Things really have quieted down around here in one way and have gotten much noisier in another way. The medical team left which made the guest house we are staying in seem nearly empty, but the village has now gotten much noiser. Since the election violence seems to have settled down, they have lifted the curfew and the state of emergency that was keeping everyone in their houses after dark. Now it seems like they are making up for lost time and wanting to make a racket all night. Last Saturday night they didn't settle down until 7:30 Sunday morning.

Saturday I took Moise (one of the founders of the clinic and school) over to the school on the tractor. I spent several hours teaching him the basics of tractor care and operation. He has picked it up amazingly well for never even seeing a machine like that. We started out by leveling out several large termite mounds, moving a few small stumps, and filling in some low areas. The first goal is to get a large enough area cleared and leveled to make a soccer field. The second goal will be to level and area to pour some cement and make a basketball court. They don't know anything about basketball here, but since they only know soccer, it would be good for them to have another sport to be a little more diverse and involve more kids. At this time they are only up to the 10th grade, so they are waiting on more money to keep building classrooms. Hopefully it will come in before another school year so the current 10th graders won't have to quit or go to a state-run school which is hopelessly inadequate and corrupt. This pic is of Moise and his first solo attempt!!

Even though the surgical team has left, the usual weekly patients continue to come. There is an average of 50 patients a day show up for a wide variety of illnesses. As we would expect, some are quite minor and some quite serious. Two recent patients have been burn patients, each with an odd cause of injury. One lady is epileptic and accidently fell into her cooking fire. She has been here several months enduring skin grafting and a very painful recovery. The other burn patient is a lady whose brother-in-law got upset with her because she wouldn't be friendly enough to him and poured acid over her face. Unfortunately, there isn't any policemen or legal means of dealing with the offender, so his life goes on as normal. Now this lady will have permanent scarring and loss of vision in one eye the rest of her life. Today as I was walking up to the clinic, I noticed Jon and Bernard carrying a corpse out and sliding it in the back of the land cruiser. It was an 8 year old boy that the family waited too long to bring, and he died during initial examination. So sad, had they only gotten here quicker, there wouldn't have been such sadness in their hut tonight. What kept them from coming? The witch doctor run out of options? No money, no trust in the "white people", no transportation? But on the brighter side, the little 4 year old girl that had her arm amputated last week is running around here with the cutest smile. She just loves to come up and shake your hand and get a pat on the head.

Sandy has faithfully made powdered milk, banana, orange and peanut butter smoothies to serve to the patients each afternoon. They just love it and it gives her a good opportunity to spend some time with them.

I'm just finishing up the house for the doctor and his family to move into, then tomorrow I have to finish up the apartment for short term medical volunteers to live in. Here's a pic of Ce'kona, one of the maintenance men here, learning how to adjust a hinge on a door. I can see that I only have about 3 more weeks and a huge list of things I still want to get done. Hmmmm...are we going to be able to come home and stay there knowing there is so much to be done?

Jordan, Katy, Luke and Luke's friend Grant are leaving Ohio today to come over. A non-stop overnight from Cincy to Paris, then a flight into Conakry on Friday. Saturday morning they will tackle the 20 hour drive and I hear they're considering trying it in one day. It's going to be good to get them here.
Well, getting late and internet is slowwwwwwww. Happy shivers in the USA!