Well, hello again. Guess who was told to start on the Yendi Notes? Yes, you guessed it. I was told that I could get an early start today since we are back from the VBS before 6:00 pm. Ok, here we go.
Clear skies today with a heat index of who cares, hot is hot. Does no good to talk about it for it is what it is. Today was another day at the child center. There were around 36 that came through before 12 noon. However, today was a day with a special medical case. Steve and Kandie took over an hour with one specific child. Even the father came with the mother because of the severity of the case. On top of the child being severely malnourished, it had major eye problems. They had just taken the child to the eye clinic for treatment before they came to the centre. Steve said that he had never seen such a condition with the child’s eyes and immediately thought that the child was blind. The mother began to weep as she was being told how serious the child’s condition was. The child is one year old tomorrow and he is being taken by his parents to Tamale for a doctor there to look at the situation. The child’s eyes are so swollen that he will not blink so that produces dry eye. One eye has a glassy look to it with a green tint to it. On top of the eye condition, the child has blisters in its mouth and would not swallow. Both parents were probably in their early 20s and this is their first child. They also took the child to what is called traditional medicine which means that there are marks on the child’s arms and legs as though they had been marked somehow. The ignorance of the people about basic health care is astonishing. Steve listed the child as a SAM (Severe Acute Malnutrition) case. They set up a specific case file for the child and wanted to see the child after they had returned from Tamale to check on the progress. The mother had brought the child to the center many months ago but stopped coming for whatever reason. They now show up on the child’s pending birthday tomorrow with double problems. Steve and Kandie would not let the child leave the center until they got the child to eat and drink. It was a chore to get the child to swallow the mixture and later drink the liquid. The parents were told to feed the child every hour on the hour for the next days to see if the weight would come. Young parents, especially first- time parents, are prone to make questionable decisions not having the experience of raising children. If any of you have healthy, thriving young children who are developing physically, mentally, emotionally, etc. be very, very thankful. Not everyone has that, especially here. The cost financially and especially emotionally and mentally is great here.
After a lunch of chicken stew and cornbread with watermelon for dessert, we went south to the village of Nakpache. To say that it was hot outside for VBS at 4:00 is an understatement. Even Zorash made a grunting sound when she saw how hot it was going to be. We looked for outside shade to gather the two classes: young people and older teens and adults. Pam’s class had 46 children and the adult class had 18 to 20. I talked about Solomon and how he made wise decisions and sometimes unwise ones. They understand the value of making decisions over difficult issues. After class time was over, we went to questions. Some of the questions were about Solomon but there were a few questions involving the cultural problems of Ghanaian people. Pagan practices with it accompanied thinking still affects the way they make decisions. Timothy was trying to get them to see that those things are not Christian ways and that one only needs to follow what the Bible says. To say that Timothy is a vital asset to the work in this area is an understatement. They greatly respect him and his relationship to the church workers in the Yendi area. He is the preacher for the village of Kulkpene where tomorrow, Lord willing, will be the seminar for the preachers and their wives. It will be a busy day but hopefully a very beneficial time.
We are about to eat supper of hamburgers and the side of whatever Kandie decides. Wish you could experience what this country does to you inside. You can never see life the same again. May the Lord bless his work everywhere and especially here in Ghana.
Jimmy Clark
Leave a Reply