Field Forum 2010

This past week we had our annual Field Forum in Sikasso. All the Christian and Missionary Alliance missionaries in Mali come together for a week of meetings as well as worship and fellowship. This year I can say that it was actually good! The childcare was AMAZING!! We got to sit in EVERY SINGLE meeting. (Previous years I maybe sat in one or two). It was so great. It was long and tiring, for sure, as the kids didn't sleep well but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

Here is our team that is currently on the field.

Our team with the CCC team that came to lead us.

The little kids sang for us the last night. It's a big, big house...

where we can play football! (love that Dawson kicks with his left foot. He is a lefty.)

Then there are times like this.... our new pediatrician Jason.

And Jake following after Jason... (this was for a Survivor game one night)

Our fearless leader, Al, and Jason, once again looking crazy.

We had a spanning the decades banquet the last night. Mary, Jason, Jake, Jessica and Kristen.

It takes courage to wear shorts that short! We will miss Dusty and Julia as they head back to the States this December. check out their blog sababuclothing.com

the 70s

the 80s. Had we done this two years ago, I would have been the only one standing there for the 80s. Thankful for the great group of "young" people that are here now! :)

Again, all pictures are thanks to Angela Wenger.

Dedication of the new buildings

Last weekend we dedicated that last three buildings of the hospital. One million dollars was given by Christ Community Church in Omaha. Some of their church were out in Mali for our field forum so the Saturday before we had a dedication. It kind of spiraled into a really big thing. It was fun though. Kids were lining the street to the hospital.

Invited guests waiting for the ceremony to start.

The minister of Health of Mali came. Quite a big deal. He is the lighter guy on the left with sunglasses.

More up close view of him.

All the toubabs (white people) who work at the hospital. From left to right: Jake Tillet, nurse education, anesthesia; Jessica Schaeffer, Nursing Director and anesthesia; Dan Nesselroade, OB-GYN, medical director; Ed Bonvillian, Lab/Pharmacy director; Jason Foster, new pediatrician currently in language study; Brett and then me.

Here they are cutting the ribbon to the new buildings (one is in use, two are not yet finished).

On the far left is Daniel Thera, the Directeur General/CEO of CPAM (the NGO that our hospital is a part of). Next is the deputy to the American ambassador. Next Director of Health, then Mark Ashton, the pastor of Christ Community Church.

Must say thanks to Angela Wenger, as I didn't bring my camera that day and these are all from her.

Redecorating, part one

While we were home in the States we packed stuff up for a container to be shipped over. (we get a certain allotment in the container). I packed paint and various other items to make the house a little more homey. So here is the start of the redecoration.

This is our laundry room. It was a porch and we closed it in a year (maybe two) ago.

The walls have looked like this for way too long. (I won't mention that the outside of the house looks the same way and hasn't been painted).

The painted room. It was supposed to be a very pale green. It turned out bright. Don't know why but thankful it's in a room that I don't care too much about.

Our kitchen. The original kitchen photo would actually have black cabinets. We changed that two years ago. This time we just added paint.

This also came out a little brighter than I was anticipating. But it's growing on me everyday.

I made the curtains this summer- with extensive help from my mom.

The living room and dining room. Note the nice dirt line across the wall thanks to the boys.

And the hand print that Dawson put there years ago. It's in every birthday picture because that seems to be where we eat the cake. Kind of sad it is gone now...well, not really.

My problem with this room was that it was just too open. No matter how much I put in there I couldn't "fill"it. So I went with darker colors to close it in some.

The camera doesn't do justice with all the colors. But regardless, it looks better than before!

The living room with the "accent" walls that I had to teach Brett about. We also got laz-y-boys on the container. It was a splurge (though we got them on a buy one get one free sale) but we enjoy them. I also got fabric to reupholster the couches.

Here's an up close look of it.

In general I wouldn't call myself a red person. I don't think my house would look like this in the States. I prefer blues/greens/yellows but this is pretty. It has to be darker and tan or red to cover all the dirt. So it works and I'm very happy with the room. Jeremie, our house guy, did all the painting and made the couch covers! So thankful for someone who can do everything! :) He's great! And I'm thankful for a newly decorated house. Hope I don't have to decorate again for another 20 years! :)

