On the last day of the medical outreach, I was outside assisting one of the nurses who was tending to foot and leg wounds of several villagers. The doctors sent for me to come inside. I grabbed Sarah and Mary and when we got inside, the doctor handed me Barushu. Barushu was an 8 month old baby boy who was tipping the scales at 4 1/2 LBS. Now most of you know Sarah and I and you know that we now have a beautiful baby girl named Pax. She is now almost 4 months old. 4 months ago I was pretty clueless on all baby things. By no means an expert now, I do know my way around a nursery. Well Pax is now almost 4 months old and weighs about 13 1/2 LBS. The doctor handed me Barushu and told me he was 8 months old and weighed 4 1/2 LBS. I looked at him and I cried. I quickly did the math and realized that my daughter is half his age and weighs three times his weight. My heart broke. All I could do was look at him and see my daughter. Barushu's mom died giving birth to him and the grandmother assumed the responsibility of his care. All he did was cry in pain because he was hungry yet is was such a faint crying whimper because he was so weak. There was no breast for him to nurse from and he was too weak to take what little formula the grandmother could find. The little guy was going to die and his grandmother could do nothing about it. We immediately sent him to the hospital for treatment. A bed at the hospital costs $3 a day. He was a really serious case so the treatment including the formula and meds he needs is maybe $5 a day. He will be in the hospital for about 14 days. so his care will cost us about $112. While he is on the waiting list for sponsorship in the orphan program we have, we will go ahead and make sure he has the formula he needs to grow into a healthy young baby. Crisis adverted for $112. I spend that on a "fancy" dinner date with my wife. Unbelievable.
The week was overwhelming. I would walk through the local medical clinics and see young children afflicted with malaria hooked up to IV's providing their bodies with the fluids and meds to survive. These were the lucky ones, as this means their parents could afford the care. Malaria in infants if left untreated is a death sentence. I had mothers bringing me their babies that had the beginning stages of malaria that couldn't afford the treatment. Two mothers in particular came to me and motioned that their babies were sick. I looked at them and they exhibited the trademark signs; lethargic behavior, sever fever etc. I took them to the nurse on staff at the local clinic and asked him to look at the children. After examination and treatment, I was presented a bill. These infants were treated for worms, bacteria infections and above all malaria. The bill was $6.79 for both of them. $6.79! I wasted that on gum and a magazine at the airport on my way there. Granted the worms are painful, the bacteria infections are bad, but malaria is the real killer. I inquired the actual cost of malaria treatment. To see the nurse and get a prescription for the malaria meds costs 200 cfa. The actual 4 day regiment to treat malaria costs 300 cfa. Today, $1 USD = 515 cfa. Yeah you read correctly, less than a buck. These problems are terrible and good at the same time if that makes sense. Terrible the children are dying due to a lack of simple and cheap treatment. Good in the fact that we are not talking $5,000 treatment per kid, but $1. It is awesome that we (meaning PfP) can really change things in some major ways for little amounts of money.
Honestly, I didn't write this blog to get you to open up your checkbooks or sponsor one of our children for $35 a month in the program we have. I am not writing it because I want to be seen as some humanitarian. I am not writing this for you to comment on our blog or facebook or wherever Mary is going to post about how God is using me mightily etc. I am not writing this to add friends to my facebook page. This isn't a sob story or attempt to pull on your heart strings for you to feel guilty and give us money. My gosh, I know you get that in a hundred different directions and we don't want to yoke with guilty givers like that anyways. This is an example of hope the best way I know how to tell it. It is written simply to show you that we can change things and that maybe just once in a while, we can use that laser beam of energy and resources and time that is so focused on the "me" and turn it instead on others. This blog is probably written more for me than it is for you. It shows me how blessed I am and we as Americans are and how selfish I can be. We picked up Pax yesterday from Sarah's parents as they watched her for the 10 days while we were gone. I looked at Pax and then to Sarah and actually told Sarah that I was concerned that Pax was too chunky and maybe overweight. Nice Jace. Real nice. There I am. Whew. I was wondering when that "me and my own" thinking would return...
Jace
**Check out the pictures below from the medical outreaches**
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