LETTER #32
February 16, 2008
Dear Elder's parents,
First we want you to know that your sons are fine and working hard. We enjoy having them come over and teaching with them so much. We are eating together on Mondays about 4pm and then they go out to teach at 6pm. This is fun to do and gives them a break. Well, have a good day. Love, Sister Southam
President Bush is coming to Cotonou, Benin West Africa today! It's 7am and we are watching for AIRFORCE ONE! We live right under the flight path and will take a photo, if we are lucky! We think it passed over us at either 7:35am or 8am. We took a photo of both planes, compared them and they both look alike. They were 747's so just maybe we were lucky! We are going out to see if we can see any American Soldiers or ANY signs of America! They will not let anyone get close to the airport where the conference is being held.
Well, I tried to get the letter off on VALENTINE'S DAY but as you can see, I didn't succeed! I hope to today! Hope Valentine's Day was fun. It is hard to tell when and if they celebrate any holidays here but I did see a display of hearts and things for sale today as we were driving. This is the first I have seen and it gave me a little feeling of home. Carole told me that here in Africa the "lovers" are the ones that celebrate Valentine's Day the most. I told Elder Southam that we should be included with them and can celebrate Valentine's Day. He gave me a "Christopher's Big Cherry" candy! It was awesome!!! Well, if I don't hurry and get this sent to you, we will be coming home before you receive it. I feel like I keep getting farther and farther behind.
Friday,18 January 2008 Today, we checked on, Ange, the lady that had to have a c-section during her 7th month pregnancy because of the stroke, that we believe she had. It still has not been diagnosed as far as we know. She seemed to be doing as well as she could the first day after the delivery. They had to transfer the baby to another hospital where they had equipment for this very tiny, premature little girl. She weighed 1.3K, just under 3 pounds and had her laying in a piece of cloth when they let me, Nancy, go up to take a picture of her. This was just a few hours after she was born. They didn't put her into an incubator, or anything. While we were there the nurses asked the family to go get some more hot water. Sylvi, Ange's sister-in-law, went to their home and boiled more water to bring back. They couldn't just turn on the hot water tap. The family also provides all the meals and drinks for the patient. In some of the hospitals the people bring their little charcoal stoves and cook just outside the buildings. They also do their laundry for their family member that is in the hospital there, washing it in buckets of soap and water and hanging it out to dry on a line.
While we were visiting Ange, Michael (pronounced: me-shell), a boy from our branch, came into the room. He told us his mother, Elizabeth, was ill and in the same hospital. She is the wife of the ambulance driver for this Bethseda Hospital. So when we finished our visit with Ange and family, we went down to see his mom. Her name is Elizabeth. She was in for a blood disorder and was receiving blood as her treatment. She was waiting to receive her 3rd treatment of blood. She was really happy to see us. She hugged and kissed Sister Southam, and had her sit on the bed beside her. This is the bed without sheets, or anything on it. She was on her own cloth that she brought. We called the elders who visit her family and let them know about her, Elders Hubbard and Picard, they were unaware of her hospitalization. Communication here is not the best. They will visit her in the morning.
Today Landu, our choir director, and Carole came to help us organize the new keyboards. He was so excited. As we finished our work for today he said that he was so happy. This was one of the best days of his life. He got to have a brand new keyboard for his very own and Nancy gave him a small boom box also. "Now I can play my music and also listen to it". He lives alone and this music will energize his life.
Monday, 21 January 2008 The other day Elders Stucki and Ellis had a lesson with a man who had come to church the previous Sunday. The man was disappointed with the services. "You people pray and sing in a reverent humble way, the meetings are respectful and quiet and people are nice to one another, that's what is was like in the time of Jesus Christ but, we Africans don't like that. You have to holler and praise the Lord with loud music and singing for us to like it." Just in case you missed what he said, just like he did, he said that worshiping like Jesus Christ did would not be good in Africa. We will see if he comes next Sunday.
Today we received a call from Alex. He was in severe back pain and couldn't move without excruciating pain. He needed to go to the hospital so we went to get him. Walking out to the truck was almost impossible and the tears just flowed from the pain. The traffic was really bad and Alex could not find a comfortable position that was not painful. We were doing all that we could to get him to the hospital. We noticed a car in front of us had run out of gas. The driver jumped out of the truck, opened the trunk, grabbed a bottle of fuel and dumped most of it into the tank. Then he put the bottle up to his lips and took several swallows. This caused us to wonder if it was the car or the driver who had run out of gas. We are not sure now what was in the bottle but what ever it was it had the properties of making the car run again and also of keeping the driver fueled up as well. As soon as he took that drink, we saw a police officer come over to his car. He hurried to put the bottle back in his trunk but the police officer was able to get there and grabbed the bottle out of his hand. We don't know the remainder of this episode. The traffic began to move and we passed him.
As Nancy said, we took Alex to the hospital. He was in such excruciating pain that any words at our command can't accurately describe the intensity. He had a pain in his lower back about at kidney level that rendered him completely unable to walk or even move without cries of pain. Tears streamed down his face as we helped him into the truck and headed for the hospital. We had to watch every bump and go very slow to make the ride somewhat tolerable. All the way to the hospital he was crying out "Oh, God help me" in between cries of pain. I don't recall seeing anyone in so much pain. He was not sure the cause of the pain but thought it might be related to an injury he had when he was 12 years old. He was jumping off a boat into the river but lost his balance and landed on his back on a log in the river. He spent "3 good years" in the hospital because his parents could not afford to have a needed operation. I told him that those were not "good" years and he smiled. His mother, who never thought he would leave the hospital alive, gave him another name, MLIWOMOR, which means "in every situation thank our God", and he does.
