This morning 3 new orphans came to the Child Center. The first set that came were twins, a little boy and a little girl. The babies were 8 days old. Today was the naming ceremony for the children. Their mother died in Yendi hospital minutes after they were born. Her only complaint was dizziness.
Later in the morning the maternal grandmother and a couple of the child’s uncles brought a little boy. He was 4 weeks old; the mother died 2 weeks ago. The family said that they suspect the mother died from poisoning because her stomach was so big and hard. In our area if anyone has a swollen stomach, they think that they have been poisoned. The mother died at home but she had the baby in the hospital. They said that she had a difficult pregnancy because even before she became pregnant her belly would swell and then go down. Early in the pregnancy the doctors did a scan because she was too big; they said that she had a tumor/mass lying next to the baby. They said that they could not remove it because if they accidently cut it the mother and possibly the baby would die. The mother was very anemic and had to have lots of blood, especially near the end of her pregnancy. The doctors thought about doing a C-section but decided it was too dangerous. The lady’s mother decided that she needed to come from the village and stay with her in Yendi until the baby was born, so she would be closer to the hospital. After the baby was born the doctors gave the mother some sort of medicine and told her that if the medicine made her sick, she should come back to the hospital. Her stomach was still swollen. They said that when the baby was 40 days old, they would remove the tumor/mass. The medicine made the lady very sick; she went back to the hospital; they treated and discharged her. She only lived for 2 weeks after the baby was born. How the family thinks all of this relates to someone poisoning her is beyond me? We asked if they had engaged a soothsayer to see if she had been poisoned. They said they did not call the soothsayer. I guess the poisoning is just something they believe. It is all very sad!
Steve worked all day on his continuing education units. He finished a couple more classes but he said that the portal did not print his certificates even though he can see them on the web page. Maybe the server is down again.
Zorash is supposed to be on holiday but she is the one that brought the orphans and their families out to the mission house. I was happy that she is the one that came to help get the babies recorded. She is a wonderful interpreter even if her handwriting is hard to read. Ha! So is Steve’s!
Thank you for all you do; please keep us and the work in your prayers.
In HIS Service,
Steve, Kandie and Skeeter
The Monkeyshines
I made a mess this afternoon. Mom and I were cooking supper. She had to leave to go talk on the phone. You know how bad kids act when their Moms are on the phone; well I am nothing but a kid with a tail! When her back was turned the first time, I pulled tracks off the track rack and I got the plastic container of artificial sweeteners and made a mess opening them; there was Sweet-n-low everywhere! She only thought that she had put everything out of my reach when she was cleaning up that mess.
When she went to the bathroom I pulled on the table cloth and made the stuff on the table get closer and closer to me. I pulled down the tax papers; I would have shredded them if I had not spied the snack basket that they take when they go to visit the churches. It is full of goodies; everything fell out when the basket fell to the floor. I got the hand sanitizer, pulled off the pump top, I picked myself a beautiful apple and only ate a couple bites, I bit the water bags so the water was leaking on the floor. I had a few peanuts and then I found the best snack in the world, a piece of hard candy. It took a while for me to figure out how to pull off the wrapper but it was worth the effort! You should have seen Mom’s face when she came back!
It was worth the scolding! I will do it again tomorrow if I get a chance!
No remorse!
Love, Skeeter
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