Two New Babies

It's still crazy around here.
Baby Daniel, who I told you about in the last blog, died on Saturday
afternoon. He was too small and too sick. Nichole and I were on our way
from Ouaga when he died. So about fifteen minutes after we arrived back
here at the orphanage we had to turn around and go to the cemetery to
bury little Daniel. Here, you have bury the dead the same day because
otherwise the bodies start deteriorating quickly. It's so hot.
It's a very sobering thing to put a baby into a grave. He was only with
us for a week, so we didn't have a chance to really know him, and so it
wasn't as devastating as it could be. It's still sad.

We got a new baby girl on Saturday, Soulemata. She is five months old.
And she had a fever yesterday but she seems to be doing better today.
And she's healthy in all other respects so she should be ok.
Yesterday we had a sad sad sad case brought to us. The mother says she
was raped by an uncle and got pregnant. When the uncle found out she was
pregnant he skipped town. She had the baby and then got married and was
allowed to keep this baby until she had one by her husband. She just
gave birth a week ago to another little boy. So she was being forced to
abandon the child, because her new husband would not accept this boy who
is not only not his child but is also a product of incest and rape which
is a shame to the family. They told us that this boy was two, and from
looking at his teeth (he has them all including molars) we think he is
probably more like 2 and a half. He is very sick. He weighs a little
over 4 kilos which is somewhere around 9ish pounds. We had to put him in
diapers for 0-3 MONTHS. He can't walk. he hardly sit up by himself. His
feet were swollen which is what happens right before a malnourished baby
dies. And his hair had started to change colors and thats a sure sign of
malnutrition. We took him to the hospital in Ouahigouya, to Dr. Zala's
(who has a private pediatric clinic and is a wonderful man) and was
admitted to the hospital. He had a fever on the way up and when we got
to the Dr.'s we found out that it was 40 degrees Celsius which is very
high. I don't know what it is in Fahrenheit but I know it's too high.
And while we were waiting for blood test results to come back he was
visibly getting weaker. He needs a miracle. So if you think of it, pray
for him!! We named him Alexander, Alex for short. He had another
name, but it was the name of the day of the week on which he was born.
It showed a lack of concern on the part of his family, who obviously
hasn't cared for him for a long time because he is so sick. So we
decided to give him a real name.

We have four really sick toddlers. They all have colds as well as
malaria that is resistant to the treatment we have been giving them. So
we had to buy new treatment and started them on it last night, so
hopefully by tomorrow morning they will be feeling better. They are all
just laying around which is not normal for any of them. I just sat with
them this morning and let them fall asleep on me. I figured it was more
comfortable than the ground. And everyone needs a little love when they're
sick.

Adeline has spent the past week in the village and is apparently loving
it, so her father says. Her aunt came today to get the rest of her
clothes, as Adi will be heading to her house from the village tonight. I
hope to visit sometime later this week...I miss that girl!

Elisee, who has been with us again for the past two weeks or so, is
leaving for his uncle's village tomorrow. He will live not far from Adi's
aunt (and both of them live in Yako) so they will be able to see each
other, and hopefully attend our school. He is excited. He's been washing
his clothes and packing all day. This is much different from the Elisee
who cried while packing at the beginning of the summer when he left for
his aunt's house.

The rains have stopped, and this is bad news. It's bad because it's HOT.
HOT. HOT. And it's a shock when it's all of the sudden so hot after
having been relatively cool every few days...now we have no relief from
the heat. It's also bad because if we don't get at least a few more good
rains a lot of millet will be lost. It's not yet ready to be harvested,
and without the rain, it won 't be ready.

I don't know if any of you have heard about the Flooding Disaster in
West Africa...I'm not really sure what they are calling it...but
supposedly there is flooding in West Africa including Burkina...so they
say. I'm not aware (and neither are the missionaries in Ouaga who told
us about this) of any flooding in Burkina. It certainly isnt' in Yako.
So, just in care you were worried...don't be. We're fine. We just need a
few more rains before they stop for the year.

