Guinea

the wall spider, just one of many

The days are somewhat running into each other and most days of the clinic were a lot like the one before. A few things that DO stand out: I saw my first wall spider at the clinic, they are large and are supposed to stay on the wall, also they eat mosquitoes :-) I shed a tear during this experience but God gave me courage to face the future spiders I encountered. At the the clinic, I also encountered my first RAT yes R A T. I was in the lab with Julie, we were facing each other and I heard/felt something fall on my foot, thinking that it was an object Julie had dropped, I asked her if she wanted to pick it up. I lifted my pant leg and the rat ran out! I literally jumped into Julie's arms and screamed bloody murder, we were great comic relief for the nationals! They laughed and laughed, it ran down the corridor past all of them as they waited.
Thursday we treated the teachers in the village, this is their day off of work. There are 6 of them and they each teach 100 students. For all of you teachers out there, let this encourage you on your toughest days! They are wonderful men that LOVE teaching, they all speak French and Yalunka and were so appreciative of our services. One that lives close to the Anderson's, is so sweet! He has a large Goiter.
On Thursday night Julie and I were awakened by Dawn at 10:30pm stating we had a mom in labor, if we wanted to deliver it! I don't even remember climbing down the bunk. We walked off our porch, heading toward her hut and Dawn stepped right onto a snake! we stomped and stomped, it would not die! So we went and got a machete and cut it's head off, now off to deliver a baby! We are definitely in Africa. :-) I could never convey what unfolded in the small hut in Niaya for Dawn, Julie and I. What I can tell you is this; it was beautiful, magnificent and such a wonderful gift from God to us and hopefully that mother. The Matron was present but 2 hours into labor, with the three of us there, she found a spot on the edge of the hut and went to sleep! We were able to assist the mom in a more "American" way. I did a lot of massage, Dawn gave her a soft place to lay and Julie "guarded the gate" (only the three of us will truly appreciate the last part) The only light in the hut was a small fire, until it died, then we relied on flashlights. This would never fly in the States. I'm not going to go into to much detail because, as my friend Jamie said, sometimes when you have experienced something so beautiful and magical, when you say it, it takes something away from it. I will tell you, that it was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had and I will never forget it. This was her 6th baby, it was a boy that weighed approximately 6 lbs. He was born after a set of twins so he is automatically named Sion.
We did not finish and get home until close to 3 a.m. We were on such a high, it did not make a bit of difference the next day.

With the leaves

So we wake up and get to Dawn's house for a meeting on how the clinic would be organized and who would be responsible for what. Although we had a team of approx. 15 experienced people, only two spoke the tribal language of Yalunka. We had a church leader from another village that spoke English and Yalunka which translated for the doctor. Julie and I were put in triage and would also do anything else that didn't require much communication. ie: wound tx, lab work, ect.
Our first day of clinic began at about 10:30am (we will treat 580 people in 4 full days of clinic) we treated a boy that was brought in by his father, he had a fungal infection on his scalp. His dad had taken him to a witch doctor that had them treat him with "black medicine". The treatment was to boil leaves in oil and then place them on his head. He came to us with infection and 3rd degree burns. He was maybe 11-12 yrs old, we had no pain meds to give him while we debrided and dressed it. He whimpered once and immediately his dad reminded him that he would shame his family is he cried. Julie and I plead with a translator to explain the damage of the black medicine and how painful this was, that we were so proud of him. The odor from the infection was overwhelming in the Africa heat. My oldest is his age and he is all I could think about while I treated him. He was on the clinic porch with a smile on his face first thing every morning, waiting for Julie and I. Dawn e-mailed and told us that he has been to her house to have the dressing changed and questioned her abilities, asking where Julie and I were. :-) Multiple wives is prevalent and therefore lots of STD's were seen and treated. Julie and I were surprised at the average weights. It is shameful to be thin so they wear layers of fabric. Coming to clinic was a special occasion, so everyone wore their best outfits and jewelry, it was stressed to us that Africans love to dress up. The people were average height and weighed between 80-100 lbs for women and 90-120 for full grown men. I saw one man that was 160lbs and he became a novelty! He seemed educated and they said that he probably had a thriving farm, he could tell that his card was different and asked me to convert his lbs to kg for him. He was quite happy with himself. Most looked as if they were wasting away. The babies and small ones came in with fevers and belly pain. Everyone got treated for worms and most for malaria. EVERYONE received vitamins, (thank you Aboite Missionary Church!) We worked the clinic until 5-5:30pm each day and would open by 8am. By the end of the day we were exhausted. I have never worked so hard! We would eat dinner with Dawn and head home to wait our turn in the shower line. This is fun, we were there in the "dry season" which means there is not a lot of water. We drained our water tank twice in the week we were there! Poor Jim had to keep pumping more in for us! We here at home really take that for granted!
Thought for the day: Nothing is easy here. Nothing.

