More Critters

You can't go to Africa and not post critter pictures!

This guy was right at the entrance to our driveway, about five or six inches long.
(About as long as my hand, anyway.)

This is a massive bee hive high up in a tree at the edge of the yard.

A hive infiltrating our house, between the roof and ceiling,
donated perhaps by the massive tree hive.

We now have a guest room full of bees! Be glad you're not visiting now!

Chameleon in our yard. The children had to touch him.

Chameleon at the lake. Ellie had to touch him!

On the hotel steps at the lake

New acquisitions--sheep! 

;

These are keeping us busy. Anybody want a cat??

Snippet of the Doctor's Day by His Wife

Some of you read our blog, desiring exciting missionary doctor stories like the kind that have been circulating the past few years on other missionary blogs. Let me tell you, I like them as much as anybody else. The unfortunate thing is that I do not often see the doctor, neither do his children, so why would you hear his stories? Let's see...

Right now it's 10:30 pm on Friday night and he's at the hospital trying to save a patient who is in diabetic ketoacidosis and is struggling for life. This is a common story for a medical doctor. We pray.
Update: While unconscious, she vomited a liter of blood, some of which she aspirated. There is still more in her belly. She's 35 and has 6 children. Only a miracle will save her life on this earth.

A few days ago a three year old patient was hospitalized after she bit her mother. The child had been bitten in the neck by a dog and became rabid. She died, and the doctors are quite concerned that the mother left without receiving treatment.

Currently there is a typhoid outbreak, and Jamie has several pediatric patients as a result.

What else?

For six weeks Jamie has been interim medical director. He's dealing with disgruntled employees, good employees leaving, administration, administrators who don't understand the medical part of the hospital, and working at understaffed clinics on his off days.

Okay, so I can't give the gorey and very interesting details because, as most of you know, I'm not a doctor. Hope this is a snapshot into his daily life.

On another note, the triplets are growing! Some of you donated money, and thanks to your generosity, these three are getting quite pudgy.

Here's a picture:

We thank God for their growth! It's a miracle to see all three living.

Learning to walk not by sight

"My tummy hurts, my tummy hurts." It seems she said it fifty times a day. Abigail didn't eat much and didn't play. Then she began vomiting. For three days she ate and drank nothing except water, which her body rejected. The next morning she awoke at 6:45--late--and fell asleep one hour later. I texted Jamie. "Bring her to the hospital now."
She was admitted, her blood sugar 37. We gave her ORS and antibiotics. She had cryptosporidium. For five weeks she was in pain.


Meanwhile, Jedidiah had a random high fever for one day.


A couple of days later, we went to the city. True to our experience here, as the day progressed, Abigail developed a fever of 103 F. (My children have started fevers on our day in town a few times.) We were at the art gallery eating lunch, and I decided to take her to the clinic where Jamie was working. She was breathing funny and I was worried because she had been sick so long.

When we arrived at the clinic, I looked for my Ergo, in which I keep my wallet and money, and it wasn't in the car! I looked for my phone, but it was gone, too! Oh no! I must have been so distracted that I left them on the table in the restaurant! I took Abigail's temperature, gave her some Tylenol, and drove back. The proprietor had rescued my Ergo, wallet and money included, but the phone was gone. Thanks to God for protecting the things we found! Phones are replaceable, but the money, wallet with credit cards and driver's license, and the Ergo! Those would be difficult to lose.


Then on the weekend two people had similar but different dreams about us. One was that we were packing up and going home after ten months here; the other was that my husband was worried for me.


A few days later Jamie was in town again, covering the same clinic. After work, he went to find a greenhouse that someone told him about. It was down a dirt driveway off a dirt road. He had asked me to find it one day with the children, but I was unable. When I saw that the children had fallen asleep in the car, I ceased my search.

Finding no one at the greenhouse, he was climbing back into the truck when a man slowly ambled up. Speaking in Chichewa, Jamie asked, "Do you work here?"
"Yes."
"Then can you answer a few questions for me?" He locked the truck and asked the man prices and names of various plants. The man didn't seem to know his plants very well.
Jamie began to get back in the truck. "Thank you for your time. I won't buy anything today."
"Bwana, can you tell me what time it is?" the man asked.
Jamie took out his phone and turned it to the man so he could see it as he said the time. The next thing he knew, the man grabbed his phone! "No way!" Jamie thought and held on fiercely. With his free hand the man grabbed Jamie's arm. Jamie returned the favor. There they were locked until the man said, "Bwana, there are no police here." "Oh, yeah, that's true!" Jamie thought and hollered, "Help!" The man ran away, losing a shoe as he ran. Jamie threw it in the truck.


Friday my head started hurting and it still hurts. It was the worst headache of my life. Jamie was worried -- hemorrhage, meningitis, malaria?  Head problems are hard or impossible to diagnose here because of the limitations of the mission field. It seems to be getting better right now, but there is still a lot of pain.


So why am I rambling about all this?

Some of you have seen our previous posts of some of the thievery that we have experienced here. Regularly I still find things that disappeared during the previous "era" of employees. (Weird stuff, such as taking the choke from our chipper/shredder machine. Why would they want that?) People who live here and who have visited as short term volunteers have stated that we seem to be under spiritual attack. Only God knows why. For a long time, as I struggled with fear, I tried to figure out if it is because we are meant to be here and somehow God will be glorified or if it's because we are just in the wrong place. Then one day I realized that it really doesn't matter. That's not my question to ask. If what we are going through drives us to our knees, converting our sin-filled hearts, causing our pride to fall in irrevocable surrender as we acknowledge our dependence upon Him, then may God be glorified. These present and passing troubles are nothing compared to being filled with the riches of Christ Jesus. Dear God, please forgive me for my ungrateful, complaining spirit. Please create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within Me...give me an undivided heart that I may fear Your Name.