The kids had a day off of school today as it is a Christian holiday (Hari Injil) celebrating when the Gospel first came to Papua. I love it when the kids are home from school. I had great plans of going on a family picnic to this spot by Lake Sentani, however, there was a nice storm that rolled in and changed all that. Emma woke up with pink eye so it wouldn’t have been the best time for an outing. We let our kids stay up late last night and we all watched Barnyard and popped popcorn then we put mattresses down on the floor in the living room for a “camp out”. That was great fun. Last night when everyone else was caught up in the movie, Sophie looks at me and asks, “Mom, why do we have lips?” Her mind is always working. She had her friend Maya over yesterday when a storm rolled in and they asked if they could put on their swimsuits and go out in the rain. I said they could and got them some buckets and spoons and they collected water and broke up some papaya leaves and made “soup”. Later Sophie told me that they had to go to the bathroom while they were out there and didn’t want to come in because they were so wet …so, in Sophie’s words, “Mom, we decided that we would practice going potty over a squat pot so we just went in our buckets. We did a good job, Mom. We both made it in the buckets.” Well…it definitely is the Indonesian way-when in Rome…
Today when I went over to do Yanis’ foot, I learned some interesting information. Pak Pias, who is Jason and Jodi’s yard worker, can communicate with Yanis. Yanis does not speak much Indonesian. He speaks a tribal language that we don’t know, but Pias does. Anyways, today, Pias says, “Well, we thought that Yanis died last night.” Jodi was like, “What!?!” And Pias went on to explain that Yanis’ body went stiff and his eyes rolled back, then he started rolling around. Pias said it was an evil spirit. Jodi’s dog started barking around this time and Pias said that the spirit was leaving and the dog saw it. Then Yanis was o.k. Well, both Jodi and I thought it sounded like a seizure. So after more questions, we found out that this has happened before and started about a year and a half ago when Yanis was sick. So it could be cerebral malaria-which can cause you to have seizures. Either way he probably should be on medication for it. But this was a big piece of the puzzle because it gives us an idea of what might have happened with his leg. He may have been having a seizure and rolled into the fire. So Jodi and I were talking about how we should have a plan on what to do if he starts having a seizure while we are working on his foot. He usually sits up on a high table and could easily fall off. So far, fortunately, he hasn’t. His leg is doing much better. We continue to clean it and check it for infection and rewrap it every day. I am sending you pictures of Garth playing kick the can with the kids while Jodi and I cleaned his leg today. And pictures of Cale “playing” with Pak Pias and the snakes.
I am reminded on days like this how we really are in a different world over here. We are all doing things here that we would never do in the States. All of the experiences keep life interesting and full of excitement. Speaking of excitement, I killed a snake the other day. WHOAH! It wasn’t a very big snake. It was bright orange and the cats at the Olvers had it trapped. I grabbed a shovel and whacked it. I actually whacked it so hard I broke the shovel. That will look good on my resume someday. Ha Ha.
Alright, so much for that. I need to say “Good Night” to you all. Hope your day is full of snake smacking, leg cleaning, squat potting kind of fun!
Love ya,
Rachel
No comments:
Post a Comment