The boy washing in the front yard
part of our welcome
Our front porch!

Apparently, I had a conversation with Julie in my sleep. (Renee & Duane you can relate to this!) So we get up the next morning, wash up and prepare for the 9 hour drive to the village. We are packing up and I realize that I can't find my passport. It's almost comical but not really. I can only think of having it last in the dark corridor in the airport....Julie was very comforting assuring me she would not leave the country without me. I later told her, it's always easy to see that things will work out when it is someone else's passport that has gone missing! :-) I was forced to tell Jeremy Tice, a missionary that came to drive us back to the village. He was uncomfortably calm and requested the copies of it that we were carrying. When I asked if we could go back and check the airport, I think I heard him laugh. :-( So our escorts from the airport arrive at the mission house because the wife, Marie, is joining us in the clinic this week. (these poor people) Kent, her husband, recommends that we search every possible bag because he would have to stand for two days at the Embassy on my behalf trying to get a new one......We found it! Apparently they have had this happen a couple of times and the passport has always surfaced. I obviously felt your prayers!
Moving on...We set off with Mr. Bah, our driver. There are no obvious road rules or emission control! The waste and filth on the streets was unexpected. The heat intensified the odor of EVERYTHING. Several times we saw people urinating on the side of the road right next to where they were cooking or shopping. Once we get out of the city, the roads are winding, rough and the smells turn into a more "wild" scent. We came to a gas station that actually had a toilet, (which is rare) so Julie and I anxiously jump out and arrive at a hole in the ground. The odor mixed with heat equals dry heaves for Amber, providing loads of entertainment for everyone. We are back on the road again, we stop for lunch at an empty missionary home, we had Lebanese bread with summer sausage and of course Conya bottled water. We were back on the road again...I don't usually suffer from motion sickness but the roads, combined with the smells and hours of flying the day before, called for some Dramamine. :-) So we are an hour or so away from the village and we stop for gas, there is no electricity so the generator is used to pump gas. Unfortunately, the generator is not working, we waited 20-30 minutes for gas. While waiting, I looked across the road and noticed a boy about the age of Caleb, washing laundry with a bucket and scrub board. I'm wondering if his mother had to ask him twice? We get our gas and move on. A while later, Jeremy asks if we are ready to see Dawn? Of course yes, Julie and I have been dying for the last hour, wondering if the journey would ever end. He says, well here she is! Along the road, next to the tall African grass is a truck and out pops Dawn! She is real! This is apparently a common way to exchange people, there is no where else to meet! The days of travel have been made worth it. We ride with Dawn and she turns off into the bush with no apparent landmark, we drive for another 30 minutes and come through the foliage to a village! We have stepped back in time hundreds of years. There are mud huts with grass roofs, Nationals are gathering and following our vehicle. We had a warm welcome. Everyone is so excited that we have come, we are a novelty. Before I came on this journey, I dreamed about our bedroom here, I would share a room with Julie and we would have bunk beds, I would be on top. Guess what? They had a room with bunk beds in our house, it was our room! We stayed in a home that had been lived in by missionaries. We had solar electricity, and a bucket of water to shower in. Dawn said you have this amount of water, maybe 5 gallons, is that going to work? I don't know about you, but I have NEVER measured my water while bathing. Let me assure you, it's not that much water. :-) We had 7 people staying in our home, one of them male because he was married to one of the ladies. He and I became extremely competitive and were showering with just a quarter of the bucket by the end! We had a large window in the front of the house, and with our "fire burning" at night, we felt like a television show for the Nationals. Our porch always had someone on it, watching the white people. You never know what we might do, I wanted to stand on my head or do a back flip to make it worth their time. :-) We walked to the "clinic" to see where we would be spending our time, our entourage followed. We went to bed and were to be at Dawn's by 7 am to prepare for the day. No bugs, rodents or snakes at this point! Yeah, am I really in AFRICA?
Thought for the day: You could never describe the smells and the sounds, which is 90% of this experience.