Whiskas, Lidson, cookies and more

This is sort of a jumbled up post -

Pictures: The bird is a wagtail, in our front yard. Jose making cookies, Jose, Lidson and myself, the dog bite patient, and Mr and Mrs Whiskas and granddaughter Bridgette looking at their new DVD player!

Lidson - my sweet sponsored child is still in Lilongwe for his school break, we went by and saw him again yesterday, taking him a copy of some of the photos we had taken. Jose made cookies the other night - white chocolate (which we brought with us) and macadamia nuts (which are relatively cheap here as they grow in east Africa). And we wonder why we never lose weight here?????

The Whiskas - we invited them for dinner and to give them a couple of gifts. For those of you who do not know, Mr. Whiskas is the gentleman who keeps the house when we stay at the Assembly of God guest houses. We were very sad that this time we could not stay there, but wanted to see the Whiskas and take them something special. He is retiring at the end of August (he is over 70 years old and has worked for Assembly of God for 40+ years). Their son and granddaughter live with them, while their daughter in law is at school, getting a certificate that will allow her to be a school teacher. They are wonderful, kind, hard working folks. They brought Bridgette, who is not too keen on azungus (white people) to dinner with them. We had fun and afterwards, gave them a DVD player and some DVDs! (We had bought these in the US and brought with us - the ones here are cheaply made and very expensive!) It is fun to see how excited they are about it! Look at those faces as they watch some of the movie! I will post a short video on Youtube of their visit (search my name, Donna Ivey, to find my videos).

Medical stuff: The girl with the dog bite to the face came in for her last appointment to have her sutures removed - wow, she looks good! I have enclosed a photo of her wounds. If you are not medical they may look terrible to you, but actually, they look good, no infection and good alignment. I am pleased. Thursday I had a lady (Malawian) with a plethora of complaints, and her translator only spoke a few words of English. The patient was an older woman and apparently was chopping firewood and got a piece of wood in her lower leg at least 2 weeks ago. ouch! Jose came up and helped with the removal (he had not had a chance to do an incision and drainage or foreign body removal before). We did manage to find, buried in her calf, a ~4 inch thin sliver of wood. The smile we got when we pulled it out did NOT need any translation! Jose sutured up the wound and she was good to go! Friday morning a very sick child came into the non-private side early and one of the clinical officers (Danford) began treating him. The child seemed to rally a little, even stating that he was hungry, and Danford ordered some lab tests. The child had come in so early that no one was in the lab when he first arrived. We (Jose, Dr. 'Ty' and myself) got involved when Ty saw the lab - white count - over 70K. For you non-medical folks, that is HIGH. We went to the lab to look at the complete differential and began to discuss the possibilities. (background noise - a wailing, keening, repetitive cry that seemed somehow familiar...) Danford walked by, we flagged him down and got the facts on the case - that's how we learned the child had seemed to rally, expressed hunger, etc. Then Danford said 'Then the mother called me, his eyes were dilated and he was dead'. Now I recognized the cry we were hearing, the same one we heard at Salima district hospital, 'my son, my son'. Life sometimes is so hard here......

Pray for us that we do not get overwhelmed by the tragedy we see. The Malawians accept it as their way of life, even when their grief is so great. We have problems because we know it could be so different...

Thanks for all of you who are praying for us, remember that we have almost a month to go, and any financial support (through ABC) is welcomed and needed.