"Dial-A-Nurse from Africa"

Time is flying by so quickly and yet there is still so much to do!  I wake up to this thought just about every morning now.  

One of my earlier posts, “Seeing Others Through God’s Eyes,” was about a little guy that is different and not readily accepted by those around him.  He came back the other day and I took his picture.  It is now located in the blog. 

Sakinatou with soap

Tabitha House was built by a local organization, Accedes.  They are an arm of the National Church that helps the people of Burkina Faso by digging wells, building latrines, providing irrigation systems, planting Moringa trees, and much more.  We are fortunate to have their representative, Jéhojakim Sangare, working with us.  He is a young man that exudes kindness and patience and does a wonderful job managing the center.  Recently, he and his wife had their first baby.  The women decided to give him a special gift – soap!  After one of our meetings, Sakinatou was elected to carry the present on her head.  Many of the women are big teasers, and as we were walking one of them invited me

to ride on the back of her bike.  Trying to get on the back of a bike in a long dress was no easy fete (and not altogether modest, either!)  but off we went to the hoots and hollers of the other women.  One of them wanted a picture, but I decided side-saddle was much better for a picture.  When we arrived at Jehojakim’s one of the women rang the doorbell and then they all started singing and clapping.  Before long, Jehojakim came out and joined in the song, then his mom, and finally the new mom.  It was a song that thanked and praised God for

the birth of a child.  It was one of the coolest moments I’ve ever shared.  People that were walking by stopped and smiled as we celebrated this new life!  We were then invited into their small home.  Their daughter’s name is Precious, or that’s one of her five names but the one that she will be called.  The baby was passed around for everyone to ooh and aah over, water was provided as it was a hot day and a long walk, and then we returned to the center.  

We celebrated another birth today – there is always a pregnant mom or two!  It’s always a bit shocking and humbling to go into one of the women’s home.  This mud hut consisted of two very small rooms.  There was a bed, two chairs and some cooking utensils and that was it.  The walls were peeling and dirty.  It did have a small courtyard with a straw mat overhead where the cooking and washing were done.  But I never visit a home where I am not treated like royalty.  Even with so little, they make sure you are comfortable in the best seat they have, and are so happy to have guests.

Today we began a series on hygiene and sanitation, with a special emphasis on hand washing.  We talked about germs and how they were passed and the importance of keeping hands as clean as possible.  There were many shocked faces in the room as they listened and understood how they could be passing disease.  Hand washing will create an extra burden for them since they don’t have running water.  It will require additional trips to the well and pushing or lugging large containers of water back to their hut.  But I think they all realized the importance of it.  Today we also introduced using diapers at the center.  Thanks to the tremendous generosity of Vickie Nevel and others, a number of our babies wore diapers.  This is so important because otherwise the baby poops or pees on the floor, the women use an old towel to wipe it up and an unbelievable amount of germs are spread everywhere.  I found a site called Tushie Ties and attempted to model the diaper using ribbon to tie it instead of pins.  The tailor and women that are learning to sew helped sew the ribbons on the diapers.  There is still some fine-tuning but there were no puddles on the floor today.  Hooray!

Many, many thanks to all who have volunteered to help with the flip flop program.  A day doesn’t go by when there isn’t a little one with a cut on their foot or bloody toe from not wearing shoes.  We’re going to have a local vendor come out with different sizes and colors and put them on as many little feet as possible!

We had a number of children with fevers, colds and sores today.  One little guy had fallen on his chin yesterday.  I saw him sitting on the floor by his mom quietly crying.  I went over and started rubbing his back, trying to find out what the problem was.  His mom pulled his lower lip down to reveal an area of what looked like very infected stomach sores on the inside of his lip that were a result of his fall.  The outside of his chin was cut and very swollen.  He was in pain and it was easy to see why.  I gave him some children’s ibuprofen, took a picture of the area, and then sent the picture and text to my daughter in Indiana (who is

nurse) asking what else could be done.  She wrote back to have him wash his mouth out with salt water several times a day because it is a natural antibacterial agent.   How great is that –“ dial-a-nurse from Africa”!

On a personal note, many have been asking if I’m coming back to the U.S.  The answer is yes, for now – my plane reservation is for August 12^th.  It will break my heart to leave, but I have so much to come home to – my daughters and grandbabies, family, great friends who have been such a huge support this year, a great job and a wonderful church.  I feel like my home is two places – South Bend, Indiana and Burkina Faso.  Hopefully a day will come when I can devote time to both places.