters. After the babies were born I spent the next hour getting the babies dressed, quietly talking with the mom and helping her feed the babies. It was probably the best hour of the week.

Here is Abigail, about an hour old:

Marie and I with her new babies:

I was pretty excited about my first set of twins!

I'm Thankful

for my teenage girls

In our team meeting yesterday afternoon, we had a discussion about whether Thanksgiving was this Thursday or next, and when we should celebrate it and have our team meal together. We had decided on Saturday for the meal, but the rest of the team was able to convince me that Thanksgiving was next week, not this week. 

Our group consisted of two Congolese, a Canadian, a Rwandan, two Indians and five Americans. Wow. Still we didn’t seem to get it right. I should have held my ground.

There was a lively discussion about what kind of food we would cook, and who would bring what…and what kinds of food people wanted. No real Thanksgiving food is available here, but one of the visitors from Kansas brought stuffing and instant mashed potatoes.

I woke up this morning and couldn’t even remember what day it was. It was just another day at the hospital, really. No special activities or food. Maybe next year.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to everybody! Enjoy your good food and be thankful.

The Siafu Strike AGAIN

I had another encounter with the terrible Siafu the other night. After our Sunday evening worship/fellowship time, one of the kids told me my goats were making a lot of noise. I always have to go when the goats are making too much noise - I have to make sure everything is all right. Well, in this case, everything was not all right.

It was dark so I took a flashlight and went out. Nina, the girl goat was off grazing by the bath house but Ramsey, who is the one I keep tied up, was hollering. Gilbert, one of the neighbor kids, came with me to see what was the matter. 

Ramsey had wound himself around and around a small tree and couldn’t move much at all. He had also twisted the rope so it was pretty tight around his neck. I started working on getting him untangled while Gilbert held the light for me…but then I realized what the real problem was. 

Gilbert and I both began getting bitten by Siafu. You will know what siafu are if you read my earlier post. Ramsey was right in the middle of it and had been for some time. The siafu would have killed him if we hadn’t come.

We finally got him untangled, at the sacrifice of many, many painful bites, and pulled him away from the worst of it. This took us a while, and pretty soon Gilbert’s dad, Papa Gaspard, and little sister Berta, came looking for him. We explained what had happened, and Papa Gaspard immediately started helping us with the goat. We were away from the ants but they were still all over him. I wasn’t sure how to get them off. He was covered. 

Papa Gaspard had obviously had some experience with siafu and animals before, because he knew exactly what to do. “Look at the feet first. If you can get them off the feet he will be able to get the rest off himself.” Sure enough, his feet were thick with Siafu - especially in between the hooves. I guess this is the strategy to take down a large animal. How do they know?? It took the three of us quite a while to get them off, and when we finally did I tied him up in a new location behind the house - and we all settled down for the night.

I hope this will never happen again.

The container

I forgot to mention that the container came!!! This was a happy day. It took over a year to get to Impfondo from the States.

Here we are watching them put it in place:

And some of the unloading process:

This was exciting for me because the rest of my supplies for Maternity came. 

Joyeux Anniversaire!

Happy 1-Year-Old Birthday Molly!

Not all days are good days. Some days there are lots of tears. 

Usually Rodney is a cheerful little guy - but when you’re sleep deprived from working the night shift with mom - you might wake up a little grumpy.

Introducing...

...some of the littlest people at the hospital right now. Two of them weigh 2.8 lbs and the other one weighs 3 lbs. 

I have been working closely with them and their moms for the past couple of weeks. Two of the moms are teenagers and needed a lot of encouragement and help getting started, but they are all doing so well!

They pay attention to the time, hand express milk, wash the diapers, keep up with feedings every two hours, change the bedding in the incubators and watch those NG tubes carefully! It has been fun to see how even the 15-year-old has adjusted to being a mom, and not just a mom, but a mom of a very small premie baby girl! 

One of the babies is especially lively and she pulled her NG tube all the way out two days in a row…much to her distress, I put it back in both times.

Remember to...

Always...

You Visited Me

If a person gets sick, and that person has friends, then they will most surely come to visit. Over the last few days of being sick I have had many visitors. When I am sick I normally like to hide in my room until I am mostly better, and then venture out, but here that is not how it is done. 

Everyone has to make sure you are okay. 

My midwife friend called me several times, and came over twice, another nurse friend stopped by, called me and texted me; she wanted to make sure I didn’t have malaria. The radiologist and janitor stopped by, another friend brought me eggs, (which was one of the only things I felt like I could eat), the nursing supervisor prescribed medicine for me and called to make sure I was still alive. :) 

My next door neighbors came to see me, and make sure I was all right. Then my other neighbors came, and my friend Esperence sat with me and prayed for me and we had a nice talk. Some of my teenage girls came over and I laid on the couch and talked with them. When I ventured out into the hospital to get some lab tests done, everyone in the hospital already knew I was sick. They all wanted to make sure I was taking medicine, and not getting wet in the rain, and eating enough.

Having lots of visitors may be inconvenient at times, but it means that you will most surely not die without everyone knowing about it. And I thought about it some more, and realized that my people here are showing me real love… 

“I was sick and you visited me….”

The ramifications of the Siafu event include a bad smelling house, a greasy floor that cannot be cleaned and a headache - probably from the gasoline and kerosine. But life goes on. 