An Atypical Day

So here is an example of an atypical day at the orphanage (no, that's not a typo).We are in the middle of malaria season. We have to keep a careful eye on all the babies because they get really sick really fast. And malaria is what the majority of babies die from during malaria season. And if you catch it early enough it's easy enough to get rid of.We have two nurses. They just finished nursing school and have left for a month and a half to do an internship. This is good for them. Not good for us. Nichole did meds for one day and then Nongewende, the woman who works with the toddlers/preschoolers, decided that she wanted to learn. We don't one hundred percent trust her to do them correctly but she is our best option, someone needs to know how to do them when we aren't here. I had never done meds all by myself. I've helped Nichole and I've helped Nongewende, but it's never been my sole responsibility...until yesterday. Nichole was sick. It was Nongewende's day off. So, the job fell to me.Which isn't normally a big deal until I started taking temperatures and we have three with fevers. So I gave out meds. Started a few on malaria treatment and thought we were ok. As the day wore on we got more and more fevers. And more and more weird poop things going on (diarrhea, black poop, yellow poop). A couple babies threw up in the morning (all of their meds!!) It seemed that every time I left a room to get something, by the time I came back there was something wrong with someone else. We ended up having five sick babies. Who all had to be watched carefully all day. One baby was particularly scary. He's our newest baby. He just came on Saturday night. We named him Daniel because his parents hadn't yet named him (a common thing herewith such a high infant mortality rate). He is 14 days old (as of today, the 18th), he was born a month premature and he weighs a little more than a kilo. He is tiny. And yesterday he had a fever of 102. I did a lot of praying yesterday. It was a scary day because these kids go downhill so fast if its not caught early enough. It seems as though the prayers were answered, because this morning we only had one fever and two cases of vomiting (and one of the ones who vomited had the fever) so only two sick ones....And I haven't checked on them since about ten oclock this morning (Nichole is feeling better and is able to help now!!!) but they were both doing ok.

On top of all that Adeline left with her father yesterday morning. She went to the village for a few days. She should be coming back here before she leaves permanently because she didn't take all her stuff with her. We had a few more hard conversations (one in which there was a misunderstanding and she thought I said that it was my idea that she leave...which was definitely not true; but she was excited to go when it was time. So that's good. It makes my heart feel better. And I know it's the best thing for her. And I will be seeing her most every day because she is going to go to school here.

Kids' Update

Sorry it's been so long since I've written!We have had a busy last couple of weeks.The first week of September Nichole and I went to Djibo, a town that ison the edge of the Sahara desert. We went with some missionary friends, and some who are now friends (we didn't know them before). We just went to visit. We haven't been to many other towns in Burkina, especially not any so far away, so we decided to go. There is an Australian couple in their seventies who have built a hospital up there. They have lived inAfrica for forty years and in Djibo for thirty-five. They raised all their children there. They are wonderful, gentle, kind people and it was so fun to get to spend time with them. Josselin, the wife, is an amazing cook and that was also a blessing. Djibo is home to a different people group. Different language, different looks, different culture. It really felt like we were no longer in Burkina. We were out of our comfort zone. We couldn't even speak French because very few are educated up there and thus have not learned French. It was a good trip. We were glad we went.

Jeanette is doing well. Her leg is healing nicely...she's even begun to pull herself/half crawl across the floor. This is so exciting because before she wasn't strong enough to move and would just sit there. Yesterday her mom (Her mom comes everyday to help care for her because of her leg) showed me that she could stand up while holding on to the crib. I almost cried. It was so amazing to see her standing up...even ifshe isn't doing it by herself. She's getting better. Alfonsine is happy most of the time now. We keep praying for her, and I really believe it's because we've been praying for her that she has stopped freaking out. She smiles more, she laughs more, and she's not clingy or cranky. It's a blessing. It was getting hard to want to be around her for fear that she was going to freak out.

Adeline is leaving tomorrow. That's hard for me. But it's good for her. Her father has been coming a few times a week for the past few weeks to get to know her; she loved being able to do this. On Monday he will take her to the village to meet the rest of her family. At some pointshe will come back here (we think) and then a few days later, and a few days before school starts on October 1, she will go to her aunt's house who lives in Yako. Her younger sister has been living there, whom Adi doesn't know (or doesn't remember) so this will be good for her. And her father lives next door with his new wife. His new wife is probably the reason why Adi is not going to live with him. People often refuse to take care of children that are not their own. She will probably attend the school here, so we should be able to see her everyday...and she will be more than welcome to stop by and visit whenever she wants. We had some hard conversations about her leaving. We thought she knew, but she didn't really understand. We spent most of the day Friday with her crying. It wasn't a fun day, but I think she understands now and is ok with it. She brought it up yesterday on a walk without crying or sounding sad. I was able to answer her question and then we were able to change to subject and talk about something else. That was good. I was a little worried that she would start crying again.

