Potty Panic

One of our volunteers here right now has a game on her ipad called "Potty Panic."  Now before you judge, you have to hear me out.  Basically this game has little people who run onto the screen and you have to direct them to the correct bathroom (male, female, handicap) before they have an accident.  Some times they come on the screen flashing red and that means they REALLY have to go.  Your people can't run into each other or they have an accident, and only one person can be in the bathroom at the same time.

This game was all sorts of fun...

Until...

The next day when we played a live version of it that lasted day and night for a week.  And in this game, you couldn't turn off the sounds (or the smell for that matter).

A sickness has been spreading through our compound and many of our kids, and us volunteers have gotten it.  For about 5 days we had between 4-6 kids in the volunteer house who we were keeping a close eye on.  It hasn't been fun, and I even found myself laying on the bathroom floor one night crying because I was in so much pain.

But luckily it seems to be passing and we are all getting much better.  One of the hardest parts of this past week or two is that our nurse is gone, so that leaves me in charge of all medical decisions.  Thankfully we have an amazing intern here right now who has been an enormous help.  I could not have gotten through this past week with out Carla.

Together the two of us are in charge of drawing up and administering all of the meds for our children.  We have also done a Malaria test, a urine test to check for a urinary test infection, and filled about 5 new prescriptions for our kids.  We also have had to deal with pink eye and ring worm.  Our days have been full of checking children's fontanels to see how dehydrated they are, checking temperatures, deciding the best course of action for each individual child, and determining, when/if it's necessary to take a child to the hospital.

I have been to the hospital many times and seen parents holding their half naked children on their laps in the court yard trying to collect a poop/urine sample to be tested.  I've always kind of laughed and was thankful that wasn't me.  But my time came yesterday and I sat in the court yard, holding a little girl on my lap, trying to catch both urine and poop/diarrhea in a tiny medicine cup they gave me.

Although this past week has been busy, I have really enjoyed parts of it; not the diarrhea, vomiting, or insane stomach cramps; but I love distributing the meds and going in each room and being able to play with the kids that way.  It's crazy to see how much I have learned since being here.  Carla and I know way more about medical stuff than we ever thought we would.

Please continue to pray for these next two weeks as Carla and I continue to be in charge of all medical decisions.  Please pray that when Nick leaves in a few days, and I am the only long term staff here that I am not over whelmed.  And most importantly, please pray that Carla and all of the babies are completely healthy by then.