A Day in the Life…

Though this might not be a typical day in my life, I thought it would be interesting enough to share.
My day began at 2am. I awoke to the voice of my teammate and close neighbor Barry, who came to my bedroom window to warn me of an ant invasion that was already beginning to take over my house and come through the bedroom windows. There are many kinds of ants here, but one specific type, the driver ants, can be a true menace. When these insects are on the move, you don’t want to be in the way! They travel in wide trails that can sometimes be several feet wide and voraciously eat any meat that might get in their way, including living animals. The night before last, our friend Augustine lost a chicken to the ants that had come through. He, his wife, and some other close neighbors spent the whole night by the fire to avoid being eaten alive. I was a little more fortunate, as I had ample notice and was able to vacate my house before too many made it inside. I high-tailed it to the refuge of Reda’s house, where I spent the rest of the night on the couch. Barry and his wife Desma spent the night with the kids in their room, as the rest of the house was crawling with the vicious little critters. We were all a bit edgy and on-alert through the night, and every sound and movement was suspect as we kept an ear out for more invasions.
At 7am, I wearily walked back to my house and had a breakfast of oatmeal and a boiled egg. I was very grateful for my cup and half of coffee. After spending some time reading my Bible and in prayer, I headed off to Barry and Desma’s house. I was a little late for our meeting, but they didn’t mind, as they had let the kids sleep in after being awoken during the night. We sang and prayed together, and then we spent a couple hours discussing various aspects of language and culture as a part of my ongoing orientation.
Toward the end of the morning, Reda came to tell me that we had some patients under the mbanjo (a little palm leaf shelter). We saw an older man who has pneumonia and COPD, a close neighbor who has been having lots of trouble with foot sores, a young boy with a badly infected finger, his brother with a tropical skin disease called Yaws, and a young man with a dental abscess. After a bandage change, distribution of appropriate antibiotics to each one, and some patient teaching, we were done, and I headed home to research the best technique for draining a dental abscess. Then I returned to Reda’s for a delicious lunch of grilled fish and fries.
Feeling a bit drowsy, I decided it was time for some R&R. I borrowed a book from the bookshelf and settled down to read for a while. Later in the afternoon, I made a visit to Bilinga Pauline, who lives just a kilometer down the road from us. My goal was to do a little bit of language learning, and Bilinga, her sister and a whole gang of kids were glad to oblige. We talked about the ant invasion, the children, and the animals. Upon returning home, I stopped to visit with teammates and then fixed supper. Tonight we will have a team prayer meeting and then turn the satellite internet on for an hour of internet access. Hopefully we will have an uneventful and restful night