Pulling Teeth

Posted on Thursday, November 13, 2008 at 02:00

Izzy will never make a dentist, LOL!

We were at a crippled lady’s house this morning because the lady had a terrible abscess and needed mom to pull her tooth. Christina, Bethany and Isabelle were with me, Abi and her girls were there and Shari and Hannah. The woman was sitting on the ground guarding her millet from the chickens and weaving a basket. Her arms and legs are so crippled and bent up that I am amazed she can weave at all. We looked for a place to pull her tooth, but the only place was right on the wet ground. She lay down and mom used the opportunity to teach the children about plaque. You couldn’t even see her teeth for the plaque! Mom was scraping it off and there was some blood and the woman was afraid that she was forgetting to pull the tooth. Izzy walked up to me and said “Mrs. Ford I don’t feel very good”.

I took one look at her white and green face and exclaimed,” Oh, my, you don’t” and I scooped her up in my arms as she fainted. She woke up very dizzy and sick. I spent the whole time with her trying to get her color back while mom pulled 5 teeth. Christina was doing great until she saw the woman was hurting. Mom doesn’t use pain killers with an abscess because it doesn’t work well, so there was quite a bit of pain. Christina has a sympathetic heart and she looked a little blanched, especially her lips. Bella put her head between her knees for a moment, but I think she’s a pretty tough kid. Bethany was grossed out but didn’t flinch.  I may be my mother’s daughter, but I will never be able to do what she does.

We went to Ikonda for a few supplies and some of the girls found some fabric they liked for skirts and dresses. The girls at the sewing school are happy to make them. We all loved how Kenzie’s dress turned out and we loved Natalie and Dakota’s skirts. I look a long time before I buy. I am not sure which fabric to buy… I look for small design, but they specialize in large prints. We ended up with a piece of tie-dye. Izzy, Beth and Christina found beautiful matching skirt fabrics in different shades of color. I paid 500 shillings each… which is close to $5. The girls want baskets but mom discouraged them from buying the ones we saw. She showed them that they need to look for ones that won’t unravel if they are to last.

Steve is feeling better. Steve gave Bethany something last night for the post-nasal drip and she didn’t cough at all, but is a little congested this morning. Leila had a terrible night. Her little legs hurt so bad!

Speaking of Leila, the fundi’s wanted to know about her. They could see that she doesn’t look like Teresa and they wanted to know her mother was. Teresa tried to explain but the language barrier is a challenge, so she finally asked Barasa to explain how Leila was left on the street in China when she was only two days old and that she and Jon had adopted her and now they are her mom and dad. They couldn’t understand parents leaving their child for any reason, birth defect or the one child law, but they were much impressed that other people would take her as their own. Barasa had had this conversation with Teresa last week. His wife, Miriam has a child from before but they have been unable to have children. Barasa loves children and was totally intrigued by the idea of adoption. Mom says he is really very good with orphans. She hasn’t found Miriam to be very open to orphans, yet, but Miriam is quite young and I watch her with Metu, Yona’s little son, and I can see that she really loves him and enjoys Leila. Everybody loves Metu, though,  and Leila is a charmer! I call her Miss Personality.

Brent and Shari have been here since May, I think, and they have been working on getting permanent residence. They talked about staying 2 years, or one year or 6 months, but when they announced to mom today that they are going home Jan 8 no one was surprised. They say they are going to come back sometime, but I don’t know. Life is tough here.

We decided we can’t eat the beans. We have banned beans for 1 week at least, and then they will have to be soaked and cooked well before any of us will even touch them.

I better explain a funza!!! I think it must be a Swahili word. It’s a little flea that burrows into the skin to lay her eggs. Usually they choose to burrow near a nail. Children can have very deformed fingers and toes if they are not taken care of properly. So far we have only had the one in Bethany’s toe.

Ick!! There is rat in the house and the kids are going crazy trying to kill him.  He's big!!!