June 30, 2010
Update from Kollo,
Sorry it has been awhile since I last updated. I have only had slow dialup the past week. I have been out in Kollo at the medical clinic which is owned by the company Humidica which is based out of Germany. The clinic is named Hosanna. I saw a lot of diseases in kollo I would have never seen in the USA such as leprosy, severe malnutrition and about 60 or more cases of Malaria. The interesting thing about Malaria is that I couldn’t tell which infants or child had it and which didn’t until the blood test came back either positive or negative. I had a really nice German doctor named Andrea who taught me a lot about the health care at the clinic. It is totally different than anything in the USA. I feel lost and don’t feel like I have had enough school to prepare me for anything like this. But I feel like I am exactly where I need to be. I had one lady hand her child to me and told me I could raise it until she was older. I fell in love with this baby so tiny and so sick. She was my first patient, I had to give (2) IM injections of antibiotics to her when she was only hours old. She came back two more times for injections which I gave and the lady just hands her to me each time and smiles. She says we are the same color and just smiles at me holding her child. I will try to upload a picture of me and the baby on this blog. A lot of the Zerma people are friendly and smile or wave back. Some laugh at me (due to my hair braids) and just smile. Its ok I like making people smile I have had to attempt to learn German while I was here in Kollo also. I had a translator named Hamma who was awesome and helped me with my pronunciation and laughed at me a lot. I had to make him a “Southern Slang” cheat sheet so he would understand “my language”. One of the French doctors asked “where I came from because I don’t understand any of your English”…ha ha ha….I’m from the Southern Slang tribe of Georgia/Alabama U.S.A. and proud of it. So now they have asked me to speak more “Oxford” English so I tried and they just laughed because this Southern accent won’t go anywhere. I am amusing a lot of people here so it would seem. Another thing I did I would have never gotten to do in the USA is be a pharmacist…Yes I was this week. I worked in the Pharmacy last Friday and filled medicine for the patients. The African pharmacy is much different than the American Pharmacy. For instance it is all in French which I can barely read and when they write out the quantity and days they write it like this: 1-1-2 / 3 jours…….meaning? You will take 1 pill at breakfast, 1 pill at lunch and 2 pills at supper for a total of 3 days…..nothing like the 25mg PO BID X 10 days…..I have learned a lot though I also traveled with Simone and Dr. Andrea to 8 different malnutrition feeding centers in attempt to start a feeding program to help the malnourished children. At one village there were over 50 children and today we had four come to our clinic. Pray for this children it is so sad to see children starving to death.
Here are some complete random but crazy (God was watching out for me) things that have happened since I’ve been here:
1. I met a couple staying at the missionary guest house last week and the husband was from Dalton, Georgia.
2. I met a nurse that took me around to the University and District hospitals and later found out she was from……DAHLONGA, GA….which is where my baby sister lives and goes to school. The nurse, Cherry Laille, had just gotten back from Dahlonega this past week and is a nurse in the bush. God totally is watching out for me
3. My translator, Hamma, sings in English different Christian hymns and he is a Christian.
4. The pharmacist reads her Bible every day during the down time and listens to English Praise & Worship songs on her phone
5. Mr. and Mrs. Bolls are southern and I will be staying with them for the next 2 weeks in the bush and Mrs. Teresa calls and checks on me almost every day like a mom while I am in Kollo. It is so nice to hear a Southern voice when I can’t talk to anyone back home right now due to the slow internet connection.
Bored yet? Ok well you can stop reading here or you can continue Next some random things about Niger.
1. The electricity and water goes out frequently almost daily in Kollo.
2. You can not drink any of the tap water or you will have diarrhea for 3 days.
3. You can not use the water to brush your teeth with or you will be sick.
4. You can only drink the water out of the filter.
5. Do not swallow any water while bathing or…..yep you will get sick.
6. You must bleach any vegetables or fruits for 20 minutes before you can eat or place in the fridge due to the germs.
7. Do not swim in the river. People pooped and urinated in it, then bathe themselves and their clothes, and the animals also pooped and urinate in it…the kicker they all do this within eyesight of each other and don’t care.
