july 17th, 2006

The trip was... difficult... after receiving the injury on my foot. Just hard to have a positive outlook when I was limited because of my injury. And I am prone to pity parties.

July 17th, 2006
"By 8:30, we were in the Landrover to go to Mbatwe. For me, Mbatwe kinda stunk. It was neat to see the people excited to receive their bicycle ambulance. Our group was even on national t.v. The reason why it was hard for me is because I had to stand so that all the pressure was placed on my uninjured foot... The rest of the group went out with field workers to check the progress of families in Mbatwe, so I was left in the Landrover with Abelio. Abelio brought me back to home base where I stayed. The entire trip home, I just cried. I was having a 'feeling sorry for myself' moment.*** [Speaking of the baby orphanage] "Instead of playing with the older little kids, I followed Eric upstairs to help feed the babies. My little favorite guy was up there. Tonight I found out him name is Mondigo... I helped the attendant pass out the food dishes and then I sat at the end of the 'high chair' row with Mondigo and spooned him the mush. The food was the same as last time I fed the babies. Mondigo did not eat as fast as last time. He still opened him mouth as wide as he possibly could, but this time he took longer to chew (or gum) the food. As a result, all of the other babies had finished and were all taken out of the dining room by the time Mondigo had half finished. At that point, he threw everything back up, so I just picked him up and brought him down the hall for bathroom and bath. I really didn't know what else to do...
"At home, dinner was ready and waiting to be served! Jody made us this corn chowder & potato soup - it was SO yummy! There was also a fresh salad to go with it. Not even five minutes into dinner - the power went out. Apparently the power had gone out 4 tines when we were at [the baby orphanage] so Jody was prepared with candles. We lit the candles and ate by candlelight."

I apologize for the pictures not having a better resolution. I had to copy these from my online Facebook album. It appears that I may not have downloaded ALL of the photos I took when in Africa. Only about half are on the disc I was given (once again, thank you a billion times over, Stacy!). But half is A THOUSAND times better than none. Besides, like I commented on in this entry, I was feeling sorry for myself. So most of the pictures from here through the end of my trip are not as meaningful as the ones I tool when in higher spirits.