Africa Day 2

Our first stop this morning, after checking out of the guest house is at the patisserie, or pastry and coffee shop.  With the usual parking assistance from a local kid, we have a breakfast of croissants, coffee, and omelets. Omelets here resemble an egg crepe, not fluffy at all. Next stop, across the city, fighting heavy traffic of cars, motos, bicycles, and pedestrians we arrive at the pediatric hospital.  Our visit here is to meet a local man who is related to Rebecca, the lady in Dano who manages the milk program for the church association.  The folks in Dano have sent a nine month old baby to the hospital, b/c she is not responding to her diet and is losing weight rapidly.  She has a heart problem, a tongue that is restricting her milk intake, and a large hernia.  Without proper nutrition and weight gain, she can't have the treatment she needs for her other medical problems.  The "hospital" is primitive by our standards, but is the best hospital in the country for the local population.  The baby is receiving oxygen, nutrition, and is improving I am told.  So far, her time in this third world ICU has cost about $700 for the week and a half she has been here, about what 30 minutes would cost at home.  Chris delivers some more money to Rebecca's brother so that her care can continue.  This type of expenditure comes from the discretionary ministry portion of C and J's budget (about $650 per month), and is quickly depleted each month.  (Here's a great giving opportunity, everyone who is reading this). 

Update as of February 12, unfortunately this baby died on Sunday.

We leave Ouga via the main highway to Dano, being aware of the speed trap where Chris has been stopped before for speeding and talking on the phone.  Seems odd that in a country so behind the times in many ways is so with it in others.  Chris says that there are probably only two radar guns in the whole country and they are both in use on this stretch of road.  Dodging bicycles, motos, donkeys, goats, sheep and dogs, we speed toward Dano, on the smooth new stretches of highway reaching 120km/h while slowing down on the rough stretches to a fraction of that.  I use the term highway lightly, this is a two lane blacktop road sometimes with shoulders, and sometimes not.  The landscape reminds me of South Texas, similar to that stretch of I-37 between San Antonio and Corpus Christi.  Every few miles we slow down for a settlement or small town, where people, animals, buses, and all other manner of transportation share the road.   We arrive in Dano with no mishaps just in time for lunch at the Sand's compound.

After lunch, Chris shows me around the property, about 1.5 acres surrounded by a six foot high wall of stone.  Inside is the main house, a two story structure, built in the Ethiopian style of thick mud walls covered by a type of stucco.  The house has all rounded arches and doorways, unlike most of the houses in Dano.  It sits high on a hill overlooking the town of approximately 10,000 people. Water is supplied (most days) by the city water system, and electricity is fairly reliable, even though a large diesel powered generator was one of the first and most important purchases made by the Sand's with the money that has been donated to their cause.  The grounds include a garden, today growing tomatoes and onions, a chicken yard with chickens and turkeys, a tree house for the boys, outdoor storage, and an outhouse for the guards (both day and night) who work for the Sand's. The African culture here has an expectation that the white people and wealthy Africans will have walls around their houses and guards (who also serve as maintenance and landscape help).  Employing these people is a great boost to the local economy and serves as a conduit into the local Christian community.  Many of the people employed by the team here have gone on to be church and business leaders in the community.  There are a large variety of trees around their house, mango, bougainvillea, eucalyptus, some sort of willow and a young bao bao tree.  Doves, and at night, bats abound.  Also in the complex, is the guest house, where we stay.  It is a stone structure, about 12x20 with bunk beds, a sleeper sofa, and a bath with shower (no hot water here).  Plenty comfortable with the A/C when needed. We spend the remainder of the day resting up for the week ahead.