The crops are all growing. We have some millet that is probably twelve feet tall. The corn is being harvested little by little. They schuck the corn and roast it in some hot coals until it is charred on the outside. It looks gross and smells like burnt corn, but it actually tastes reallygood because its still juicy on the inside. I like it, anyway and I always make the kids give me some when they are eating it. And because they are eating so much of it, we have corn cobs strewn all over the courtyard! It's a mess!!

We got a new baby last night. He was a premie, born at eight months. He is now a couple weeks old and only weighs a little over a kilo. His mother died three or so days ago. He is tiny tiny tiny. But he is\u003cbr /\>adorable. He doesn\'t yet have a name, but there is a calendar that gives\u003cbr /\>a name for every day of the year and the family instructed us to name\u003cbr /\>him whatever the name is for September 4, the day he was born.\u003cbr /\>\u003cbr /\>\u003c/div\>",0]
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Adeline is leaving tomorrow. That's hard for me. But it's good for her.Her father has been coming a few times a week for the past few weeks toget to know her; she was loved being able to do this. On Monday he willtake her to the village to meet the rest of her family. At some pointshe will come back here (we think) and then a few days later, and a fewdays before school starts on October 1, she will go to her aunt's housewho lives in Yako. Her younger sister has been living there, whom Adidoesn't know (or doesn't remember) so this will be good for her. And herfather lives next door with his new wife. His new wife is probably thereason why Adi is not going to live with him. People often refuse totake care of children that are not their own. She will probably attendthe school here, so we should be able to see her everyday...and she willbe more than welcome to stop by and visit whenever she wants.We had some hard conversations about her leaving. We thought she knew,but she didn't really understand. We spent most of the day Friday withher crying. It wasn't a fun day, but I think she understands now and isok with it. She brought it up yesterday on a walk without crying orsounding sad. I was able to answer her question and then we were able tochange to subject and talk about something else. That was good. I was alittle worried that she would start crying again.The crops are all growing. We have some millet that is probably twelvefeet tall.

The corn is being harvested little by little. They schuck thecorn and roast it in some hot coals until it is charred on the outside.It looks gross and smells like burnt corn, but it actually tastes reallygood because its still juicy on the inside. I like it, anyway and Ialways make the kids give me some when they are eating it. And becausethey are eating so much it, we have corn cobs strewn all over thecourtyard! It's a mess!!

We got a new baby last night. He was a premie, born at eight months. Heis now a couple weeks old and only weighs a little over a kilo. Hismother died three or so days ago. He is tiny tiny tiny. But he is adorable. He doesn't yet have a name, but there is a calendar that gives a name for every day of the year and the family instructed us to name him whatever the name is for September 4, the day he was born.

A Day In The Life.....

Sometimes it's hard to think of things to write about because life over here in Yako has become so normal. I wake up and eat my cereal with the locally made yogurt that is delicious, drink my tea, read my Bible, and talk with Nichole. I make it outside around eight-thirty or nine. It'susually closer to nine. And I hang out with the toddlers/preschoolers for a while. We play with blocks, draw, and color pictures. Lately I've been getting out books for our kids to look at. None of them can read, but I think that this exposure to books is good for them. Books are rare in Burkina. Most of the books we have are expensive and are shipped in from France. Most people, even adults, don't know how to take care of books (which is strange because we are all taught from young ages how to take care of books) and because of how many people handle things here and the dirt, things tend to get ruined more quickly. So we keep all the books in the office, and I get out six or seven (I have adifferent helper every day to help me choose) and I'm trying to teach them how to take care of them. They are doing pretty well. The first few days they didn't know what to do with the books, but they are learning. One boy inparticular, Ferdinand, has begun to make up a story that corresponds with the pictures. Which is what kids at home do that can't read. It's what is supposed to happen. It's good for their little imaginations.

Imagination is one thing that we need more of here....the people are not taught to think outside the box or to use their imaginations which is hard for us to imagine. Beginning when we are little we are taught that we can do anything we want..."reach for the stars!" but not here. Here you do what your family or the government tells you to do, and it's not questioned. We have some kids who are very smart but only have vague ideas of what they want to do because they think that #1 it's unattainable or #2 they've never even considered what they would want to do.So all that to say, I'm glad our little ones are using their imaginations.

