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

Bath time

Even in Africa, our kids love bath time. I was pleasantly surprised when we got here to find a clean white tub in the hall bathroom (We actually have been pleasantly surprised with every aspect of our house. I think God has been lavishing His grace on us over the past few weeks while we have been getting adjusted because some of these uncomfortable aspects that might have bothered me some before seem so unimportant at the moment.)

Hailey is getting quite a "toothy" grin these days now that she has her two top teeth in as well as some new molars. :) 

Our water supply here on the compound comes from a deep well that is supposed to be fairly clean based on the depth of the well. We still drink and brush our teeth with the filtered water spout in the kitchen, but we are thankful for the clean water source since it is impossible to keep our kids from lapping up some bath water while they play. The water comes out of the spout clear, but after we bathe two very dusty children it looks quite dirty at the end of bath time. :)

On one occasion, an uninvited guest manged to make his way into the bath tub and couldn't get back out. There are lizards EVERYWHERE here but this was the first one we had found inside our house.

I hope to get in a two week recap at some point tomorrow! We do feel like we are getting situated on the home front and Marc is gradually acclimating to the hospital life as well. I hope to share more soon.