Our Daily Routine and $20

Post #5 from Galmi, Niger, West Africa (posts #1-4 below)

Our day starts at 6 a.m., just like home. Ugh! Except here I lie in bed knowing that as soon as I begin moving, I will start sweating. Ben has to be at the hospital by 7:30, so he leaves the house at 7:28 for the 2 minute walk to work. He loves not having to drive anywhere, but misses drive-thru coffee shops and egg mcmuffins.

We sort of "cheated" on this trip because we brought a portable DVD player with us. Oh, hush-up! I can hear the moans and groans from here. Yes, we're really "roughing it" with a DVD player. So, the kids get to watch a movie in the morning while they eat breakfast and I shower and make coffee. Then we go outside to take a walk or play before it gets too hot. The kids play on a pitiful little playground that is just a few feet from our house. The playground is falling apart, but they have swings and a teeter-totter that we love. Most times, within minutes we have several local children watching us as we play. Joel, Evan and Drew still show very little interest in interacting with the locals. From what the translators tell me, the children say to us, "Hello, do you have a present?" The only thing I have to offer is to take their picture and let them see it on my digital camera. Without excepetion, every child loves to see their picture. I wish I'd brought a printer with me, or better yet, a poloraid instant camera.

Speaking of children, today Joel and I went to a local private Christian school. The SIM missionaries had shoes to give to the children and the school conducted an awards ceremony. When we arrived the children were playing soccer. When it was time to line the teams up to practice kicking into the goal, I asked Joel if he wanted to get in line -- he declined. Like any good parent, I offered a bribe. He said he'd do it for a million dollars. Being the "wheeler-dealer" that I am, I managed to get him down to $20. So for $20 well-spent dollars, Joel got in line with all the Nigerien children. The pictures are priceless!

The principal of the school told us that local tradition is to announce the children who are the worst performers in the school; they try to motivate through shame. This school is different -- they awarded the best-performing children with Bibles, books and pens and pencils. The children looked so proud.

Back to our daily routine: Whenever we leave the house, even just to be on the playground, we always take water with us. I have never had so much water in all my life! Our family goes through gallons of water every day; I'm so grateful we have clean, safe drinking water. Dehydration is a huge issue here. Ben had to do another surgery on a man with a bladder stone. The cause of the stones we found out -- deyhydration.

After morning play, we lunch, take naps (I don't always nap, but I do always lie in bed with very little on and a fan blowing directly on me) and then we swim in the pool until dinner. Pooltime is the ONLY time I am cool all day. I've never been so thankful for a pool in my life.

Ben is usually home for lunch or a mid-afternoon break and then home again by dinner. He is on-call seven nights this month. Call makes him a little nervous, because it's not just Ob/Gyn call, it's "guess what came into the ER" call. :-) He does have another doctor to call upon if he gets in over his head, and he's already used that resource once for a child with a broken leg.

The day ends with Ben and me having riveting conversation -- there's no TV and it's way too hot to do anything "extra-curricular." I still can't figure out why the fertility rate is SO high here.

Thanks for reading. Evan rode a camel today. More on that in the next blog.