This morning we went to check on Adamu; she seems to be doing better. She is the very low weight 1 ½ year old. Today she was sitting outside under a mango tree. She was playing with a ball. Her face looks like it is filling out a bit and she has a tiny bit of peach fuzzy hair trying to peek through. Her family says that they think she is doing better too. We just have to pray that she does not get sick because she has nothing to fight it with.
As we were leaving Adamu’s house a neighbor lady stopped us and said that she wanted us to look at her child. We sat under a tree and talked to her. The child was nice and plump; right off we noticed that one of his eyes was crossed and the other one wandered but that was not what was concerning his mother. She said that she was 3 years old and could not walk. She said that she could talk and that he could crawl a bit. We noticed that she was sitting sort of crooked. When we pulled up her shirt she had a very pronounced curvature of her spine. The child can stand but when she is standing it appears that one of her legs is longer than the other one. We asked if she had taken her to the hospital and she said they had not. They had taken her for local treatment by the Juju (witchdoctor / traditional healer). We could see all the small cuttings all over her legs and arms. The traditional healers require a sacrifice and then they cut their patients multiple times with razor blades and then give them a concoction to put in the wounds and to bathe in. It does nothing but cause infection and costs money. We advised the mother to take the baby to the hospital so they could do x-rays of the child’s back, hips and legs. We also decided that the child could benefit from a baby walker because that would help support her as she tries to stand and puts weight on her legs. We went straight to town and bought one. The mother was so happy when we came back with the baby walker. We think that she can learn to walk if she has a little help.
Timothy Niligrini called this afternoon. The church members had been back up to the electric company office today to see if they had gotten them a pre-paid meter. They were told that there were none in the system and that they would come and hook them back up on the post paid meter. That did not work before and we doubt that it will work this time but that is not our decision; the church has to decide. Timothy thinks that they will learn from their mistake and will make a payment each month instead of letting the bill go so high that they can’t pay it.
Have a great day!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
