People always ask me what a typical day is like in Africa (read my blog...hee). I wish I could fill their ears with stories of frontline, hands-on ministry each and every day. Where we do have amazing stories to tell and feel very fortunate to minister to the African people on a consistent basis many of my days revolve around 3 precious kiddos and seem quite ordinary. Let me give you a glimpse…
On Friday morning we awoke to a thud! We were in a dorm room of sorts with one of the USA teams at a game park. Soon cries of pain and a trail of blood followed. Skyler had a door slammed on her bare toe. After cleaning and bandaging it we decided to keep it under observation.
After a night of throbbing pain, Rich spent 3 hours in the emergency room, Saturday morning, with Skyler trying to obtain an X-ray. She ended up with a fractured big toe and Rich a headache due to the “African process”. They would not even prescribe crutches for reasons we can not conceive so Skyler hopped around the next 48 hours.
This morning (Monday) I took Sky to see the orthopedic surgeon. When we hopped in I noticed the power was out. Quizzical I said, “I thought they stopped the load shedding” The doctor who now was pulling a chair from the waiting room toward the door where light streamed through replied, “They did but the guy that pays the electric bills continues to forget.” How reassuring!
It is moments like this I wish I carried my camera. There Skyler sat in the dark waiting room, by the door with the doctor examining her foot. (so professional….so African!) As if this was not unexpected enough what followed took the cake (or could be phrased tossed the cake). Skyler had mentioned that morning that her stomach was bothering her. As the doctor sat close examining her foot my poor sweet 8 year old regurgitated last night’s supper all over him. I quickly shouted at the receptionist, “do you have any paper towels?” She pointed toward the hallway but never once stepped foot from behind the counter. I can’t blame her really as I don’t stomach the sight of acidic processed food very well either.
Skyler hobbled out of the office with an orthopedic boot to keep her toe straight and help her walk and the poor doctor….well I am sure he cleared his schedule so he could take a shower. I can’t wait for our 3 week follow-up to see what happens and I am sure they can’t either.
So there you have it, not just a day in Africa but a whole weekend. Not sure if it is typical but is anything involving a foreign country and children?
9 comments:
Yuck - poor doctor, poor Skyler, poor Rich! Well the 3 hour wait is pretty typical in the good old USA also.
Hope you have some fun activity for Skyler to do to cheer her up.
Mom
oh, i loved this story!!! but poor skyler!!! (and poor puke-coverd doc!)
Oh no! Poor girl! This post actually reminded me of when I went to my 6 month prenatal appointment and we didn't have power that day. I asked, "You want to re-schedule?" He was like, "Nah, come on back!" Talk about an experience......he did my check up with a flashlight! (Thank God there were no internals needed! :) ha!) That was one for Andrew's baby book.....only in Africa!
Your poor husband....I can only imagine that he needed a good nights rest after that experience in the ER! Poor doc too.......seriously, what was his reaction? :) I actually toss my cookies when I was a kid after having a throat culture for strep. My hometown doctor still remembers it and teases me about it to this day! :)
After spending much time in a well run, beautiful foot specialist's office my heart goes out to you.
Let Skyler know that I am praying for her and thinking about in that boot. You know we have had our share of boots on feet around here. I will have an air cast in the fall when I go under the knife again...:(
Poor thing. I'm sure she was mortified after that! We had messy games at VBS last week and one game was we blended whatever was in the sacks. One poor girl lost her cookies on that game. YUCK.
LOL.
Sorry Skyler. I do hope you're feeling better now.
Sky..
I feel your pain.. I broke my foot 2 months ago.. and am still limping around on it.. so much for american medicine !!
Oh my!!! Bless her and all your hearts!!!
Susan
Aaahhh memories. She will definitely keep this one locked in the knoggin for future story tales. Haha, be sure you remind her of it often. ;-) hahaha I hope her toe feels better soon.
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