The Fine Balance

One of the things I’ve been doing at the clinic is helping with the Groupe de Parole, which occurs once a month for the OEV group (caregivers of orphans and other children at risk) and once for the PTME group (woman who are pregnant or have children under 18 months of age.)  We meet and discuss topics relevant to the issues these groups face.  The meetings usually have an educational component and a support group component.  My role has been to take the educational component and help the coordinators come up with effective methods of teaching and disseminating information.

It is always a strange experience to be an outsider to a group, and then to come in and try to offer up something of worth.  There is no doubt that I have a knowledge base and skill set that is highly needed and valued, and that would enrich what they are trying to accomplish at the clinic.  On the other hand, with cultural differences and linguistic differences, the task of determining their real objectives and what I can do to help them get there is sometimes monumental.

So I have started a project with two of my colleagues from the clinic, Mana and Brigitte.  I am teaching them some of the foundational educational principles behind sound teaching.  We are discussing methodologies of teaching that do more than convey information, but that actually empower people and enable behavior and attitude change.

After working with children in public schools, I find my new ‘pupils’ are blowing me away with their motivation and depth of insight.  During our first lesson, I presented a model of human behaviors, values, and beliefs.  I explained the model and we discussed it.  Before the lesson’s end, Mana and Brigitte were discussing their own behaviors, values, and beliefs and inserting themselves into the model.  It brought forth a discussion of the challenges they face in their work and personal life.  We ended the first lesson with a prayer (which was particularly cool considering the three of us are Protestant, Catholic, and Muslim.)

When we came together the next time and I looked over their “homework,” they had thought through things so thoroughly that they posed a question that I had never even considered.  We ended up modifying the model from the first session.  It is no new phenomenon for students to teach the teacher, but it is really exciting to see that happening at this level.  Their willingness to delve into the subject with such seeking has inspired me to take the sessions to the next level and put more of myself into it.  I am excited to see what fruit is born from this project in its original objective, but also in personal growth, interpersonal relationships, and spiritually in each of us.

Wow!  So this is the longest I’ve gone without posting on my blog.  September was a crazy month, and it has taken most of October to recover from it!  I will not even list all the madness of September, but instead I will cut straight to Michal’s illness since it was a pretty big deal and we had so many people asking about and praying for her.

One morning she was complaining of not feeling well.  We sent her off to school because, though she’s not really a faker, there were no specific symptoms and we thought it might just be a little tummy trouble or gas or something.  By lunch, she was running fever, so Mark went to pick her up and took her in for a malaria test right away (just a little finger prick.)  She started having severe diarrhea about every 20 minutes.  We got the test results that same afternoon and found that she did have a very low malaria count.  Here, that is good news as it means we’ve figured out what it is and can treat it very easily, so we started her on treatment that evening.  She was very sick through the night with high fever and absolutely relentless diarrhea (still every 20 minutes.)  She ( and I) got almost no sleep because just as soon as she would settle back in bed she would have to get up again.  She was also vomitting every couple of hours.  This continued through the next day, and by evening we decided there must be something else since she had been on malaria meds for 24 hours and was still very sick.  We had to wait until the next morning to take in a stool sample since the lab was already closed, but we did so the next day (Saturday.)  We got the results back that afternoon and found that she had an intestinal amoeba and another unspecified GI infection.  We started her on treatment for the amoeba that day.  By Sunday, she had been on malaria treatment for 48 hours and amoeba treatment for 24 hours, and still the diarrhea and fever had not slacked off.  She still had not gotten any rest because of constantly having to get up.  We called a doctor from one of the local hospitals who came to our house to see her.  He put her on antibiotics for the other infection (just making his best guess at what the infection was since we would not get the test results until Tuesday.)  We also started her on oral rehydration salts.  Monday came and the fever diminished slightly and the diarrhea slowed down to once an hour.  Each day after held a very slight improvement with the fever finally going away completely on Wed.

Then Friday, she started coughing and her fever returned even higher than it was before.  We started consulting again with the doctors we had spoken to, and also with our friend Dr. Ed Thornton from the States.  We had her lungs checked and watched as the stomach symptoms improved incrementally but her cough and fever continued.  It was a very trying time as the symptoms seemed to get just a little better each day, but we never could look at her and say “She is definitely feeling much better!”  She did get her appetite back about 10 days into the illness, but she still wasn’t resting well.

Ed researched what illnesses were going around West Africa at that time and postulated that the cough and second fever were the results of catching a strain of the flu that is present in West Africa right now.  The symptoms would last for about a week.  He thought that it was unrelated to the GI problems except for the weakened immune system making her more susceptible.  The second week we watched and waited for her fever to abate.  We were giving it a week because of the possibility of it being the flu, but I was very impatient since she had already been through the previous week of severe illness.  When Friday morning came, I was ready to take drastic action if the fever remained, but she woke up with no fever and no other symptoms.  Hooray!  I was reticent to relax too much, afraid that it might come back, but it was finished completely.  She stayed at home and rested until the following Tuesday when she returned to school.  In the end, it was two weeks straight of fever and severe diarrhea, with other symptoms coming and going throughout.

I want to thank everyone for your prayers, concern, and encouragement.  We are so grateful to Dr. Thornton for being available to us, being quick to respond, and going the extra step to find out what it could be.  What a doctor to be able to diagnose a patient on another continent!  Also, we acknowledge that while Togo does not have the best and most up to date in medicine, we are so fortunate to have several labs, doctors, and medications available right here in Kara.  Many people are intimidated by the lack of medical care here, but we are grateful and praise God for what we have.

Also, though there are health risks associated with living here, it is very rare that one of us would get this sick.  Malaria is usually like a rough flu that we treat and then move on.  Intestinal problems are usually diagnosed and treated and then over.  We are thrilled that Michal is up and bouncing around as usual now.  Her illness was very hard on all us, but we are not afraid of something like that becoming a regular occurrence.