Another Week For Paula

Paula had another good morning in CNP today. Dina went with her to introduce her to some new people and she met 6 new women, which is great! Her Tuesday evening social evenings will now start to be held in the homes of these people. They are all keen to get to know her and spend more time with each other. It was interesting that half of them were sick to a varying degree, from eye infections to asthma to bad hip, and none will go to the doctor. This is not because of cost, but because they don't trust them and are either scared or embarassed or both to go. This is not surprising as people are often needlessly and publicly humiliated by the doctor at the clinic. It is a long, hard slog to convince people that they must go. Paula now goes into CNP with an obligatory pack of Ibuprofen to dish out, but this is really not good and certainly isn't a long term solution. One of the ladies was so sick we had to lift her up to take the pills. Please pray for God to move so that this stigma is removed. They all want Paula or Dean or someone to go with them to speak to the doctor, but this just isn't possible.

Eli is now 4 weeks old and growing stronger by the day. He has a bad case of thrush, which we think he contracted at the hospital in which he was born. Unfortunately, this has given him awful, violent diarrhoea. Thankfully, after a first course of natural medicine and now a sharp course of Daktarin, this seems to be clearing up a bit. No matter what, it hasn't affected his eating or sleeping or general mood, so we are very thankful for that. He is a dear little boy and is extremely alert - people always comment on this. He already tracks people or objects and can lift and move his head around when on his stomach. Joel thinks the world of him and is always rushing to get him a toy to 'play' with or telling him to 'pipe down' if he is making a bit too much noise!