After playing with them for an hour or so, I spend some time with our"big" babies (the ones older than a year). Jeanette is doing well. Her leg is healed, although not correctly so we are going to put her in traction. Isaaca is walking a lot. He smiles all the time, and loves to tell stories. He talks a lot. Lydia lets you know what she wants. She smiles and laughs when she is happy, but if you do something that she doesn't like, she starts screaming! Serata is fat, and it's good to see fat babies here. She doesn't move a whole lot because she is so fat...and she's mostly a happy baby...she's still young. Ibrahim was sick and sad and had no personality when he came about two and a half months ago; but because of the love and attention of Nichole, he iscoming around. He's getting healthier and he's smiling and walking some now...whereas before he could walk but refused to and was mostly lethargic. Alfonsine is not normal. She's beautiful beautiful beautiful, but she was abandoned in the Ivory Coast along with her twin brother, Alfonse, who has since died. Some days she is fine, happy, smiling, laughing, talking... but all of a sudden, for no reason she FREAKS OUT - screaming like someone is torturing her. She grabs and pulls on anything and everything. If you put her in her crib, she rocks herself violently. We've started praying for her because her behavior is a little worrisome because it's so not normal. Since we started praying, she has had some days that have been better and some that have not, but we'll just keep loving her and praying for her. The most recent addition to the big baby room is"gross" Ibrahim (which just means fat Ibrahim...he's not actually gross). He moved up from the tiny baby room. He loves to move. He crawls everywhere and loves to smile and loves to drool. He has two thumbs on one hand and it's one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. He also hasa HUGE belly button. Over here belly buttons are huge in general..no oneseems to know why. But his is extra extra huge. One of these days I'll have to take a picture and post it. When he crawls it drags on theground. It's pretty funny, but I feel bad for him too.

After the babies, it's time for lunch and sieste. The afternoons vary from play with the preschoolers again to reading books/hanging out with the school-agers who love and need one on one attention. Some afternoons I have French class. Night time is for hanging out with the older kids, or the school-agers, watching movies, playing games, praying with the school-agers before bed, and making sure they go to the bathroom and brush their teeth. That's a "normal" day...although every day is a little different.

Ambassador, Adi, and Monkeys

I was in Ouagadougou this past weekend and on our way home we saw
monkeys!!! wild monkeys running across the road. From afar it looked
like weird dogs running across the road but as we got closer we realized
that the "dogs" were actually monkeys. I'm not sure how many we actually
saw because the first few we thought were dogs but there were at least
three or four that we counted after we realized they were monkeys. its
the first actually "wild life" that I’ve seen here. We see an occasional
camel, but they aren't wild, they are ridden by touregs who travel
around and sell things.

On a sadder note, Adeline is going to be leaving the orphanage soon. She
has an aunt who is able to willing to care for her in Yako (why she
hasn't been living with this aunt up until now I'm not sure) and so in
the next few weeks she will be moving out. It's a sad and good thing.
She deserves to grow up in a family, in her family but its hard not
knowing these people and not knowing if they will really love her or not
or see how amazing she is. Because she will still be in Yako I will
still get to see her sometimes which is good...but still sad. And lots
of mixed emotions.

Tomorrow the United States ambassador to Burkina is coming. She is
coming mostly to see the school, but she will stop by and visit us at
the orphanage too. everyone is excited and has spent most of the day
cleaning up. They've done an amazing job. I’ve never seen the courtyard
or the rooms look so good.

Good news about Jeannette. I know I stopped writing about her, mostly
because her situation kept getting more and more complicated and it was
too much to write. But Social Action has decided that her mother is the
one who should decide where she lives. This is an amazing un heard of
decision. Women are never given that right here. So Jeannette and her
mom have been reunited and its a beautiful thing to see. Also, her
broken leg is healed. i was a little skeptical at first because it
doesn't really look right...but a couple of doctors (one of whom is the
best orthopedic surgeon in Burkina and is from Australia) have said that
it's fine. So I'm trusting them.

Scabies are gone; Rain is here!

(This is a pic of Jeanette, "my" girl)

The scabies are gone!!
Well, at least we think so. Babies aren't scratching. No new little bumps are popping up and the old ones are fading away. The boy who had them the worst, Ibrahim, was a sad little boy; but due to Nichole holding and loving on him continually and not having scabies anymore, he's starting to come out of his funk. He's walking now (he could walk before and just refused to do so), and he will smile and laugh a little bit. We've discovered that he has a personality!

