Monday

Je n'est pas Susan Jones. Maitenant, je m'appelle Indiana Jones.

I'm sorry not to have emailed yesterday, but the internet connection was down.

Today the truck was still broken, so Twilla had arranged for a tap tap. We left at 8:30 am for the clinic. After about a half mile, Twilla was not happy with the way the engine was sounding and wanted to check it out herself. The next thing we knew, she had booted out the driver and had gotten behind the wheel herself! She drove the rest of the way up the mountain to the clinic. I cannot explain that trip to you. Drivers drive on whichever side of the road they want to. Chickens and donkeys scatter before them! We arrived at today's clinic site and it was much more pleasant than Saturday's. It was up on a ridge and a breeze was blowing. The rooms had windows and our scabies station was outdoors on the porch.

Then came the patients and things quickly got serious. A man was carried in with a raging fever and Twilla quickly identified it as typhoid fever. Twilla was worried that in his condition he might "bleed out" and die in the clinic. A thin mattress appeared from somewhere and he was laid on it in a small storage room. Hetty hung an IV bag from the top of the door and was able to find a vein to get it started - our hero of the hour. The nurse practitioners gave him shots and medicine and by 4:00 pm he walked out of the clinic, smiling. It was a bright spot in our day.

We saw so much terrible hunger in this area. When the children have a protein deficiency, their hair turns red, and we saw many children like this. Fortunately, we had rice and beans to give the mamas, but we ran out of beans before we ran out of patients.

We don't eat lunch, because we won't eat in front of hungry people. But we are fine with that. It is so hot, we do not have a big appetite. And we eat big breakfasts and dinners.

Just as we were leaving the clinic, a mother walked up with a 6-month old baby that was obviously starving - she was emaciated. She asked Twilla to take the baby, but Twilla did not want to separate the mother and child. So we brought both to our hotel room and are keeping them there. We are feeding the baby formula with a syringe, drop by drop, as she is too weak to suck. We will continue this all night and Twilla will see her again in the morning. She is beautiful. Please pray for this baby and her mama. Tomorrow we do another clinic.

Susan Jones