April 25th Thursday morning

[ale_divider style=”medium” text=”textleft”] From Judy [/ale_divider]

Another hot one today.. It must hit at least 40degrees. This morning we start with a 1 yrs old baby boy who needs a bilateral hernia repair and in the other room we have a mother getting a c section now the only problem is the power went out so, we are all at a stand still. Thank god nothing has been started side from the IV’s but not the procedure in itself.. That becomes a bit tricky..

OMG!! They are going to do the c-section in our recovery because there is a window and they can see with day light,.no choice they say the baby is ready..this is amazing…I have to pause from writing to take some pictures.. You will not believe me until you see..holy crap!! All I can say is freaking a amazing… Baby is doing good getting all cleaned up and mom is also ok.. All of this done is an open hall way with about 20 people gathered around trying to help looking for a flashlight I think was the biggest challenge. There are flies on the “sterile” field ..we are a long way from home….Epiphane is working on the baby and he is doing a fantastic job he is so focused I can’t believe what I am seeing as much as they can learn from us trust me we can learn from them. WOW!!,! amazing!

Nicole and Derrick are gone to Cotonou by ambulance with a little 8 yrs old boy for a Scan we are questioning if he ask a failing kidney but can’t operate before we know for sure.. I’m sure they will have a great experience I can’t wait to hear all about it..

Ok power is back and we can start our surgery lets get it started before the power goes out again..
Have a great day all I know we will. Miss you all

Cheers
– Judy

[ale_divider style=”medium” text=”textleft”] From Pam [/ale_divider]

Another day in Benin and the sun is up and so is the temperature. At least we had fans for sleeping and again we must count our blessings. Last night we did rounds before bed and seeing the number of people crammed into these small wards with no fans or air conditioning. We counted eighteen people in one room. This is because the whole family has to come and there is no where else for them to go but to sleep on the floor beside their child.

All of our patients so far are doing really well. I had a chance to scrub in with Louis today and to a commisurotomy. Simply put we opened the mouth of a 33 yr old man who had a motorcycle accident a few years ago and mess up his face pretty bad. One half of his mouth was closed because of the scar tissue. He could no longer open very wide. Louis did a great job opening him up again.

Time is going by so quickly. We are now discussing our next fun raiser and mission. Can’t wait!!

Cheers!
Pam

[ale_divider style=”medium” text=”textleft”] From Nicole[/ale_divider]

What a day!c sections in the hallway by flashlight,complicated surgeries,thirty seven degrees in the shade. I have had to try to communicate in three languages. Last evening I went with Louis, Ann, Alex, Derek, Nicole and Pam to do patient rounds. We visited many of the children and a couple of adults that we did surgery on in the past couple of days. What an eye opener that was. There were people lying on the tile floors in the lobbies and as many as thirty two people in a tiny room that had cots set up for eleven! It was hot and no air circulation what so ever. Those not on cots were lying on the floor with a cotton sheet. No one had a pillow even. The most amazing part was that when we walked through and spoke to them they all smiled at us and said thank you. unbelievable. The children had no toys other than the ones that we had brought them and no one had one word of complaint. We are sharing our house with two young people from Italy, Max and Eleesa. they are both twenty seven years old and are basically working as missionaries. They are so amazing. How many young people would be so adventuresome and giving? They have only been here for a week but already they have made connections with the people here. They told us today that they are sad we are leaving as they will miss us. I think we will miss them more! I can’t believe that we will be leaving tomorrow, the time has been so short but how much we have experienced in such a short time is simply incredible.
See you all soon. Nellie Ann says Hi!

Everything is better here. Vienna sausages taste like prime rib, cold shower feel like a day at the spa, cheap beer is like fine wine…. I thought that people here were poor, which is true in a way. They don’t have a lot of things but they have a lot of faith and spirituality. They rarely complain. I went on rounds tonight with Louis, Derrick, Max, Eliza, Judy and Terry and there were many patients in a room…. Sick children, children who haven’t eaten in days because they’re waiting for surgery and mothers and fathers and babies. Nobody complains or cries. It’s amazing, me and Derrick went on an amazing adventure today. We went with Father Sousthene into Cotenou in an ambulance with a young boy who needed a ct abdomen scan to determine if the surgeons needed to remove his kidney. We drove through the city soooo fast. No seat belts. We were gone for 5 hours and had to take him to get blood work done. On the way back I sat on the stretcher…. It was wild. Derrick took over 400 pictures! Tonight, I was laying out front with Alex and Julieta on the front landing because the power was out (friggen power) and it was soooo hot inside. Alex said “let’s pray to the air conditioning Gods…. I know you are on vacation but we are very hot and…..” Before we said amen, the power came on. Amazing. Bahahaha. Tonight we saw bats and glow bugs outside. Big bats! Terry said hi and he’s going to bed. Pam and I made supper tonight and had a few laughs. I’m really looking forward to Paris with Joanie. Can’t wait! Good night everybody!

-Nicole