Now there is another baby girl who is worrying us a little bit. Her name is Alfonsine. She is the surviving sister in a brother-sister set of twins. Her brother died a few months after they arrived at the orphanage; they've been here for about nine months or so. Alfonsine is a beautiful girl. She's really gorgeous. But there is something not normal about her. When you pick her up she hangs on for dear life and will spontaneously freak out. She holds on even tighter and starts screaming. If you put her down she screams (and it's more than a pick-me-back-up cry...it sounds like you've just abandoned her or something); and if you put her in her crib, she cries and starts rocking herself rather violently. Sometimes she throws herself on the ground by your feet and holds on to your feet or the edge of your skirt and just screams and cries real tears. It's hard to watch, and it’s not normal. I don't know if I can really describe what she does, but we've decided to start praying over her and spending more one on one time with her. So on Thursday afternoon I brought her into the house with me for a little bit, and we just hung out. She didn't freak out for the entire thirty or so minutes that she was with me. So that's what I'm going to keep doing and see if we can't love and pray her out of whatever is going on with her.

The rainy season has brought amazing changes to the landscape of Burkina. It hardly looks like the same country. There is millet (which is kind of like corn), their staple food, to (pronounced "toe") is made of, growing everywhere. Right outside the courtyard wall there is some millet growing that we can see from inside the courtyard...it's that high! And it will just keep growing until its time to harvest sometime in October.
I've heard that it is ridiculously hot at home right now, and it’s strange to hear because it's not ridiculously hot here!! The rain comes and cools everything way down. Every night I'm able to sleep comfortably under a sheet and with my ceiling fan on a low setting. There have even been a few cold nights. One in which I had to sleep under a thin blanket, sheet, and in long pants!! It had rained for ten hours and I guess that much rain really cools things off quite a bit!

Scabbies

So. I had an interesting experience yesterday afternoon.
Well...the experience started about a month ago with the arrival of a
ten month old named Ibrahim. When Ibrahim came he had all these weird
bumps all over him, and he scratched them all the time (when I say
everywhere.I mean EVERYWHERE. It was bizarre) Anyway at first we
thought it was just heat rash, like everyone gets here; but then it
wasn't going away, so we started putting calamine lotion on him.That
didn't help, so we took him to the doctor; and they prescribed an
antibiotic. We tried that for a week or so; it didn't help, and
then some of the other kids started getting bumps and scratching. We took him to the doctor again and they gave him a different antibiotic. Still nothing was better.
Finally, we took him to Dr. Zala (have I talked about him before? He's
an amazing man with a private pediatric clinic in a city about an hour
away). He knew right away that it was scabies!! Which is apparently very
contagious and must be treated very carefully. Scabies is a parasite
that lives in the skin. It lays eggs and then they hatch. Underneath the
skin. Its pretty gross, but not deadly. So we got the medicine, came home, and yesterday began boiling all of the babies' clothes and sheets to kill all the bugs. Then we had to bathe all the children really well and then we laid them down and smeared this medicine all over their little bodies. They SCREAMED and SCREAMED and SCREAMED. We think it might have stung them because Lynn accidentally got some on her hands and chin, and she said it was burning. Our poor babies!! We had to tape gloves on their hands because if they get it in their mouth, it would be poisonous. We have to leave the medicine on for 24 hours and then wash them and take the gloves off. So as I write this, they have been washed and the gloves are (happily) off.

Hopefully that’s the end of the scabies; but I won't lie. All last night whenever I had an itch I thought, "oh crap. I have scabies" but don't worry. I don't.
One baby, Lasane', always sucks his thumb with one hand and plays with
his ear or his belly button with the other when he's upset...and he couldn't do that
last night or today. The poor guy was miserable!! But he made it through ok. Thankfully!

Also, today we had some visitors from Missouri!! They are the youth
pastors of a small church in California, MO that my friend's grandmother
attends. So that's a little weird (it’s a small world kind of weird) it
was pleasant to have them here...they were sweet people and we had some
good conversations about missions and what they've seen since they've
been here (they are just doing a short ten day trip (they are actually
on their way home right now); but because we had out of town visitors we
got to go to the good restaurant in town and have some chicken and
fries!! Eating protein is a treat! It tastes so yummy. I never thought
I'd miss eating meat, but I guess I do.