Notes from Tchad #3

October 5

A few of us go in to the market in Béré in the morning to buy produce, the few things they have onions, tomatoes, okra, and eggplant. We buy cloth, some to take back and some to be made into local garments. The cloth is made in Nigeria. Since the revolution in Tchad it must be imported. Only about 20% of the stalls in the market are occupied. The big market days are Friday and Saturday. Five meters of cloth is 5000f (about ten dollars). The tailor charges us 3000f (six dollars) to sew it up. The measurements are just shoulder to ground, waist to ground, and arm length. A good time was had. There was laughter all around. They were happy to have us visit their shop.

For lunch we had spaghetti. Supper was rice and an "African stew" cooked up with red lentils, potatoes, and okra. We also had a side of squash that one of the locals gave us. On the first day of VBS there were 72 children, the next 115. There will probably be more today. They are mostly well behaved and seem to be having a good time. The second day they were there waiting for it to begin. The craft the first day was to take photos with a Polaroid camera of each kid and put it on a card with their thumb print. Each one is different was the message.

After supper, (which was James and Sara’s lunch, finally getting to eat), James walked over to the hospital to check on a security issue, but ended up with 2 new cases. One was a 1 month old baby with a bronchial infection. They put her on oxygen and some medicine. The little baby was just holding on with the oxygen, but it was time to turn the generator off. As luck would have it, at least for the baby, the other patient had a bowl obstruction that required surgery. There was no other way to find out what the problem was. The boy was about 12 or 13 years old. His stomach looked like that of a 5 month pregnant woman. The OR had no oxygen, no monitor, no booties - only bare feet, no electric cautery, no staples. The patient woke up in the middle of surgery. The anesthetic was ketamine. The surgery lasted around 2 1/2 hours. They removed a 4 foot section of the small intestine. After the surgery James, the surgeon, cleaned up as he was the only one with gloves on. The family had to cleanup all of the washable items and take the trash out. The cost of the surgery and hospital stay $2.00, but even this was too great a price. They had to pay with a bicycle. During the surgery there were crickets on the floor of the OR. The prep work for surgery was done on the porch outside the OR. After surgery we went back to the baby. Cindi and Laura told us how a bat had come into the room and had flown around and into the ceiling fan. The dead bat had plopped down on the baby’s head. The baby was doing better. The extra 2 1/2 hours of oxygen had helped. Now that the surgery was over the generator was turned off. The baby was admitted to the hospital. She was given to the mother to walk to the bed. We did not know if it would be alive in the morning, all for the price of running the generator through the night. In the morning both were alive.

I discovered the charger for my video camera had blown, probably when the generator came on. Luckily, Steve's charger is the same as mine. Let’s make sure his is unplugged when the generator is off. Lunch on Tuesday was bean burritos with tomatoes, onions, some local peppers and cabbage. It went over well with the group. (Not bad, if the cook is allowed an opinion.) Supper was Italian meatball (veggie) subs with fried eggplant and a tomato sauce. After supper some of us watched Geronimo on a projector video that James had here. This was possible because another surgery was going on.

The building work project is going well. One room is finished, except for the lower half of the room still needs painting. They are having trouble getting the paint. Graham continues to do wonders with a skill saw set up as a table saw, and a planer. He has made the panels for the ceiling and about 10 doors. They have made another trip to Kilo about 20 kilos away, 2 hours. This is the same road we arrived on. They are trying to get the paint needed today ASAP. Everyone tells of the great thunderstorm that passed close by last night. The temperature dropped from 90 to the mid-seventies. I slept soundly through the storm.

Bye for now,
DJ and the Béré Bunch