I got worms...

Ok, it's true..I've got worms. Well, ringworm, to be exact...but don't worry, I'm being treated for it and it's all under control! Most of the kids in our home have had ringworm, which is where I must have picked it up. It's extremely common here, so nothing to worry about.

On another note, Chad and I just got back from a wonderful long weekend away and I just wanted to share some of our stories.

We travelled 6 hours South-West to a small town called Macha. The BIC church as set up a fairly large hospital there, a long with a church and cutting edge Malaria Research lab (now funded by John Hopkins University). We had connections with one of the doctors in Macha through our church and thought we wanted to check it all out while we were in the same country.

So Saturday morning, we took a taxi to the extremely over-crowded bus station, where people came running up to our taxi, banging on our windows, trying to get us to buy tickets to their bus line. They were very aggressive and it was kind of overwhelming, but we figured it out and bought our tickets and just waited for the next bus to arrive.

At 10:30 am, we got on the crowded bus, took our seats and were on our way.

Along the way, we saw seemingly random scatterings of small villages, comprised of straw and mud huts, markets, and children running around in the dirt.

About 4 hours later, we arrived in Choma, where we were meeting Esther, the lady we would be staying with. She was in town for a 'Kitchen Party' (what Zambians call their bridal showers) and was able to drive us the rest of the way - along the long, extremely bumpy road to Macha.

About 1.5 hours later - we had finally arrived to Macha.

It was much bigger than we expected. There is a hospital with about 200 beds (if I remember correctly), an outpatient clinic, and ART clinic (Antiretroviral Therapy clinic for HIV and AIDS), cutting edge Malaria research lab, a nursing school (for about 8o students currently), a BIC church that was founded in 1906, and housing for the staff. Down the road there is also a girls boarding school, an air strip and a mixed gender school.

We were lucky enough to be able to stay with one of the doctors, Dr. John Spurrier and his wife Esther. They are a lovely couple with a big heart for this community. Esther is a wonderful cook and we were able to enjoy great food, mostly all fresh from her garden - that was a treat!

On Monday, Chad and I went on Maternity rounds with Dr. Spurrier, since he knew I was interested in that. There was one tiny little baby that was just less than 1 kg - so tiny and fragile, but so beautiful. There was also someone in labour that morning, so Dr. Spurrier asked if I would like to be at her birth. Of course I wanted to, so while Chad toured the nursing school, I stayed and helped this women through her labour. She wasn't progressing extremely quickly, so I was able to go home for lunch and then come back to help her out. In the end, once she started getitng closer to delivering, there weren't a lot of people around, so I put on my gloves, just in case. There was a Dutch medical student who wanted to do the delivery and she got there just in time. She had only delivered 2 babies before, so she asked if I could walk her through the delivery. She was having some difficulty, so I was able to deliver this baby and that was extremely exciting for me! My first Zambian delivery and it was a 4 kg baby boy!!! Also, just before she delivered, Chad came to check on me to see how much longer I would be and he even ended up staying to watch his very first birth - and he didn't even pass out!

(this is the baby that I delivered - he's sleeping on the bed, and the woman who gave birth to him!)

The next day we were able to observe Dr. Spurrier do a c-section and a finger amputation due to a large tumour which were both very interesting. We took a few pictures during the finger amputation, but I won't put them on to spare those of you who might get a little faint.

We were very impressed with the quality of care given at Macha. The staff are doing a wonderful job at reaching out to those who might not otherwise have care. The staff at the Malaria Research center have also done a wonderful job at significantly reducing the incidence of malaria in Macha and are continuing to work on a number of other major research projects.

We arrived back in Lusaka this morning, after leaving Macha at 4 am!

Everything continued while we were away, but unfortunately, we came home to some horrible news. My precious little baby Juliana passed away early Monday morning. When we left on Saturday she was still in the hospital, but doing better. Then on Sunday, she started having trouble breathing again, so they put her on oxygen. She still wasn't doing well, and then finally on Monday morning around 2 am, she took her last breath. We are all incredibly heart-broken over this little ones life, but knowing that she was loved and well cared for in her short little life helps.