Last 24 hours - quite something
Well, the last 24 hours have been a bit unique. It all began last
evening as the sky blackened, lightening, thunder and rain!! We
haven't had rain since March and the rainy season isn't suppose to
begin until the middle of November or early November. And according
to the weather, we may have more on Tuesday and Wednesday. Although
it was great to smell that wonderful smell that rain brings, we hope
that this doesn't mean that the rainy season has begun since no one
has their crops planted yet.
The second unusual event happened as Benedict opened our front door to
go outside. There tucked in between the door and the floor was a
snake. After seeing the head poke into the house, he quickly closed
the door, put some solid objects up against the small opening, and
called for someone to get the guard. Guards are usually the ones who
come to kill the snakes. Along with the guard came Dick, and a group
of our boys all carrying sticks. At first they didn't see it. On
closer inspection they were able to kill it right where it was. It
was a puff adder about a yard in length. As with most snakes, it is
poisonous. So we now will double check all the doors in the houses
and at the school to make sure there is no room between the bottom of
the door and the floor where snakes can get in.
Finally, after church, we took Auntie Doreen and a very sick Selita,
along with Shadrack and Sharpie to see Dr. Mutali. After a brief look
at Selita, he told us it was a classic case of measles. A couple of
months ago it was chicken pox and then mumps. Now it is measles.
However, Selita is sicker than anyone was with the other two childhood
diseases. She got an injection and medicine. We agreed that she
needed to be isolated in the room set aside for that in our clinic.
We drove up close to the clinic building and as she was walking into
the building, she passed out.
We have a book Where there are No Doctors, and we read about measles.
It is highly contagious and anyone with it should be kept isolated, so
we made the right decision in taking her out of her house until she is
over this. In medical books from the states, the only thing they have
on measles is information about the vaccine. So it takes a book that
understands the medical situation in developing countries to explain
what we can expect.
So please pray that we do not have an epidemic with the other 41 kids
getting it as well. They do give vaccines here to children under 5.
But for most of these children we have no idea who even got vaccines
when they were that age. Thank you for your prayers, and I'll keep
you posted.
