It was so hot today! Nikki put the thermometer in the window and it measured > 120 F! I don't know the exact temp because the thermometer only goes up to 120 F. At least the house was a little cooler...it was only 100 F.
Nikki and I were invited to attend the Church of Pentecost today. The church was a big cinder block building. The floor was gravel and the roof was pitched in the middle. There was a 1 foot space between the roof and the top of the wall. This is to allow enough light into the building so the bats won't nest. There were big holes cut into the walls for windows. Nikki and I were given seats in front of the congregation. I wasn't too thrilled about being in front of everyone, but that's where they put guest of honor. The music was terrible! Before I came to Africa, I just assumed that all African people sang well....wrong! A person would just walk up to the front of the church and start a song and then the musicians would try to play the tune. There were 3 singers and each singer was on a different pitch. During the music the people would file out and dance single file in a circle. They did this in groups by age and gender. Once the singing and dancing was over, we had the sermon. The sermon was in English and Tre (pronounced Tree) so it took twice as long. One thing that I really didn't like was the speaking in tongues. It was just too much for this Baptist girl.
After church, we met Joseph and his friend, Enoch, for a walk. Enoch is Joseph's best friend and is a teacher at Miss Ivy's school. The guys took us to the dam. It is a large pond of green, stagnant water where many people go to collect drinking water. This is one of the causes of the typhoid epidemic. Just across the dam are 3 bore holes that were drilled by World Vision. Only 1 of the 3 bore holes is functioning. I was confused as to why only 1 pump was functioning because I assumed that World Vision should come in and fix this problem. This is the way it was explained to me...in order for a town to have a well drilled by World Vision, they must provide evidence of sufficient funds that may be used to maintain the pump. World Vision only agrees to drill the well, not to maintain the pump. The town is responsible for any repairs. So, somehow the town didn't have enough money to fix the other two pumps. At one point this past year, all 3 pumps were out of order. The town fixed a pump and charged the people a small fee to pump water. The repair has now been paid and the people are able to pump water for free now. The other two pumps are still out of working order. The handles on both pumps were broken.
During the walk we stopped by Miss Ivy's school. A woman was there and she said that she hurt her arm. For reasons I don't understand, she was on the roof and fell on her arm. The are was obviously broken. It was swollen and the distal radius was misaligned (there was a dip where her arm should have been straight). Her thumb was also displaced down and it was slightly twisted, so I think she also has a broken wrist. I said that her arm was broken and she should come to the hospital where we could place it in a splint and immobilize it. Joseph said "no it is not broken it is only swollen due to blood inside the arm". He took clay and started at her elbow and pulled along her arm to her fingertips. The woman was screaming and writhing in pain. Another man came and held her down. It was terrible to watch and I knew it was making her arm worse. I'm concerned that the woman may have osteomyelitis. This fracture is over a week old, so at this point if she were in the States...she would be having surgery. I could do nothing but sit on the bench and watch. They didn't believe what I said and didn't ask for my help. Later, Joseph asked me what I would have done in the U.S. We looked at an Anatomy book and I showed him where I thought the breaks were and how it could be fixed. The people here are really intelligent, but they have been told that clay will fix broken bones all of their lives..they don't know anything different.
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