8. Do not swim in the river due to the crocodiles, and hippos.
9. Do not swim in the river due to the snail poop that can make you very very sick.
10. Always use a mosquito net and use mosquito spray to avoid getting malaria.
11. The lizards are everywhere and the male lizards do push-ups to attract the females, so chances are you will have a male lizards doing push-ups behind you all the time and watching you with his beady little eyes.
12. All snakes in Niger are poisonous.
13. The American Embassy is amazing and has a swimming pool, restaurant and air conditioning, and a TV I have eaten pepperoni pizza, French fries and sweet tea the last two times I have been there.
14. I can go to the US military camp and watch movies with the marines each weekend. I haven’t gone yet because I am waiting for a group to go, don’t want to go around a lot of single young men with some single young women JORDAN WHERE ARE YOU? LOL… No gossiping going to start about me being married and going without someone.
15. I have found my new favorite fruit….MANGO…they are amazing, juicy and the sweetest fruit I have ever eaten. They are native to Niger and I love them
16. You can find Blue Plate Mayonnaise, Pringles, and Worchester Sauce here but you will pay…For example the smallest bottle of Worchester is $8 in USD.
17. One USD dollar bill = 500 Francs at the current exchange rate.
Well God Bless everyone; keep me in your prayers. I am going to be in Niamey for Zarma language lessons for a few days and then July 12th I’m off to Oallum for 9 days with the Bolls and Jordan. Pray I will learn Zarma and French easy, pray for patience to learn these two languages, pray Jordan will arrive safely to Niamey and not have any problems adjusting to the culture here, and pray for salvation for the people here. Every day I hear the Muslim chants, see the people walk to the mosque, and watch the people lay down their prayer mats and bow to….nothing….pray their eyes will be open to the truth and they will bow down to the TRUE LIVING GOD. Also pray for my family as today is a hard day for all of us. My baby brother Clen died on this day 6 years ago. How I miss him but I know he is in a safer and happier place worshipping my Savior
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Sorry it has been awhile since I last updated. I have only had slow dialup the past week. I have been out in Kollo at the medical clinic which is owned by the company Humidica which is based out of Germany. The clinic is named Hosanna. I saw a lot of diseases in kollo I would have never seen in the USA such as leprosy, severe malnutrition and about 60 or more cases of Malaria. The interesting thing about Malaria is that I couldn’t tell which infants or child had it and which didn’t until the blood test came back either positive or negative. I had a really nice German doctor named Andrea who taught me a lot about the health care at the clinic. It is totally different than anything in the USA. I feel lost and don’t feel like I have had enough school to prepare me for anything like this. But I feel like I am exactly where I need to be. I had one lady hand her child to me and told me I could raise it until she was older. I fell in love with this baby so tiny and so sick. She was my first patient, I had to give (2) IM injections of antibiotics to her when she was only hours old. She came back two more times for injections which I gave and the lady just hands her to me each time and smiles. She says we are the same color and just smiles at me holding her child. I will try to upload a picture of me and the baby on this blog. A lot of the Zerma people are friendly and smile or wave back. Some laugh at me (due to my hair braids) and just smile. Its ok I like making people smile I have had to attempt to learn German while I was here in Kollo also. I had a translator named Hamma who was awesome and helped me with my pronunciation and laughed at me a lot. I had to make him a “Southern Slang” cheat sheet so he would understand “my language”. One of the French doctors asked “where I came from because I don’t understand any of your English”…ha ha ha….I’m from the Southern Slang tribe of Georgia/Alabama U.S.A. and proud of it. So now they have asked me to speak more “Oxford” English so I tried and they just laughed because this Southern accent won’t go anywhere. I am amusing a lot of people here so it would seem. Another thing I did I would have never gotten to do in the USA is be a pharmacist…Yes I was this week. I worked in the Pharmacy last Friday and filled medicine for the patients. The African pharmacy is much different than the American Pharmacy. For instance it is all in French which I can barely read and when they write out the quantity and days they write it like this: 1-1-2 / 3 jours…….meaning? You will take 1 pill at breakfast, 1 pill at lunch and 2 pills at supper for a total of 3 days…..nothing like the 25mg PO BID X 10 days…..I have learned a lot though I also traveled with Simone and Dr. Andrea to 8 different malnutrition feeding centers in attempt to start a feeding program to help the malnourished children. At one village there were over 50 children and today we had four come to our clinic. Pray for this children it is so sad to see children starving to death.
