DanandDalaina.com

We got back yesterday and much has happened in the past few days. Moses is doing fine. He has an impressive battle scar down his face, but seemed otherwise unharmed. We have been trying to keep him from banging his head again, not a good idea after a concussion. It has not been easy on any of us. "Moses, don't jump, run, swing from the hammock, play tetherball, climb trees, or do anything that you are used to doing." He got sick of coloring and puzzles really fast.
On Sunday, the day after Moses' fall, we got word that Marvi was not planning to come to Pucallpa because she was too scared of getting a c-section. Nichole spoke to her and her husband at length, but it did not seem to do much good. I ended up having a 45 minute conversation (in Spanish obviously) with her mom about what was going on and why we wanted her to come back with us on Tuesday. I explained that a c-section might happen but not necessarily, that we would be paying for her flight and medical care, and that we would be with her at the hospital and she would be living with the Swifts while not in the hospital. Her mom said that she would talk to her on Monday. It was very frustrating feeling like she could be in a lot of danger and having no way to help her. We found her up and about (off bed rest) which told me that she eitehr didn't believe us or no longer cared. Likely, the fact that her feet are not very swollen any more makes her think that the danger is gone.
Our team went ahead and planned for her going with us even though we knew that it was likely that she would not come. This meant that Dan and I changed our flight to Tuesday instead of Friday, and Scott and Nichole changed their flight to Friday instead of next Tuesday. Poor Kenan was scrambling to get all of our supplies bought to be sent out. So Monday was a crazy day of packing up quickly.
Tuesday came with great weather, but Marvi did not get on the flight. I am hoping that this was just God's way of getting us home while the weather is good, and she will deliver safely out there - the best senario for all of us.
We are glad to be back and busy trying to get our ducks in a row before Christmas. I can't believe it is only a week away!

This morning started with a bang - literally. I jumped out of bed and ran to the kid's room to find Moses with a bloody head. We are fairly certain that he stood on the rails of the twins' bed  and jumped to his bed  and missed.  He had a nice  gash on his temple that was swelling up prety good and a big abrasion down his cheek. It didn't seem like that big of a deal until he started to throw up and to act really out of it. We were worried about a concussion and subdural hematoma, so we wanted to call Dan's dad. Except it was raining and dark which keeps us from using the solar powered village phone. And it is Saturday, so we have no radio scheduled until Monday. I held Moses for hours while Nichole and Joy took care of my house and the twins (who, in a direct answer to prayer, were in fabulous moods - the teething was literally on hold). Right before lunch the sky cleared enough for Dan to call Kenan to tell him to turn on the radio. Kenan called Dan's dad via skype, and we had a coversation over the radio through Kenan. Eventually, we had the SAM air pilots on standby to possibly fly us out. But Moses woke up from a short nap and seemed like his happy self (no more barfing either) so we opted to stay. We had another appointment on the radio at 8pm.
In the afternoon Nichole and Joy went to Marvi's house and gave her another urine test. It was positive. Not a good sign.
Also in the afternoon Irma came with her 8 month old daughter, Evelyn who has been sick longer then we have been here. She has had a penicillin shot and 2 courses of Amoxicillin, but has been getting worse. Nichole and I determined that she has complicated pneumonia. Aside from Amoxicillin, all we have is a pretty potent injectable antibiotic. So we looked through the books until we thought we could make an educated guess about how much to give her.
Right after dinner Moses barfed again. At 8pm, we radioed Kenan who called Dan's dad again. He said not to be too concerned with moses as long as he was acting normal - though we were supposed to wake him a couple of times during the night. Marvi needs to fly out soon, probably with Ken & Joy on Tuesday unless she starts getting high blood pressures or headaches, in which case, we have to get her out ASAP. We will get her to Nichole's OB in Pucallpa. We guessed right on Evelyn's shot and need to give her shots for 2 more days.
All in all, we are ready to fall in bed totally exhausted. It is a day I could have lived without. But I am so thankful that Moses seems to be doing well. It was such a helpless feeling holding him and watching the rain come down. There was no way to help him if something happened. I am ready to get back to Pucallpa judt to rest. Being without electricity for 2 weeks, going through the whole Moses ordeal, and the relentless rain has gotten to me. I am ready to get home now, take a hot shower, and call my mom.

We returned to Marvi's house today to find that her bp was still down. We reinterated her need for bedrest and liquids. Hopefully, she will stay down and take care of herself.

Yesterday, a man came to the Welshes on behalf of his 8 month pregnant wife, Marvi. Her feet were very swollen and painful. Nichole, the Swifts, and I went to her house to see what was going on. Her first blood pressure was 150/94, which was way to high for our comfort. We suspected that she had pre-eclampsia, which is also what we think killed her sister in law last year. It was also what happened to Cecilia. We stayed at their house for awhile and prayer for her. We took the bloody pressure again, and it was down to 122/92. After giving her instructions to stay resting in bed and to drink a lot of fluids, we left. Nichole and I headed over to the radio house to call Dan's dad. He instructed us to do a urine test to see if she had protein in her urine (a good indicator for eclampsia) and reinterate bedrest and liquids. He said if her test was negative and the bp stayed down, she would probably be ok staying in the village. If the test was positive or her bp started going up, we will have to start trying to get her to the hosptal. We will return later to do the urine test and give her some tylenol for pain.

Today was election day in the village. That basically means a meeting where everyone votes of the offices of president (chief), vp, secretary etc. for the next two years. Dan and Scott went as observers. It lasted several hours with the result of the current chief being reinstated. The way they vote is kind of fun. They put the candidates in the front of the room and have everyone raise their hand for their choice. Makes sense when you realize that many of them are illiterate.

I've learned some interesting things about the people recently. The first is involves the use of their kinship system. Everyone is related to everyone here and calls each other by their kinship name (ie sister, mother in law). Apparently, it is actually kind of odd and maybe even a little rude to call people by their real names in most situations. Oops. I guess I had better put some serious effort into figuring how who everyone is in relation to me.
The second thing is pretty sad. Nichole found out through a conversation with a villager that when women have children that are obviously disabled, they just kill them. It kind of blew me away at first, I mean, why? But then I kind of understood where they were coming from (though I still vehemently oppose the practice). Here a disabled child has no chance at life. Physically disabled kids would very likely die anyway, without the ability to take care of themselves. They are considered "just another mouth to feed." It still makes me sad. Maybe, with us there now, they can just give the babies to me!