Update...

A lot has been happening in our lives. But I have not taken many photos lately. Hopefully I can pick it up again.

I bought an injured bird from some neighborhood kids in hope of nursing it back to health. It lived for 3 days. We were not quite ready to take on a new pet, but I just couldn't let the kids keep dragging it around town till it died, so I wanted to save it.

Jethro turned one! He is a happy, adventurous boy. He loves to be outside. Here he is on our well, one of the places he like to play.

I really do love having a baby around... I'm glad there is another one on the way.

Zach is still into everything, even as a three year old. He loves to help anyone with a project and he loves to go anywhere anyone might be going. He really is a big help... you just have to keep him busy so he doesn't get himself into trouble...

Mango anyone?

So a couple days ago we had another rain storm... this is unusual for April. Usually this is the middle of hot, dry season. Well Jeff did a video about it that you can watch at our family blog. But my job was and is... what to do with all the mangos that our tree dropped in one day. Hundreds of mangos... I will give some away, let some ripen, and cut up and freeze a lot to use in cooking. Stop by for some mango sauce, mango cake or mango crisp if you can!

Ups and Downs

OK... it's not that bad... But we have hit a wall. It is the four month wall I think... and it happened to coincide with hot season. Jeff and I have both been feeling stuck and unproductive in the last few weeks. I know it will get better.

A few frustrating things...

- It's hard to learn a new language in the midst of life...

- There is no where to 'get away' (Like the mall, coffee shop, grocery store, dollar store... )

- It is HOT - kids have heat rash

- There are no pools in our town

- We don't have friends or family to really talk to

- Whenever the kids want a snack... I have to cook something (crackers, cookies, bagels)

- Bugs and dirt

A few good things...

- Our kids are awesome

- Fans... and air conditioning when we want to splurge for an hour

- Mangos!!! lots of them (the one snack that is ready and waiting)

- Internet to connect with family and friends

- A rain storm to chase away the heat

So yea... it's not that bad, it's just been hard, and we are trusting God that He will bring us through and soaring on the other side of this valley. We do look forward to spending Easter with our new Church family here in Kadiolo. I'm praying for a good time of fellowship, and for our young friend Kadiatu who is a muslim girl going with us to Easter. She says she wants to be a Christian, but it may be more likely that she wants to go to America. Pray for her to really understand the gospel and want to be a Christian because Christs has spoken to her!

Birth Number 2

I was called to another birth on Friday. It was 4pm, not even the middle of the night. So I thought I better jump on the opportunity to go help out. When I arrived I found out this was an 18 year old girl delivering her first baby. She was outside walking around and had been found to be 8cm dilated.


She wanted to have a rest and came back inside to sit down. They checked her again and had me check her. Again I am no good at this part. I must need much more practice. Aparantly she was 9 centimeters. Shortly after this she expressed a desire to eat something so her friend went off to find some food. When it arrived she sat down to have a snack.



After that she was tired again and wanted to go in and lie down. She was told she need to walk to get her contractions going. They were coming, but not real close together. Like any first time mother, she did not want them closer together or to feel any more pain. But she was very brave.


Here sit the three midwives/nurses waiting for things to progress... When she got so tired she had to lie down, they hooked her up to an IV and gave her some pitocin to make the contractions come along faster.



Here came the difficult part of the delivery for me. As we had checked her the nurse commented on her circumcision. It is very common practice here in Mali for a girl to be circumcised in her childhood. Unfortunately for this girl, she was sewn up too small to allow for this baby to be born. As the baby began to crown the midwifes had to perform an episiotomy to allow the baby through. This makes me so sad. It is a very traumatic experience when a girl gets circumcised, and now in childbirth it becomes more traumatic again because of this. There was no anisthetic used to aid in pain relief either.


A healthy girl was born around 6:30pm. I asked them what the sex was so that the mom could hear. Then after the baby was weighed and left on the scale, I asked if I could hold her. I took her over the the mom and showed her beautiful baby to her. That part gave me great joy.


Pray for me as I plan to talk to the midwives about working on educating their patients about the negative effects of female circumcision.

A Simple Pleasure

This morning some Southern Baptist Missionaries stopped by our house as they were leaving town. They come to Kadiolo to do some work for a few days about 4-6 times a year. They have a guest house in town and we help out by giving out salaries to the guard and housekeeper each month. When they stopped by they brought a box of leftover food for us that they did not want to take back to Bamako. It was such a treat! We got chocolate chip cookie mix, blueberry muffin mix, juice boxes, ranch dressing, a taco dinner kit complete with crunchy tacos, and much more. What I was most excited about was the Cheerios. It is hard to come by snacks to give the kids... especially for Jethro who can't manage some things by himself, or they are super messy like a mango. I was so excited to throw some Cheerios on his tray and let him have the joy of picking them up all on his own. He was pretty excited too! It seemed crazy to me how something so simple could bring so much pleasure!

