to recreate us....

all things go, all things go....

What an insane couple of weeks. Thoko went on vacation and I am amazed at her organizational skills. She got so much stuff ready for the doctor to come out and do Lily Clinic last Monday and then because of some mix up the doctor didn't come, which led to a lot of confusion on my part about who needed medication and who didn't. Straightening that out ended up being a several day ordeal. Then Warren and Sungmin left for a mission trip to Zambia, but for the most part it's been really smooth sailing since they went.
This week literally flew by. When I realized last night that this Monday is time for the Lily Clinic again I couldn't believe it. We had a couple of hospital trips this week (including one where we waited for an hour and fifteen minutes just to get the file so we could proceed to the waiting room) and miraculously, we've only had one trip to the doctor. I am completely amazed at how many of the kids can be sick at the same time and none of them have the same thing. They are really good at giving me variety. In the past three weeks we have gone to the doctor for pneumonia, bronchitis, tonsillitis, an ear abscess, scabies, infected excema, septic ringworm....and the list goes on. If I could just give out antibiotics here we could probably skip going to the doctor most days because for almost anything they have they get an antibiotic and tylenol. I think they would probably prescribe amoxicillin if their limbs were falling off. (on a side note, the local doctor is incredibly generous with us and sees all our kids for free and gives us medicine for free, and the staff treats us and the kids with complete respect which is not the case everywhere. they just really like antibiotics.)
When we were at the hospital this week for the diabetic clinic, I went in with the child and her house mom to talk to the doctor. I was wearing a MSU tshirt, jeans, and running shoes, and at the beginning of the meeting the doctor asked me if I worked in pediatrics, which I thought was a little odd but I told her that I did at home, but I was a volunteer at this NGO and that I lived there. A few minutes later she asked me if I would calculate the child's BMI for her. I was completely surprised but thought, okay....so I pulled out my post it notes (always handy) and my cell phone and worked it out. Then a few minutes later she was reviewing the child's insulin dosage and turned to me and asked, "Is Humelog the same as Actraphane?" and by this point I'm thinking, what in the world is wrong with her. Then before we left she asked me again if I worked in pediatrics and I said again, no, that I lived with them at the NGO. This time she got it, I guess, and told me the whole time we were in this meeting she thought I was one of the other doctors. A very unprofessional looking one, apparently.
A few weeks ago I wrote about one of the kids who has been having these panic attacks where he looks like he sees someone coming at him. Since then, he's being doing really well and has been happier than I've ever seen him. He sat in my lap one Sunday afternoon for about an hour AND didn't pee on me again, which was nice. He's been playful and laughing and even talking a little bit, which he wasn't doing before. I was also weighing him the other day and I was kneeling in front of him taking his shoes off and he leaned forward and wrapped his little arms around my neck. So cute.
We have another baby girl here who is very developmentally delayed but has been making a lot of progress. She's over 3 years old but she still isn't walking or talking. In the past week, she's started pulling herself into a standing position and her house mom told me yesterday she was standing in front of the tv and was completely shocked to hear her say "hey hey.....suga!" (which means, move!).