Stomach Flu, Church Service, Scabies... Patient screening begins this week!

Hey everyone,


Today was not a very fun day.  I woke up feeling nauseous thinking it was the Larium (medicine to prevent malaria)  I took the previous night on a mostly empty stomach, only to find out that the 24 hr stomach flu was going around.  I'm just happy that we're all going through it now versus later on this week when the screening begins.  Feeling sick is also a good reminder of how I would want to be treated if I was a patient.  My roomates were all very sweet bringing me water and medicine.  Unfortunately one of my other roomates from Canada also got the stomach flu shortly after I did.

We went to a church service on Sunday about twenty minutes from our ship.  The church was made of concrete with open windows and a door.  The children had their Sunday school outside while the adults had service inside.  


We brought our translator with us who translated everything the Togolese minister said, although their minister did try to say what he could in English.  The main message of his sermon was what ever we find our hands to do with work we should do it with all our might, whether it be cleaning toilets, being a surgeon, being a mother, being a housewife, ect.  It was neat knowing that these people who live on $2 a day and speak a different language were hearing the exact same message as we were and study from the same Bible as us.  Their church service was very much the same as one we would have back at home, but also very different.  The main difference is that their church service lasts for hours.  


They sing and dance and even formed a congo line, while we usually stand and sing.  The kids outside kept trying to sneak inside to dance with the adults.  At one point there were about five or six kids wanting to sit on my lap or just hold my hand.  One of the kids I found out after holding him a bunch had scabies, but thankfully I am still itch free due to the fact that I took a shower and used special anti-parasite soap right when I got back.  Scabies is a very common problem here and its hard to see something so easily fixable go untreated.

Random Photos- "We can not take our camera out much because people do not like to have their pictures taken unless you really know them.  It is also not wise to have jewelry or anything valuable in sight or one could get mugged. 

Lindsey

PS...it is possible to order pizza delivery in the USA all the way from a ship in Africa :) Nice one!  Too bad they don't deliver Donatos in Togo, Africa

PSS

Lindsey did not go running.  She and her friend ran around the armed guards for 20 minutes in a quarter mile fenced in circle.