Crash course in Birthing

We are working hard to learn Bambara. And I thought maybe combining my need to learn Bambara with my desire to help women and learn some midwifery skills might be a good idea. And so the following story was 'born'.

I was called at midnight by a local midwife to find out if I wanted to assist her with a delivery. I had previously explained that I was interested in womens health and delivery. So I decided to go. When I arrived the woman was six centimeters and was laboring outside. Shortly after she was tired and went in to lay down.

When it came time to check her again the midwife handed me a glove and said, OK, go ahead. Hold on, I was not expecting that. But I guess that is the only way to learn. So sure, I checked. Knowing how much these checks hurt when you are in labor, I felt a head and that was good enough for me. She asked how many centimeters I thought she was. When I responded I had no idea, but I felt the head, she just laughed. She was 7 cm at that point.

This is a very small clinic. Aparantly women go there that do not want a hospital experience. So I was expecting more of what our culture calls a home birth or birthing center experience. It was not so. There was no one there to encourage this woman. Her husband waited outside. An other woman came, but only to clean up after her. It is the families responsibility to clean out bed pans, puke buckets and throw the placenta in the outhouse. She was told to keep her legs in one spot but no one held them for her. Finally I went and held one leg in place, so she didn't have to work so hard on that part. When the head was out the midwife pulled the baby the rest of the way out. I became VERY light headed and felt faint. (Unexpected) I think it was mostly from the roughness of it all. After that she quickly cut the cord and sucked out the babies nose. She then pulled out the placenta. There was no putting the baby on moms tummy, or waiting for nature to take it's course. I was surprised and a bit bothered by how much intervention there was. The baby was weighed and taken out to the family. I don't think the mom ever saw him or was told he was a boy.

This photo was taken after I took a seat. I really thought I might faint and I have NEVER in my life felt that close to fainting. My legs were weak and trembling and my heart was pounding. It was a very strange experience. I think it came from understanding a bit of her pain, and feeling for her that she had no one on her side so to speak. It felt very lonely and joyless. I prayed for her a lot and wondered what I could do to bring some comfort and joy to the birthing rooms in Kadiolo. Or is that even my place?

I wondered at first if this little guy was even alive, but after sucking out his nose and slapping him around a bit, he made a little sound. I think he is a healthy little boy and despite the difficulty of the experience for me, I am thankful for his little life. Praise God, the creator of LIFE!

Nous avons tué un cochon aujourd'hui!!!

DISCLAIMER: An animal was killed in the making of this blog. Not for the faint of heart!

Parce que je parle en français toute la journée, j'ai pensé que je devrais écrire mon blog en français aussi.

Aujourd'hui, les enfants et Jeff sortit à la terrain de Jonas et tué un cochon.

Ils ont l'apporté à la maison dans le wagon de notre moto.

Ce projet était très intéressant pour nos enfants.

Nous avons bouillie l'eau dans la cuisine à l'échaudure le porc afin qu'ils puissent décoller les cheveux.

Drew a gardé les ongles comme les cadeaux pour nos chiens

Puis ils ont le suspendu dans notre manguier.
Puis ils lui coupé en deux et sorti son intestins.

Après cela, ils lui couper en morceaux pour moi.
Je les ai mis dans les sac pour congeler.

Apres tous ca, on a bien mange l' atcheke ensemble.

Heading out with my new moto...

So it feels good to have transportation... Harley and I headed out this morning for a few groceries so we could do some baking and cooking. Today I made, granola, cookies, yogurt and sourdough starter... I'm going to take a break before I need to start on dinner...

My New Wheels...

I am happy to announce that I have wheels... I can how be seen cruising around Kadiolo with a moto much like the rest of them... maybe I will blend in more than I did on Big Red... Probably not, but I like it!

He's Back

What an amazing day it was yesterday... I don't have photos of most of it... but here is the rundown...
Our power came back on after a week of being off...
Jeff came home...
We got a huge thunder and lightening storm followed by a real downpour...
Our container showed up in town just before midnight...
and then this morning Drew's chickens gave their first egg!
It's been an exciting 24 hours... Jeff is outside right now putting the kids bikes together!

Jeff coming home...

Pancake breakfast...

Our first egg...

Getting ready to open our container from France...

Putting bikes back together...