Today I woke up with some BM trouble if you know what I mean... It seems to be happening every other day or so. I guess it is the change in diet. My largest meal of the day is rice and sauce. The sauce is mainly palm oil and then has some hot pepper thrown in, some type of veggie (krein krein, okra, etc.) and the some bush meat. I don't know if my stomach is not used to the hot pepper, the bush meat (cotton grass, fritombo), the amount of palm oil, or perhaps some unhygienic way in which it is prepared. The sad thing is is that I really enjoy it! I think I may have to cut back on the amounts if I don't want to continue getting these stomach problems. John doesn't seem to be getting them but I usually eat more than him. John woke up this morning with a sore throat and his voice is almost gone.
After breakfast the elders approached John and said the community had raised 150,000 Le for the boy (Mohammed) to get the rabies treatment and would give John 50,000 of it to take the boy and his mother into Freetown himself. They also said they had remembered that the dog who bit the boy had been previously bitten by another mad dog. John was pretty impressed that a community of that size (~100 people) and impoverished as they are were able and willing to raise that kind of support.
So we left on a nearly 200 mile journey that took most of the day. We stopped at the clinic at Konta Line for the boy to get his 3rd antibiotic injection. We continued on our way. We met Chad at Waterloo to give him our GPS to mark a few wells for the future.
I learned from the mom that most of the village believes this boy has (or is?) a demon (inside) and that is why he was bit. We told her that we don't believe that. It was just the mom and son today. Yesterday the dad had come as well. We found out that he had two wives but this was the Sr. wife. She seemed to be proud of the fact that she was the Sr. wife. This made me sad for her. She also shared with us today that who ever did Mohammed's circumcision took too much off. I'm not exactly sure what that means for the boy but it makes me thankful and feel blessed for the quality and access to healthcare that we had in America for Aden.
Once in Freetown we took the boy to the clinic. He was given part 1 of 3 anti-rabies shots. They sent the other two with us on an icepack.
We went for lunch at Bashas. It is our most frequented place to eat in Freetown because it is one of the more economical Lebanese restaurants. We bought the boy and his mother, and Pastor Abdul and his wife lunch. All 6 of us shared 2 roasted chickens (like those rotisserie style ones at grocery stores in the states). They come with Lebanese pita type bread and chips (french fries) or rice.
It was really neat to see Freetown (the "big city") and the restaurant through the eyes of Mohammed. I would liken it to taking a farm boy who has never left the farm to Disneyland followed up with dinner at Ruth Chris' steakhouse. The little boy didn't want the rice nor bread, just the meant. I told the mom that its typical of all men and she smiled.
We got a few groceries and stopped by our house on the way back for an extra tent and some throat lozenges for John. We made our way back to Konta, stopping at the clinic to drop off the rabies medicine. We got back around 5 pm... we had left around 8:30 am. Everybody clapped as we returned. Alleyo had told us that all the village kids were trying to get dogs to bite them so they could go to town too. Precious!
The Makelben well guys called while we were in town because they were working for 4 hours on another rock with no progress. John told them it was up to them if they wanted to start drilling at a new site. When we had returned they had gone down 27' in one day and hit the same rock layer. John had wanted them to go closer to the swamp but got pressure from the community to have a more central location. So instead, they tried not too far from the other site. I asked John if he was frustrated that they did not take his advice and he said no. He said he can't tell them and encourage them to make their own decisions, to think for themselves, and then yell at them for it.
We called off the teaching at Makelben tonight because we got back late, the drill team worked late, and John was feeling sick. Instead we showed the Jesus film to the Konta village for the second time.
After breakfast the elders approached John and said the community had raised 150,000 Le for the boy (Mohammed) to get the rabies treatment and would give John 50,000 of it to take the boy and his mother into Freetown himself. They also said they had remembered that the dog who bit the boy had been previously bitten by another mad dog. John was pretty impressed that a community of that size (~100 people) and impoverished as they are were able and willing to raise that kind of support.
So we left on a nearly 200 mile journey that took most of the day. We stopped at the clinic at Konta Line for the boy to get his 3rd antibiotic injection. We continued on our way. We met Chad at Waterloo to give him our GPS to mark a few wells for the future.
I learned from the mom that most of the village believes this boy has (or is?) a demon (inside) and that is why he was bit. We told her that we don't believe that. It was just the mom and son today. Yesterday the dad had come as well. We found out that he had two wives but this was the Sr. wife. She seemed to be proud of the fact that she was the Sr. wife. This made me sad for her. She also shared with us today that who ever did Mohammed's circumcision took too much off. I'm not exactly sure what that means for the boy but it makes me thankful and feel blessed for the quality and access to healthcare that we had in America for Aden.
Once in Freetown we took the boy to the clinic. He was given part 1 of 3 anti-rabies shots. They sent the other two with us on an icepack.
We went for lunch at Bashas. It is our most frequented place to eat in Freetown because it is one of the more economical Lebanese restaurants. We bought the boy and his mother, and Pastor Abdul and his wife lunch. All 6 of us shared 2 roasted chickens (like those rotisserie style ones at grocery stores in the states). They come with Lebanese pita type bread and chips (french fries) or rice.
It was really neat to see Freetown (the "big city") and the restaurant through the eyes of Mohammed. I would liken it to taking a farm boy who has never left the farm to Disneyland followed up with dinner at Ruth Chris' steakhouse. The little boy didn't want the rice nor bread, just the meant. I told the mom that its typical of all men and she smiled.
We got a few groceries and stopped by our house on the way back for an extra tent and some throat lozenges for John. We made our way back to Konta, stopping at the clinic to drop off the rabies medicine. We got back around 5 pm... we had left around 8:30 am. Everybody clapped as we returned. Alleyo had told us that all the village kids were trying to get dogs to bite them so they could go to town too. Precious!
The Makelben well guys called while we were in town because they were working for 4 hours on another rock with no progress. John told them it was up to them if they wanted to start drilling at a new site. When we had returned they had gone down 27' in one day and hit the same rock layer. John had wanted them to go closer to the swamp but got pressure from the community to have a more central location. So instead, they tried not too far from the other site. I asked John if he was frustrated that they did not take his advice and he said no. He said he can't tell them and encourage them to make their own decisions, to think for themselves, and then yell at them for it.
We called off the teaching at Makelben tonight because we got back late, the drill team worked late, and John was feeling sick. Instead we showed the Jesus film to the Konta village for the second time.
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