sharing. . .

this morning in church a little toddler i know was sitting on my lap for a while, then he went and sat with his mom again. his older sister is in the feeding program and was horribly malnourished a year ago, so this is a family that really doesn't have very much. he was getting a little fussy in church and his mom got him a cookie. his face completely lit up! i thought merely because he was going to get a cookie, no, he broke it and toddled right over and gave me half of it. he gave it with so much joy! it brought tears to my eyes.

determination. . .

last week before i was supposed to be leaving for the far west, we also had a surgical team here, they were two surgeons here for womans surgeries. for whatever reason some of the patients who were scheduled for surgery didn't show up. so there were a few openings in their schedule. mdm jericho who is in my sewing project is always talking about how she needs to have planning or do something to not have anymore children. this is her with four of her five children outside their house. they also rent a room in this house to another family and have other family members who stay with them, so it is crowded. she knows that she can hardly care for the children she has and doesn't want anymore.

she was the first person i thought of when i heard they had openings for tubals. so i walked to her house to tell her that she had the opportunity to get her tubes tied if she wanted. her face lit up when i told her, she was so very excited. she turned to her husband to talk with him about it. while we were there he told her it was fine. but the day she was supposed to come for surgery it was a completely different story. he wouldn't help watch the children, told her that he would leave her because she needed to give him more children. she didn't care she said. she knew that he had left before, that she could have no more children, that she was going to do this with or without him. what a determination she had. what a hard life. i realized talking with her and the struggle that was going on was probably why so many woman hadn't shown up as scheduled for surgery. there is no simple answer to things here. there are so many cultural differences that i don't understand and really that i don't think i will ever understand. it is hard to look at things from any other perspective other than mine. but while mdm. jericho went through this whole situation i couldn't even imagine life in her shoes. i still don't know if she had surgery or not, because i had to leave the day before she was scheduled. i will try to visit her soon and see.

far west. . .

what a trip we had to the far west. we had two doctors, a nurse practitioner and many nurses and other helpers pull off five days of clinic. it was an accomplishment amidst rivers that were up, broken down vehicles and many changes of plans. hopefully it was a blessing to the many people we were able to see who don't have access to health care.