Nancy suggested that we get a stretcher for Alex when we got to the hospital which we did and we carried him to an examination room. It was a good thing we got that stretcher I'm sure he would never have made it to the nurses desk. From there some aides took him on the stretcher through the waiting area down the side of the building, down a ramp into another building, into a hallway around a corner and into a room with 5 beds. Unlike the other hospitals we have been to, this one had one sheet on each mattress but it was still not much cleaner. However, we noticed a few differences from home. There were only 3 dim lights to light up this fairly large room, no lights at each of the beds, no buzzers to call a nurse, no wash basins, no toilets, no garbage containers, no towels or clean up materials anywhere, no telephone, no T.V., no radio, no mirrors, no photos, pictures, calendars or anything else on the walls. Any food and drink the patient might receive are brought in by the family. Just outside the building a few ladies were cooking some meals for their family members. A couple of others were doing some laundry for their family member patients. There was, however, a broom in this room which came in handy when the aide dropped an IV bottle. However there was no place to put the glass. He returned with a piece of paper to use as a dust pan to finish the clean up. We have decided that none of us want to need a hospital over here.
As soon as we got Alex into the exam room we asked if there was any way to get some pain killer for him. The nurse wrote up a prescription and sent us to buy the medicine at the pharmacy. The incredibly archaic way of dispensing and paying for medicine meant that Alex suffered unnecessarily for an additional 30 minutes or so. Finally we got the medicine to him and in no time he was without pain. I'm not sure what it was but it was GOOD. He was now able to sleep for the first time since the day before. They x-rayed his back, took blood and urine and said the results would be ready by 8:00 p.m., it was now 12:30. At 8 p.m. the doctor had not shown up nor did we have any news of the test results. We will check up on him in the morning. We made sure that he had pain medication before we left and then went home.
22 January We went to the hospital this morning only to find that the doctor had not shown up yet nor did we know the results of the blood and urine tests. The x-rays are to be sent to a radiologist and we would get the results Friday. I became somewhat irritated when they told us that Alex couldn't go home until we had the results of the x-rays on Friday and we couldn't find out the results of the other tests yet either. I suggested that we take the x-rays to the radiologist ourselves to save some time. The hospital agreed. We headed over to the radiologist's office. He was on a break of some kind but they took the x-rays and said that in the morning we would have the results. Well, that little use of brain power saved two days in the hospital for Alex. It is so strange to Nancy and me that no one ever questions the doctors but rather with child like obedience accepts what ever he says as gospel truth. There are no options. We went to a teaching lesson and then returned home once again to clean up before the mission presidents arrives tomorrow.
We went back to the hospital to see Alex one more time. It was dark now and he needed to go to the bathroom. We helped him get up, walk out of the building along an unlit sidewalk and up an unlit incline to the next building where he found one of the two working toilets. The third toilet had 3 cinder blocks on top of the seat. Rather than move them we just assumed that the toilet was not functioning. We asked him if he wanted something to eat. He said no because the toilets were so bad and he didn't want to go into them any more than necessary.
In the corner of the room a lady slept sitting on the floor while being supported by the two walls. She is a family member of the man in the next bed. Just outside the door two ladies nursed their babies. Other family members aided patients with various kinds of service. In the bed on the other side of Alex was a very old lady whose problem was not discernable to us. Several of her family members lifted her from her bed while another lady sat down, far onto the bed with her legs apart. They then sat the old lady down between the first ladies legs and this allowed her to sit upright while being supported by the other ladies and by the legs and arms of the first lady being wrapped around her middle. This enabled her to be fed by her family. It was really a clever way to support her in a sitting position so as to help her to eat. The lady holding her on her lap looked at me and smiled. It was really heart warming to see the care of family members for their ill relatives.
23 January 2008 Today Alex had gotten the results of the x-rays and he could now go home. The doctor finally showed up today and told Alex the results of them. However, we still we have not any diagnosis or treatment for the now confirmed blood infection of some sort. The x-rays indicated as near as I can interpret what was said that Alex may have a slipped disc. He was out of most of the pain now and we will pick him up this afternoon, take him to see the mission president for an interview for a calling as a membership clerk then take him to his home. He received no pain medication today nor any to take home. We stopped at our home and got some Tylenol and took him home. Yesterday he asked a nurse what his stay was costing. She told him that they would talk about that after they got the results of the x-rays. I asked Alex if that meant if he didn't survive until the results came was his stay free. He laughed. All of this has cost about $75. Alex had been in the hospital for 2 days before they knew what he had and how to treat it. Had it been something fast moving, he might not have made it out of the hospital. That is quite frightening.
Well, have a good night, a la prochain (until next time). Love, Les and Nancy, Elder and Sister Southam
P.S. Here is the link to our pictures. We think this is an easier way for everyone to see them. The link to our photos is: http://picasaweb.google.com/toghana/
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