Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain...

Well, we have been here for 5 and a half weeks now and until yesterday, haven't seen a drop of rain. In fact, there apparently hasn't been any rain here since April! Well that all changed yesterday. The rain came....and it came hard! We were out when it started to rain and getting back home was a bit of a challenge. Some of the streets were flooded, traffic was horrible, and everyone was excited! The good thing is the temperature isn't quite as hot after the rain, so last evening was quite pleasant.

We have been pretty busy these last few days. Friends of ours, Mike, Mandy and Karis, from Vancouver have just arrived (I worked as a midwife with Mandy in the Philippines), so it has been great to see some familiar faces here in Zambia. Unfortunately they have left this morning for their final destination of Chitokoloki (in Northern Zambia, it's about a 12-15 hour drive away)where Mike will work as a surgeon and Mandy will work as a midwife (when she's not with their 19 month old daughter). We were able to show them around Lusaka, take them out for a few meals, and spend time in the pool with them. They will be back to Lusaka in December.

We have also been busy with work. We brought in a tiny little one week old baby (who ended up being named after me - Juliana) earlier this week. She was only about 2 kg...so tiny, yet so beautiful. On Thursday night, she got very sick. She was crying a lot and had a lot of diarrhea. We were planning on taking her for her vaccinations that morning, when I looked at her and realized she was completely dehydrated (totally sunken fontanelle) and having trouble breathing even. We took her to the University Teaching Hospital, where we brought her from, and she was admitted right away. She spent the night in the hospital. They started an IV to help re-hydrate her, and she is now on antiobiotics to clear up any infections she might be fighting. Our director's wife, Masoka, has been at the hospital for almost 24 hours with her now, as we can't leave her alone. Masoka said she was doing much better and was hoping she would be discharged today, but haven't yet heard from her.

The statistics are astounding when it comes to the number of children in developing countries who die from preventable causes like diarrhea. 1.8 million people die every year from diarrheal disease, and 90% of those deaths are children under 5 years old, mostly in developing countries. The issue is that death from diarrhea is preventable. Most commonly, these babies are being bottle fed with dirty water. The bacteria or viruses in the water cause diarrhea. Since a lot of their parents are uneducated, they don't know that it is essential to keep feeding a baby who has diarrhea. These babies become completely dehydrated, malnourished and weak. By the time they make it to a clinic, if they make it to a clinic, it is often too late. If they could only know to breastfeed, or to use clean water if they are going to bottle feed, or know how to re-hydrate their babies if they do develop diarrhea, millions of babies and children could be saved - millions.

I think baby Juliana really affected me because this is the reality in Africa. She was only 8 days old when she got really sick. She was abandoned by her birth family and was left in our care. She developed diarrhea and became very sick. Luckily we were able to recognize the signs and know that she needed care. This little one is so small that she couldn't have lost much more weight and probably didn't have much more time, if she hadn't received help. We are blessed to be educated and to have enough money to afford to go to a hospital and to pay for her health care...but not everyone is so lucky.