Desert Gills

Lots of time on the road, lots of family time.

This is how we celebrated the World Cup... Ir and E only lasted a few minutes, but I enjoyed several games at one the house of one of the local families. (Their are four families in town who have sat dishes and they often open up their homes for the community.)

Her first name means 'truth' in Greek, and her middle name means 'covenantal love' in Hebrew. Today is a birthday she will share with our #2, E.

We put our meds for patients in these little bags... its an efficient system

Grasshoppers are a seasonal treat eaten in Sept-Nov. A would often bring some for the kids... E liked them the most, while Ir found them a bit too spicy.

E on the Galmi playground, early 2009. Since Mom's due date is tomorrow, E and Ir have been singing songs to #3 so that she'll come out, and yesterday E sang to her, "Come out Bullinger... or you won't be able to see me!"

One challenges of the hospital is working in a computer-less, hot environment. In the absence of a lab coat, I was often stuffing two fanny packs full of reference books, a PDA, a pulsox, otoscope, etc.

Some of the Hospital staff on the tennis court, for national Labor Day festivities, in May.

T and our friend L preparing a wonderful meal for the compound.

I enjoyed singing with the men's choir at the church.

4 year old Ir is at that fun stage where she always asks "Did that really happen?" It makes for interesting challenges: probably her favorite movie is "Sound of Music," but it is hard to tweak out the real history from the fiction, since the movie is a mixture. So, for example, at the conclusion of the movie, when the family hikes over the Alps to freedom, we had to explain that "Yes, they really did escape from the 'bad soldiers,' but no... in reality they took a train to get away, as the Alps are not near Salzburg." So this week when a friend asked her about what she remembered of the movie... she of course began talking about how the family took a train to escape. OK, Ir... good memory... but that's not in the movie. This also becomes a challenge with Bible time. T and Ir began a book with catechism questions - one in particular that had fictional stories of kids that illustrated the catechism questions. So of course, Ir wants to know ...

I worked with and enjoyed these two colleagues a lot. In the headlock is T, one of our translators... raised by a Dutch misy. Administering the headlock is L, our head HIV prescriber.

You may have read about the floody in the area of the capital. Rain is so different in G... typically, you get no rain 9 months of the year, and then 5-15 hard showers in June through August... but when it does come down, its an impressive thirty minutes, and Ir and E love to put on their boots and tramp in the mud!

Ir with her Hausa Sunday School class... she didn't understand a lot but enjoyed some of the songs.

When the well-pump broke in 08, we had to haul in these big blue barrels to stay stocked-up. Apparently, the well-pump was fixed last night, so that is very good news. Thanks for praying.

We have both poisonous and non-poisonous snakes in West Africa... if the guards ever see them they are quick to act.

We would spread out grains to dry and remove unwanted stones etc... then it was into the grinder.

Here's what a malfunctioning G pump looks like (c. 2008), for those curious.

Pray for the hospital. Heard that their well pump is on the fritz again this morning. This photo shows our well conservation efforts during an earlier well episode. Not fun.

Back here in the land of high-speed internet, I am going to get back to regular uploading of pix to this blog, but all with just a simple caption. A New Zealand med student and I puzzle over one of the ward's mystery cases.

Many of you have been reading online about the events here. All the events have occurred in the capital, while here it has remained business as usual. Do pray for peace.