Through the Seasons

Woo-hoo!  We’re going to the mountains!!!

Okay, so we live in the mountains but this week we’re really going to the mountains.

Mbeya is 5500 feet high but we’re only 8 degrees south of the equator so it’s not as cold as you’d think.  It does get cool but it has been warming up a lot as we get into the warmer part of the year.  That’s not good when my brain says it’s Autumn.

But this week we travel to Makete which is 7500 feet high so lots higher, lots more mountainous, and lots cooler.  Yippee! 

And our reason for going is exciting too.  Jonathan will be recording Jonah and Ruth in the Kinga language along with more songs from the elderly man up there.

While Jonathan works all day and into the evening I’ll be doing what I usually do:  chasing Asher.  It should be fun!  A change of scenary is always a good thing. 

I may not have internet access up there (probably won’t) so if you don’t hear from me for a while, that’s why…

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Doni, the guy who comes a couple times a week to tend to the garden and cut our grass came by today to let us know that his wife had their first child.

In anticipation of this, I had gone through Asher’s clothes gathering some things to give him.  I couldn’t let go of the most sentimental things but I did come up with quite a bit of clothes, a couple little hats, a couple blankets, and a couple pairs of socks. 

When I came out with the bag his jaw dropped.  We then gave him money to pay his hospital bill.  She had a c-section.  The entire hospital bill was $20!  It was a missionary hospital so pretty cheap but still!  We also gave him a little extra money for food as they literally have no food on many occassions. 

I asked Mama Imanueli later if she thought he would use the money we gave him for food or for baby things.  She said that since we gave him those clothes that he would definitely use the money for food.  She said that it’s so hard having your first child because there are so many things you have to buy.  Well we have other baby things so I asked what “things” they buy.  She said, “clothes”.  I asked what else and she said that was it.  Clothes.  So our gift to Doni was a bigger deal than I thought. 

We asked him if they had named their son (yippee for boys!) and he said ‘not yet’.  His tribe of people waits until the umbilical cord drops off before naming the baby. 

I think we’re going tomorrow to see the baby.  Asher can’t go so we’ll take turns.  I couldn’t understand if keeping Asher away was to protect him, the babies there, or both.  Anyway, we’re excited.  Congratulations Doni!  He will now be known not as “Doni” but as “Baba”.

It’s a good day when babies are born healthy! 

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Okay, here’s how this has gone.  About a month after we arrived in Mbeya I got the stomach flu (we’ll call it that just to avoid any unpleasant details).  That lasted a couple days and went away.  Since then every few weeks I’ll have it again and it will go away by itself again. 

A couple of months ago I went to a doctor in Dar and they tested me for parasites.  It came back negative.  Great.  A long time went by with no problems but now the past week and a half I’ve had constant problems.

I have researched until the keys on my keyboard can no longer be read.  An Australian nurse told me she suspected IBS.  My research points to that except that it doesn’t seem to be triggered by certain foods.  It seems to have an agenda of its own.

We heard there’s a doctor at the pharmacy here in town and he’s really good so we went to him about the problem.  I told him my symptoms, that I suspected parasites but was tested negative, and that I’m nursing.  He gave me a different medicine for each symptom and read the insert for each drug.  When he saw nothing about breastfeeding he gave me the medicine.  I went home and researched it finding that only one of the three drugs are safe during breastfeeding and it’s basically Immodium AD.  Hmph.  That’s not solving my problem.

I’m on a women’s missionary email list where we can email questions out to everyone.  I heard back from several that they had my same symptoms, didn’t test positive the first time, and how they cured it.  One said she used garlic.  I also emailed the doctor in Dar.  She suggested this same problem, that they don’t always find it with one test, and what medicine to take. 

What I have is a parasite called giardia…according to these sources anyway.  I started popping garlic cloves like pills.  I plan to take the medicine if the garlic doesn’t work.  I figured I had my answer and I’d go that direction. 

When we were at the pharmacy Saturday I sat outside on the steps because my stomach was cramping so bad and this man came up and offered me garlic.  Isn’t that crazy!?  I don’t know if it was a sign from God or what but it made me feel I was on the right path.

