Tuesday the 28th
I apologize for the late post…this is from Tuesday the 28th of July…my excuse will be fully explained at the end…
Kirsten and I went back to Navigators today. It was a fairly slow day. The pregnant woman who had fainted the day before was stayed in the broken X-ray room overnight…so we went in to take her vitals and give her more medicine. Another young woman had come in during the afternoon when Kirsten and I were not there. She came to the clinic 10 days before because she had miscarried her baby and there was “debris” left in her uterus. They were going to need to put her under anesthesia so they wanted someone to be with her so they asked her to go home and come back with a family member or a friend…well she didn’t return until 10 days later…cramped over…barely able to walk. They immediately hit her with the strongest antibiotics to get rid of any infection in her uterus. Dr. F explained that she probably had a pelvic infection—the number one cause of infertility in Burkina Faso. They would take an ultrasound to look around and analyze it the next day. Infertility is grounds for divorce in Burkina—a woman who is unable to have a baby is shunned from the community. It is very important that everything be done for this woman so that she will continue to be able to have babies.
Africa has caused me to gain weight I think—lack of exercise and excess of starchy food…I was wearing a dress today…and Marrieatou (one of the nurses) came up to me. She put one hand on the front of my shoulder and one hand on the back of it. Then she slid her hands all the way down to my ankles…then she exclaimed…Bon Forme (good form). To be fat here is to be in good form/beautiful because it shows that you are wealthy enough to buy food. Not only was I surprised to be felt up (well actually down) by a nurse…but I was a tad sad that my good American form…has turned into a good African form…
I spent most of the morning in the laboratoire with Jenny. She is a missionary from Australia—she is a technician at the clinic part-time. She also works at Dr. P’s clinic on other days. I got to help with counting the different types of white blood cells—it was a 2 year old’s thin smear—and he had some sickle cell shaped red blood cells. I also saw a centrifuged capillary tube of blood—all separated out. I also learned about the test for typhoid fever. We also had a pregnancy test (looking for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin—hCG in the urine)—which turned out to be positive. It was interesting to see all of the different tests. I enjoyed looking at all the blood slides the most. On Thursday…I get to go hunting for malaria in the blood slides! Jenny was a great teacher—and it was nice to have things explained in depth and in English.
Kirsten and I went over to the Brokopps for lunch again today—we had this GREAT Korean beef sesame seed and rice dish. It was in honor of our failed attempt to make Chinese fried rice the night before. It was DELICIOUS! After lunch, Jess, Kirsten, and I went to the market with Virginie to get ingredients for the meal we are going to make tomorrow—pate d’arachide (peanut gravy). The whole trip cost only about 1,500 CFA (which is about $3) We bought poivron vert, tomate, oignion, oignion vert, chow, persil, ail, bouillon cubes, et pate d’arachide. My favorite purchase was the pate d’arachide (peanut butter).
pate d'arachide
The recipe needs natural peanut butter. So we found this lady at the market with a HUGE bowl of natural peanut butter. She pulled out this small bag and lined a tin can with it. She then measured out a little over 1.5 cups of the peanut butter by scooping it out of the big bowl. The peanut butter was put into the bag inside the tin can. Then the bag was tied and pulled out of the can…and that was our peanut butter!!
Ya so ma
It was really fun to go around the market with Virginie. We had one man ask Virginie if one of the Nasarras (white girls) would marry him. We also got some mint to make besaap juice.
Once we returned, we put on a couple of episodes of Monk and helped Sarah decorate some bookmarks that she made for her woman’s bible study at the Tabitha Center. They were originally going to be embroidered…but that took too long so we ended up drawing designs and then sewing on a button with the bible verse—Jeremiah 29:11—in either French or More.
For dinner, Kirsten and I made an interesting cous cous dish. The sauce was a mix of chicken broth, cinnamon, nutmeg, butter, and rasins. It tasted mostly like chicken. I actually enjoyed it…I’m not sure Kirsten felt the same way. Throughout the night—the power went off several times. Around 8:30 (when the power was out) I decided to lay down in the big arm chair in our living room. Well…the next thing I know…it is 1 am…and no one is in the living room anymore. While I slept, Sarah baked cookies, the power went on and off a couple of more time…so the lights turned on…and I didn’t move and inch!! The girls were astounded! So…I went straight to the Cap and went to sleep…no posting…sorry!
It was a wonderful night’s sleep!!
-JK