Unfortunately we did not get any photos to document the event..but instead here are some pictures of us hanging out with our friends and neighbors.

A Hard Day's Work

I just wanted to make sure you all know how amazing ESTHER is! 

She works so hard and always maintains a cheerful attitude...no matter how exhausted or grumpy I may be, she has encouraging words and usually can cheer me up, even on the bad days.

She has spent countless hours in the Bloc, helping with sterilizing instruments for surgery, doing loads of laundry, circulating in the O.R. and doing wound care every day for lots of people. She is going back to North Carolina in December and the whole hospital is going to miss her!!!

Sick again...

I have been pretty sick these past few days… It started Saturday night with what seems to be a bad cold. Sore throat, cough, runny nose, headache, etc. I stayed in bed most of the day for two days. Monday morning the pounding from the workmen started pretty early. Some workers are building a bathroom for our house and the neighbors’ and it has been quite noisy. The pounding makes the headache worse, naturally. Around 10:30 one of the guys came over to start on our side of the house. Since that would mean people going in and out of the bedroom all day I asked if he could wait and do it tomorrow. Apparently he was sick too - and he sounded pretty sick. I gave him some vitamin C and went back to bed.

Today I am feeling much better. No more throwing up and the headache is much less strong. I managed to get up and do laundry and tidy up the house a bit. It’s still a wreck. My dad would be pleased to know that I am “not feeling bad about feeling bad.” Although yesterday I think I was. 

Esther has been looking out for me and bought me juice which helped me get through the night. Anyway, I think by tomorrow I’ll be back to normal. Thanks for praying!

Construction

Our house is in a state of disrepair...or a nicer way of saying it would be- it's under construction right now. They are finally making an indoor bathroom! 

This means a toilet, a shower and a sink. What luxury! In a few weeks hopefully we will not be hauling buckets of water to the outhouse for showers, or going outside in the rain or in the middle of the night to use the toilet. 

Everything is a mess right now - and they had to break a hole in the wall, but it’s going to be really nice when it’s done.

A bed and a bunch of other junk in the living room

Thanks to our DAF this is actually happening. And he told the workers they couldn’t break the hole in the wall unless they were sure to put a door on it before ending work for the day. THANK YOU! 

Flood

We have had so much rain lately…everything is soaked - and it’s hard to dry anything out. 

There’s no dry diapers in Maternity, the roof leaks in three places and everything is muddy. At home our ceiling leaks in two places now, instead of just one. But we have a mostly dry house…so many people are not so lucky. 

All around town peoples’ houses have been flooded and belongings ruined. Even here in the hospital our missionary accountant, Mama Melanie, and her sister’s house has been seriously flooded. They are in the process of moving to a different house. The eye clinic is in the middle of a swamp, and there’s water covering the floors.

I stayed wet all day today!

Like I said, it's hard to dry anything out...Here are Hannah's soaking wet clothes

After the rain, a small child venturing out of Pediatrics

A large tree just outside the hospital was struck by lighting and it is splintered. Last night one of the midwives, who saw it happen, was telling me about the event. She described it very dramatically to anyone who would listen...I’m glad that no one was injured.

Reminder for the day

Ants and All Saints Day

Last night there was a major invasion of The Siafu. I first encountered siafu when I lived in Tanzania, with the Ross family. They are large, fierce ants that travel in great caravans. They cross over puddles by sacrificing some of their soldiers to pave the way. If an animal - even a large animal, is constrained - they will eat the entire thing. 

If you happen to step across the path of The Siafu - you may not know it right away. That is part of their strategy. They wait until several of their number have made their way up your legs, usually to about waist level, and then they start to bite. And when they bite they don’t just bite and move on. They bite and hang on with strong jaws. You can pull them off but the jaws will stay clamped into you.

I had the nice thought of going to bed early, after a long and busy day. So around 7pm I went to bed, only to be aroused by the neighbors. First Mama Anne came in telling us we would need to meet at 7am at the shipping container. WHAT?? 7am on our only day off?

Since it’s All Saints’ Day - it wouldn’t be a regular work day. It’s an official government holiday, which means we don’t have to work in the hospital!!! Our only holiday since we got here and we can’t even sleep in. I think Esther might have cried.

The next disturbance came a few minutes later. The Siafu were invading our house. When the Siafu invade - they come by the thousands. If you have small children, it is best to keep them up on beds or chairs out of the way. The only way to contain the ants is to pour kerosine on and around them (it is something they cannot cross over, no matter how desperate - they will perish). So you pour kerosine around the beds of your children (if you have children, that is). In our case, Papa Masky, our kind and generous neighbor, came to the rescue. Armed with a bottle of kerosine and a broom, he got to work. 

After a long and bloody fight, there was peace in the house once again, and we all got to sleep.

In the morning, it was raining, so we didn’t have to go to a meeting at 7 after all. What a relief. I woke to a very disarranged house and a VERY greasy floor. The damage was done. Thousands of dead bodies of Siafu ant soldiers and a ruined floor. The price you have to pay to avoid being eaten. I was grateful to our helpful neighbors and started the morning out by trying to clean up the floor. There was kerosine and ants everywhere, but not a live soldier in sight.

Oh, I almost forgot - Happy All Saints Day!!!