Never a Dull Moment...

Yesterday we realized that it had been a while since we'd seen our guard/yard guy, Yokben. About a week and a half ago his wife had told me that he had malaria and was taking Quinine. Knowing that is the drug of choice when ill with malaria I didn't see the need to check up on him. But yesterday, after our dinner company had left at 9:00, Hugo inquired Yenus about the condition of his older brother. He relayed that Yokben had malaria and had gone twice to have his blood checked and purchase medicine. I thought this sounded rather odd. Normally, once a person has completed a course of Quinine there is no need to repeat. I decided to go check up on him. By then it was 10:00pm. I had Yenus escort me there for safety. Everyone in the house was still up and they were all sitting in the main room of the house on the straw on dirt floor. Immediately inside the front door to the right lay Yokben on an old plastic checkered table cloth of ours. (Once they get too holey I replace them...) He was obviously in some discomfort and appeared dehydrated and thin. I asked to see the meds he had been given to take and miraculously they were indeed correct malaria meds. However, he was complaining of abdominal pain and I decided that we should take him to the hospital. So off we went with Yokben's wife and sister accompanying. As per usual, there was only one doctor in the emergency. Thankfully, he's one that I know and like. He is Papuan, a Christian, and actually seems to care about the people in addition to being very patient with my many questions. It took a bit before he could do a thorough exam on Yokben. During the exam he asked regarding the colour of his urine, a question I didn't even think to ask not having noticed that the whites of Yokben's eyes were yellow. The colour of old tea, the women replied.... I informed them that when your urine is that particular colour, it means there's a problem.... It appears he has hepatits but as we arrived so late and on Sunday the lab is not open, we have to wait until Monday for them to do a full lab work-up. So they admitted him and put him on an IV. Poor guy was not comfortable and in some pain. Throughout the entire process I observed that his wife appeared to have no clue as to the seriousness of his condition. She did not care for him or attempt to comfort him. His older sister sort of did. This is not unusual. True love is a concept not understood by the majority of the natives here. Many of the interior languages do not even have a word for love. Please remember Yokben and the doctors who will help him in your prayers.
While we were waiting for the paperwork for Yokben, an emergency came in. The doctor grabbed the one and only cart with bandages and syringes and what not on it and dragged it to the front room where they deal with emergency cases. The doctor always carries a bag containing all his gizmos and gadgets, they are most likely the only ones in the entire ER. The 2 nurses and 2 assistants all donned latex gloves and jumped in to assist. One nurse took an IV pole from one of the other patients and hooked his bag on one already being used by another. The police had brought in an inebriated fellow who had had some sort of accident. I wandered down to take a look (no curtains people!) and saw that the skin on one of his feet had been badly gouged and pushed up and I believe it was also broken. There were a couple children in the ER with their mom and sister and they also wandered over and looked. No privacy!
This morning during the church service it was raining. The evangelist was preaching about building your house on the rock or the sand and the rains came... And the rains did come and poured through a leak in the roof in the middle of the "sanctuary"... A couple other leaks sprung as well as the rain continued to pour down. All people did was move out of the way so they wouldn't get wet. There's nothing in our little building but tables, benches and some toys at the back... oh, and a rather grand pulpit. We don't even have running water and the squatty potty bathroom is locked more than it is open.
Yesterday was Mikah's first fever-free day in a week! She still looks a bit pale, coughs like a seal and is puffy under her eyes but seems to be on the upswing! She is very, very excited to go to school again.

I tried really really hard to get a good family photo for our Christmas newsletter and this was the best I could do....