Hard lessons to learn

we have just gotten the ability to do HIV tests early for the babies
of mother's who are positive. We've done several lately and just got
the results back this week. One was positive. My heart sank. It sank
even more when I heard the name. It was the child of a lady who has
been positive for several years. Her husband was a doctor and as he
was dying, he told her that he was positive and had been for awhile.
He never told her before or did anything to protect her. So she tested
positive. She was actually able to marry again and her new husband is
amazingly gracious with the illness. He wants her to be treated. He
himself is not positive. When they had their first child together, the
father had a job. She never breastfed the child. He is negative. They
had the second child, Samba. She always asked me for formula. I told
her that I thought she would be fine. She had been on medicine for
years, her husband was negative, so to me, that meant she had a low
viral load and her risk of giving it to her son was low. According to
Mali protocol, women are to breastfeed for 6 months then abruptly
stop. This is hard for several reasons. It is known that women stop
breastfeeding at 6 months when they are positive. So people don't want
to do it. Also, formula is expensive. They can't buy it. We try to
give them a special recipe of a cereal type thing that has a lot of
nutrition but a lot of kids won't eat it. I helped several women with
formula but thought at the time that it was not a doable thing to give
out formula to all my HIV ladies. Now, I'm just not sure that that is
a good excuse. It's probably about $300 dollars for each woman for 6
months of formula. Yes, this is expensive, especially in Mali, but I
think it's worth it. I can't help but think that it was because I was
unwilling to give her formula that her child is now positive. She put
her trust in me that I was telling her the best thing to do. Now, no
other woman who has breastfed has yet to pass it to her child, but it
just makes me wonder. Maybe she passed the illness during labor and
delivery. We'll never know. We didn't have the test to do early on and
know at about 6 weeks of life whether he was positive or not. So now I
have to face this mother and tell her her child is positive. I just
cried at the thought of having to talk to her, to look her in the
eyes. It turned out she had to go to Bamako for a funeral and was
unable to come see me the morning I wanted to talk to her. Her husband
came instead. He took it better than she would have. I won't be able
to talk to her until a week from now. When I talked to the Pastor that
I work with, he assured me that I shouldn't feel guilty. I had done
all I could do. Things happen. I guess the problem lies that I'm not
convinced I did my best, that I did all I could do. There came a time
when I chose not to give formula to every lady and it started around
the time she needed it. Now, maybe this choice was wise at the time,
or maybe it was just selfish. I think maybe a little of both. I
remember being overwhelmed by the needs of all the ladies and the
financial burden that it was. Now I have to deal with that in the
light of a positive child. Money shouldn't be a limiting factor.
Something has to change. Even if this is all a lesson for me- to
consider the life at stake even when I'm tired and overwhelmed. To see
the necessity of getting formula to each of my ladies, no matter what
the cost. I don't know. I'm saddened by the case and pray that this
doesn't have to happen again, though I know in reality it will.

A tree house

Sweet visitors who come from Ohio built our boys a tree house. Erv, Jerry and Earl worked really hard to make our tree friendly house (no nails into the tree but it uses ropes and limbs for support). Now it is basically just a platform but hopefully we can add on to it and get sides and maybe even a roof. But we are thankful for what we have now. The boys will have lots of fun with it.

Here's our first family picture in the tree.

Sad day

I don't remember the days of the week, let alone the date here in Mali. But this morning, I walked outside with Silas and felt the cooler air. It's finally cooling down here (still 90s or higher in the day, but the night is cooler). The cool air hit me with the sudden reality that today was November 7th. Today marks one year without John, my uncle. It's a sad day. We all still miss him. I still have his picture in my Bible, not quite ready to put it in a place where I don't see it as often. Still unfathomable that he is gone. No more of his laugh, his competitive spirit, his genuine love and excitement about everything, his servant's heart and his love for His Father.

I am thankful today to have known John, to be a part of his family. I am thankful for all the fun times we had with him and for all the times he made us laugh. I am thankful to have watched him always be willing to serve others. I am thankful for the many prayers I heard him pray. I am thankful to have seen a beautiful marriage- where the two were inseparable. They had a wonderful friendship and always enjoyed each other. Even though I think his time here on earth was cut too short, I am thankful for the time we did have with him. I am thankful the Lord is in control, that He knows all things and that His plans are good, even though we don't always understand them. Praying for my aunt and cousins today that they would know His peace that passes all understanding.

Two weeks in Bamako

Brett had to do a 2 week course on pediatric HIV so that we could (one day) become a site for treating kids. The process to become a site is long. Hopefully it will happen in this next year. We had a great time there. We've found more things in Bamako to do so it was actually quite fun for the boys. I taught Dawson kindergarten. I enjoyed it, getting to see what he learns and actually watching him learn new things, but I was clearly aware that teaching is not my gift. Thankful for Brian and Julie who are here now teaching him. Such a blessing.

There is a new park in Bamako. It's awesome. You step in and you think you are in America. We sadly didn't bring our camera that day. I find lately that I don't take many pictures. Keeping up with three kids is enough. Can't also keep up with a camera. We got to eat ice cream and went to a restaurant that has hamburgers. I mean American hamburgers. It was so good. Even Kenan, who isn't a meat eater, ate a full hamburger. It was supposed to be shared between me and him. I got like 4 bites. It was great.

We also went to our nanny's sister's wedding. Anne works at the hospital, or did. She was the best nursing assistant we had (at least in our opinion). She is now living in Timbouctou. The wedding was fun. It was also the first time the boys ate Malian style. You share a common bowl and eat with your hands. Since it was 2 in the afternoon, the boys were quite hungry and ate very well. Except that Kenan kept walking around the bowl and eating in everyone's portion. (you are supposed to eat just the section in front of you). Here are the boys before the wedding in the wedding cloth for all the people from Koutiala.

We are thankful for the break we had there in Bamako but thankful to be home!