Here are some complete random but crazy (God was watching out for me) things that have happened since I’ve been here:
1. I met a couple staying at the missionary guest house last week and the husband was from Dalton, Georgia.
2. I met a nurse that took me around to the University and District hospitals and later found out she was from……DAHLONGA, GA….which is where my baby sister lives and goes to school. The nurse, Cherry Laille, had just gotten back from Dahlonega this past week and is a nurse in the bush. God totally is watching out for me
3. My translator, Hamma, sings in English different Christian hymns and he is a Christian.
4. The pharmacist reads her Bible every day during the down time and listens to English Praise & Worship songs on her phone
5. Mr. and Mrs. Bolls are southern and I will be staying with them for the next 2 weeks in the bush and Mrs. Teresa calls and checks on me almost every day like a mom while I am in Kollo. It is so nice to hear a Southern voice when I can’t talk to anyone back home right now due to the slow internet connection.
Bored yet? Ok well you can stop reading here or you can continue Next some random things about Niger.
1. The electricity and water goes out frequently almost daily in Kollo.
2. You can not drink any of the tap water or you will have diarrhea for 3 days.
3. You can not use the water to brush your teeth with or you will be sick.
4. You can only drink the water out of the filter.
5. Do not swallow any water while bathing or…..yep you will get sick.
6. You must bleach any vegetables or fruits for 20 minutes before you can eat or place in the fridge due to the germs.
7. Do not swim in the river. People pooped and urinated in it, then bathe themselves and their clothes, and the animals also pooped and urinate in it…the kicker they all do this within eyesight of each other and don’t care.
8. Do not swim in the river due to the crocodiles, and hippos.
9. Do not swim in the river due to the snail poop that can make you very very sick.
10. Always use a mosquito net and use mosquito spray to avoid getting malaria.
11. The lizards are everywhere and the male lizards do push-ups to attract the females, so chances are you will have a male lizards doing push-ups behind you all the time and watching you with his beady little eyes.
12. All snakes in Niger are poisonous.
13. The American Embassy is amazing and has a swimming pool, restaurant and air conditioning, and a TV I have eaten pepperoni pizza, French fries and sweet tea the last two times I have been there.
14. I can go to the US military camp and watch movies with the marines each weekend. I haven’t gone yet because I am waiting for a group to go, don’t want to go around a lot of single young men with some single young women JORDAN WHERE ARE YOU? LOL… No gossiping going to start about me being married and going without someone.
15. I have found my new favorite fruit….MANGO…they are amazing, juicy and the sweetest fruit I have ever eaten. They are native to Niger and I love them
16. You can find Blue Plate Mayonnaise, Pringles, and Worchester Sauce here but you will pay…For example the smallest bottle of Worchester is $8 in USD.
17. One USD dollar bill = 500 Francs at the current exchange rate.
Well God Bless everyone; keep me in your prayers. I am going to be in Niamey for Zarma language lessons for a few days and then July 12th I’m off to Oallum for 9 days with the Bolls and Jordan. Pray I will learn Zarma and French easy, pray for patience to learn these two languages, pray Jordan will arrive safely to Niamey and not have any problems adjusting to the culture here, and pray for salvation for the people here. Every day I hear the Muslim chants, see the people walk to the mosque, and watch the people lay down their prayer mats and bow to….nothing….pray their eyes will be open to the truth and they will bow down to the TRUE LIVING GOD. Also pray for my family as today is a hard day for all of us. My baby brother Clen died on this day 6 years ago. How I miss him but I know he is in a safer and happier place worshipping my Savior
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=456796&id=752780444&l=8517e2a6b0
Stacey, I think of you every day and wonder what kind of adventure you have gotten yourself into or who's day you have made brighter with your smile. I'm sure you are going to see things that are heart wrenching and that will be hard to accept but never forget to smile. You have a true talent with people and your smile may be the very thing to make their life a little easier or brighter.
ReplyDeleteI truly believe you are where you are suppose to be as well and have since you first told me of your dream.
Love you and miss you but so very proud of you!
--Paula