Meri’s son Aliu’s headache is better and he is not complaining as much but his legs are so weak that he cannot stand or walk without assistance. Meri said that he could talk but he is not talking the same as he did before he went to the hospital. She said that he is very difficult to understand. It appears that he did have a stroke of some sort. There is no way of really knowing where it was or how it will affect him or if there will be long term damage. At least he has youth on his side; the young heal faster than older people. Please keep Aliu in your prayers.
A severely malnourished child came to the Center this morning. He is 21 months old and only weighs 4.8 kilo which is about 10.50 pounds. His mother brought him to the Child Center a year ago and he weighed 5.0 kilos. At the time he was low for his age but not in such serious shape. The little boy has not even gained 1 ounce in a year rather he has lost almost ½ a pound. His mother said that a month ago he was in the hospital and they told her to buy some type of powdered milk for the child and to add oil to the milk. She said that he was drinking it but when she went to the store to buy more the store owner insulted her and told her that the child was not old enough to drink the milk. I guess she either was ashamed or afraid because she left without buying anything. The child is very difficult to feed. We tried feeding him porridge; he tried to gag and throw it up. Steve taught the mother how to blow in the child’s face to make him swallow. Then we tried giving him milk; he took it only with the mother holding him and sort of forcing him to drink the milk. After he got a little in his tummy he went to sleep. Poor little fellow! We sent powder milk, oil and vitamins home with them. We will see him again in 1 week and hopefully see a weight gain.
Abochi, the vendor that orders baby formula for us, was able to get us 30 cases. We went and picked them up this afternoon. The expiration date is August of 2023. Abochi said that the other 20 cases should come next week. We are very excited to be able to get our hands that much formula.
The starter in the green truck is acting up. The other day we turned the truck off and it started a couple times by itself. Gomda the mechanic is working on it today. He said that it had a short and that it ruined the starter and something else. We did not feel like driving 2 cars to town to take the truck to the mechanic so after we dropped the truck off we hired a “Yellow Yellow” (a tricycle taxi) to bring us back to the mission house.
Thank you for all you do for us and for the work.
In His Service,
Steve and Kandie
