Being shaken by a "thing".

This morning my phone went at 6.15, it was Amecet, if I could come. I ran there and found baby Martha Apio, (from the last blog) in problems, she looked very weak, they had put her on oxygen because she was breathing very difficult. We decided to put her on a slow IV drip as well, because she was also dehydrated. Then I run back home to get the girls ready for school, and after I had put everything ready for them, I went to our van, to bring Meri to the bus. When I stepped in the van, I saw something moving, I assumed it was a mouse, because I had seen paper half eaten. I opened the other door and moved the van a bit up and down. I didn't see anything so I started to drive. Suddenly something ran on my leg, under my skirt. I screamed and grabbed my skirt with one hand, where the "thing" was, I jumped out of the van, holding my skirt with the thing, only then realising that the van was still driving. So I run, still screaming, next to the van, and reached through the open door, to stop the van. That worked, the van stopped, I ran to my veranda and took down my skirt, still holding that "thing" and used my slipper to beat on the "thing" . Then I shook my skirt, to find that there was a big rat falling out of my skirt, with big teeth. I was so shaken, I cried and laughed at the same time, it was too much for me, all the tension about the baby's, Meri's leaving and being now alone responsible, came out. I cried!!! Sarah and Helen didn't know what to think about it, they had never seen me like this. I dried my tears and comforted them, that I was alright and I brought Meri to the bus. After that I went back to get the girls ready and bathed Catherine and Catherine and I walked to Amecet. Martha was a bit more stable, also Eunice was on oxygen and needed a new cannula for her IV medication, now I told the rat story to the others and I could laugh about it, it would have been a funny movie, me jumping out of the van and the van was still moving. But at that time it was far from funny. It had really shaken me. 

Simon was going to bring the three children (see blog of June 29) back to their home. The police officer from family affairs went with him. The previous week they had helped the man cleaning and spraying his house and compound. We had bought a mattress and mosquito net for them and we gave them some clothes. They were very happy. Simon told me later that half of the village came to welcome them back, they promised to help the father and also the grandparents promised to be involved. So everything had a happy ending!

In the meantime the dog trainer had come again, since May 10, he has been coming on weekdays to work with our dogs. We have seen the results, but lately the dogs are again fighting at night. Two dogs are being harassed and on Saturday night, one of them sneaked into the staff house to hide from the others. She choose the room of Esther (Dutch volunteer) and made a mess there and she ate from the mouse poison that she had put out. On Sunday night we had given the dog charcoal to eat and this morning I got vitamin K injection from the clinic next door. I think she is fine, we have not seen any bleeding. The dog trainer is coming now for one month every night to work with the dogs when they are all out. As you can see  on this picture, he is now trying to let them work in a team.The 2 dogs at the back, are mine puppies, they are big now, 6 months old. They are all real beautiful dogs, and quite tough!!

We also have two new children again, I got a request from another NGO, that one of their clients was admitted in the hospital for blood transfusion and has gotten a psychiatric problem, so bad that she had to be sedated and taken to the psychiatric ward. She had two children with her, 3 years and 9 months old. And she was alone, no caretaker with her. So I drove to the hospital, together with Dorcas, one of our Ugandan staff, to pick the children. They are going to search for the relatives. The 9 months old little boy has the record of loud crying on his name now, and the 3 years old girl is following us where ever we go with her brother. She really keeps an eye on him, even when we are going to change his diaper, she follows her little brother, so touching. We also put them together in one bed.

The situation in the little baby room is a bit stable, at the moment no one is on oxygen, most of them are a bit better and Evelyn and Eunice have been just over the 2 kg!! Martha is not so critical at the moment, the doctor prescribed another IV medicine, so we are going on with the intensive care we give to them. I am so encouraged by the commitment and dedication of the volunteers we have, also some of the Ugandan staff is really good to care for those little ones. We have 24 hours, two people working in that room. I find it quite a responsibility on my shoulders, I am also so thankful for Dr. Engulu, our neighbour and his staff, who have set at least 15 cannula's in the last two weeks and it is not an easy job in a premature baby arm, to find the vein.