A Different Point of View

Most days Marc and I are working in two very different worlds. I am home with two healthy children, a nice home, and plenty to eat. He is at the hospital amid the smells, flies, and very, very sick people. We then come together at tea time, siesta time, and again at dinner to sort through it all as a team. It is hard for me to even comprehend it, and Marc often has a hard time even putting words around much of it. However, I wanted to sit down with him and write a post of what he is seeing and doing here in Galmi. I know these pictures look different than what I have shown you thus far, but I think it is good to see things from a different point of view and this is where Marc's ministry is right now.

Marc is currently working this month (as well as last month) with mostly pediatric patients. On his call nights (which is about 1 in 4 at this point) he will see and admit any patient regardless of their age, but in the outpatient department he is only working with infants and children. I think it has been very sobering for him to see how fragile life is here and how little he can do sometimes to improve their situation medically. At this point it seems about one quarter of the patient's Marc admits to the hospital die. Some even die before they are able to be admitted.

I had Marc take some pictures of the patients he was currently taking care of a few days ago. I am just now getting a chance to sit down and add the pictures to the blog, so unfortunately some of these kids who were just hanging on when he took these pictures did not make it. I hope these pictures encourage you to pray faithfully for Marc and the patients here at the hospital. They both need your prayers!

This baby was in for a bad pneumonia. Marc did not think this little one would survive, but she made it. I think her overall health (I LOVE seeing a chunky baby here!) helped her and she was discharged a few days ago.

This child in the next two pictures was admitted for malnutrition and did not survive. He was 2 years and 2 months old. He was seen at the clinic a year ago and when he came back he was the same weight as he had been last year. It was not clear why he was so malnourished. TB or HIV were high on the list of possibilities.

It is hard for me to fathom what agony a mom must go through watching her child starve literally to death. I pray fervently for God's mercy to be on these people when I see these pictures. Their suffering is so great.

This little one is actually the exact same age as Eli. I think Eli is probably just over 30 lbs. This child weighs 15 lbs. and is still in the hospital hanging on. He is being treated for pneumonia, TB and malnutrition. He is one of Marc's favorite patients and he loves seeing him and his mom everyday at the hospital.

This was a two week old baby that weighed 5 pounds and came in having black stools and persistent vomiting. He made great progress and turned the corner a few days ago. Marc discharged him today and hopes to see him next week for a weight check. Pray that his mom's milk supply would improve since it decreased during his recent illness.

This little girl was admitted with severe gastroenteritis. She was a healthy weight and initially looked like she would do very well. However, she started to decline over the weekend and also did not survive.

I have looked at these pictures many times over the past few days, and I still have tears in my eyes when I look at these children again. Oh how precious these little ones are to God! Pray that Marc would continue to provide the physical and spiritual healing these families need.

On a lighter note, we have been extremely blessed to have some friends from our residency program in Wichita visiting this past week. Dr. Todd (the international fellowship director) and John (a former international medicine fellow) have been spending the week with Dean and Marc in the hospital and then enjoying fellowship with our families over meals in the evenings. 

Their wives packed a few requested items for us and some candy for the other missionary kids here. Eli was delighted when a box of CHEERIOS showed up on the kitchen table this morning. We ran out of the box we brought about a week ago and he has asked for them every morning. He ate two bowls full (and asked for a third!) and was so happy to pose for this picture by his box of Cheerios. A big thank you to these two families for showering us with gifts (and your encouragement!) this week.

Dianna took this picture of us at "Cinnamon Buns" which is a tradition during tea time each week at one of the missionary family's homes. Everyone gathers for cinnamon rolls and coffee/tea/juice. This is also when the "meat man" brings the day's beef slaughter by on the back of his motorcycle for us to buy. Quite fun! Eli looks forward to this day so much. I can't tell which he loves more: eating the cinnamon rolls or seeing all the other kids together to play. :) Have a great Wednesday (we are actually heading to bed here!). :)

Vaccinations in the Village

At the end of Marc's first week here, he accompanied a group of the long term physicians and nurses on a trip out to some nearby villages to vaccinate children and check in on some other little ones who had recently been discharged from the hospital.

This is what a typical house in these villages looks like. They are made of mud and/or stones.

The round building on legs is used for storage (food and farming supplies). The houses are quite small so some people put extra things in a storage building.

The vaccines they took with them were tetanus, oral polio, and a TB vaccine. The people checked in at the table and then waited to receive their vaccine.

While the nurses were handling the vaccinations, Marc went with Dr. Z and Dr. L to several nearby villages to check up on some other children that had been treated recently in the hospital. Marc said it was very difficult to actually locate the children they were trying to find. The medical record lists their village name, but there are no street addresses. Many children also have very similar names. They drove to several villages and had to keep asking for people who knew the family they were looking for. After driving to 4 or 5 villages, they were finally able to locate both children.

The boy on the right in this picture has a big belly so he probably is infected with worms.

 The boy in the red sweatshirt below was one of the kids they were looking for. He had recently been treated for malaria and anemia at the hospital.

He was looking good. They brought along some iron supplements and vitamins for him. 

This was another little boy they were checking in on who also had malaria and anemia.

This woman below (who was probably her grandmother) approached the group asking how to feed this newborn baby since the baby's mom had recently died. They encouraged her to find another woman in the village who had recently delivered who could also feed the baby. There is no access to formula here so breastfeeding is the only means for a baby's survival. The hospital would certainly love to have a lactationist available here to educate moms on how to take care of themselves and their milk supply. Malnourishment is a very common problem here in the first few years of life. Malnourished babies are more susceptible to disease as well so the odds are really stacked against them for their survival.