But then today I get an email from a doctor in the States I emailed saying he doesn’t think it’s parasites and just to take Immodium.  Ergh.  So am I on the right path or not!?  Could it just be IBS or lactose intolerance?  Could it just be coincidence that I developed these problems shortly after arriving in Africa?? 

I’d really like some clear answers!  But for now I’ll just pop a couple more cloves of garlic and see what happens…

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Has it started there yet?  We always complain in America that they put the Christmas stuff out earlier and earlier.

Last year we left Tanzania on December 16th and I still hadn’t seen a sign of Christmas in the shops of Iringa.  So either this year or this town is different because on Saturday I saw a street vendor with a Santa hat on!  He was walking down the road selling a couple stuffed animals.

So I guess Christmas is even commercialized here.  Somehow I’m not much surprised…

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Okay.  So.  The ‘no sugar’ thing.  Well…  I was doing really well.  Really well.  Too well in fact.  The second day without sugar I noticed I had no appetite.  Great, you say.  For a nursing mother this is not good news.  But I was willing to have a low appetite, not eat much, and lose a few pounds (even though I’m already at my pre-pregnancy weight).  I just thought it deserved a bit of research first.  A nursing mother, I read, needs 1800+ calories a day. 

I went to “babyfit.com” and entered what I had so far that day and it totalled 600 calories and the only food I planned to eat later was a dinner of beans and peas.  Needless to say, I wasn’t going to reach 1800 calories and to tell the truth I really wasn’t even interested in dinner.  Not good.

So that night we went to our Bible study and after dinner (of beans and rice) I had a cookie, thus breaking my “no sugar” plan.  I realized that it needed more work than just simply cutting out sugar and white stuff, for now anyway.

Now I’m trying to figure out how to cut out the sugar AND get all my calories in so my milk supply doesn’t drop which can easily happen on a reduced calorie diet and from what I read it doesn’t take long at all for that to happen.  I just can’t risk that.  I’m not going to go back to eating lots of sugar but the cold turkey plan isn’t good for me right now.

So a part of me feels like a failure but on the other hand I am being wise in putting Asher’s health first at the moment until I can reasonably and wisely come up with an overall healthy way for me to eat.  I guess I just didn’t realize those calories from sugar would have to be replaced with something.  I believe I can eat 1800+ calories without resorting to cakes and cookies.  I just have to plan ahead on how to do that so Asher and I both remain healthy.  Sometimes a short-term failure is a long-term gain.

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Well, we just got through filling out our forms so we’ll be able to vote.  First was the change of address from Matthews to Conover in NC.  Then was the request for an absentee ballot which can be emailed if legal in NC which would be cool!  So.  We stuck those forms in the mail hoping they’ll get there – um – before the election………and we’re well on our way to vote!  Yay!

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No, I’m no baby expert and don’t pretend to be.  I’ll have to have a brood of them before that happens but I think the more you have the more realization that you don’t know babies.  But, I digress.

Since Asher was born I have liked to…  um…  sort of…  pick his baby boogies.  I like a clean nose!  Sue me! 

Then he started getting ear wax.  Ah!  Another orifice to keep clean!  Yay!  Project!  But I just read that you’re to leave that unsightly wax right in that ear!  It helps to protect.

So as hard as it is…I am refraining from sticking my pinky or a safety swab in there.  I just look away and pretend I didn’t notice.  And if the urge is too bad…I check the nose. 

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What I should do:

Remove all the furniture

Pad the floors and walls, with something thick

Totally close off the kitchen

The plan:

Take a nerve pill

Put on my running shoes

Teach him to pet the dogs

Teach the dogs to tolerate the baby

Gate off the kitchen

Bolt the bookcase to the wall

Somehow get rid of not only the dogs’ food bowls but water bowl too (now, this will be a challenge but he makes a b-line for that water bowl over and over and over and over – and yes, has gotten it, spilled water everywhere, and laid in it – which brings me to my last item)

Buy more paper towels

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Yep, that’s a child.  They learn it young!

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