The kids always seem to know when a camera is around!

These kids don't mind putting on a show for the camera either. :) Eli is showing off the carrots brought to our door fresh from the field. Carrots will only be around for a month or so until the heat comes. I blanched and froze most of these for later on.

They love dancing on the couch!

Mr. Weevil

I had heard so many stories about you, Mr. Weevil, yet somehow hoped we would never meet. It is unfortunate that I caught you eating our popcorn kernels. Go away and please don't come back!

I am very thankful to have learned this lesson in such a small way before we lost more things. Now my freezer is full of ALL of our grains and beans. I'd rather be safe than sorry at this point! Our flour has stayed weevil free so far. We are learning something new here every single day. :)

Two Weeks In

It is hard to believe we are just a few days away from the start of February. Our past few weeks have gone by very quickly. It is quite amusing when we sit and think about how different our life looks these days. Right now, we have Ziploc bags cleaned, rinsed, and hanging on our drapes with clothespins to dry so that they can be reused. One of the many things that is "new" to us. I have come to gain a new appreciation for my dad's upbringing on his family's farm in Arkansas with little access to grocery stores. Or, I should probably say I have a whole new appreciation for my grandmother who raised five kids with few resources available to her! Memaw, I know you'll appreciate the fact that I am reusing my Ziploc bags now. :).

So, in the past two weeks I have learned how to make two different kinds of bread and flour tortillas, hand wash clothes, clean and grind my own beef (with the help of an electric meat grinder), cloth diaper a baby, and make yogurt. I'm sure I forgot some things, but I think you get the picture. Recently, I have been thinking back to the summers I spent as a camp counselor. There have been so many similarities for me to camp life that our new home has almost felt familiar in a way. Lots of spiders, no hot water, feeling dirty or sweaty several times a day, cooling off by the fan, working really hard all day long, drinking lots of water, looking forward to siesta time, and the list goes on and on and on. Who would have ever thought that God would use that time to help prepare me for this??? I am thankful the Lord is continuing to weave my life together in ways I could not have planned or imagined.

This is how our chicken arrived the other night! A sweet local woman cooks and delivers some things door to door. We ordered a few cooked chickens from her. The chickens must be skinny little things around here. When I went to debone my first one I actually thought someone had already cut the breasts out of it. :) I eventually figured out they were there (just tiny) and managed to find enough meat to use in some chicken and bean enchiladas that were pretty yummy.

Although life has been very different, it has also been so good and rewarding. I really enjoy getting to be in my home all day long with my children. I love seeking out one on one time with each of them. One of my favorite parts of the day is when Eli wakes up and crawls in bed with me in the morning after Marc has gone to the hospital. We just talk and talk and talk until we finally hear Hailey. The other day he snuck in bed beside me before I woke up. I opened my eyes to find him staring at me. He held his arm up to mine to compare and said, "Look mommy, we are the same (meaning the same skin color. Ha!)." He obviously has taken note that we are now in the minority in regards to our color. :) He also tells me many mornings how special we both are to God. He is such a sweet boy and I am so very thankful that I get to see more of him now (and sweet Hailey!) throughout the day.

Eli helped me roll out our dough for our French bread the other day. He loves helping in the kitchen.

(You might just notice the crock pot and microwave in the background! Those were wonderful things to find in our house when we arrived. :))

Marc is steadily working towards understanding more on the medical realm. The complexity of the medical needs here along with the language barrier have left him feeling inadequate on many days. He is often not sure how to help many of his patients. Continue to pray that he would find joy and satisfaction in his work even if the outcome is not always good from a medical perspective. The most common diseases that he is seeing and treating currently are malaria, malnutrition, gastroenteritis, and pneumonia. He also sees many more patients who have complaints that he can't put a diagnosis to. There are also a lot of patients in the hospital with tuberculosis and HIV, and a few each day with tetanus. We are so blessed to live in a country where vaccines are readily available to us. We have now seen how serious many of these diseases are. We can prevent many of these infections in our kids and others' kids by choosing adequate vaccination. It is unfortunate that many times in underdeveloped countries vaccinations are not readily available. I will share more this week about a recent trip Marc took with some nurses and doctors into the nearby villages to help vaccinate children.

We love having this screened in porch. It is a huge help having a place that is contained and in the shade to take the kids when they get a little stir crazy inside the house.

A few people have asked what we might find useful during our time here. We really don't expect to receive any items (except from our parents... ha!) because it is quite expensive to ship a flat rate box (around $50-60 for up to 20 pounds I think) and it takes about 3-4 weeks to arrive. However, if you had already planned on sending us a care package here are a few things we brought with us and are finding very helpful. We really appreciate your prayers more than anything. We can tell that you are lifting us up in prayer in so many ways so thank you!

Foil sealed packets of chicken or tuna/albacore
Bacon Bits

Jif peanut butter
Hershey's baking cocoa powder

Marshmallows

Wheat thins, triscuits, Goldfish, or Keebler crackers
Pretzels

Cheerios
Taco seasoning packets

Craisins, raisins, or any other dried fruits

Nuts (Walnuts, pecans, almonds, sunflower kernels)

Dried beans that we can't find here (black, pinto, lentil, split pea)

Powdered gatorade drink mix
Crystal Light mix

Jello pudding