Happenings at the Hospital

Message from Jean Selle

I don't think there will be an excess of blogs while I am here since the internet is rather sporadic. I really want to show you all pictures from here so I will continue to try.

Joan and I met Eric at Tenwek Hospital on Thursday so he could introduce us to the workers in the nursery. We volunteered to help where needed and it was decided we could come at 9:00 a.m. every week day to help at one of the feedings. Let me tell you, it is a lot more involved with these little preemies! The majority of babies in the nursery are not preemies but those we fed were under 2 kilograms (under 4 lbs.)

You can see Joan holding one baby. The baby is a twin. The mother had been ill and needed help with caring for her twins. We each had one of the girls to wash and then feed. We sat on a little stool in front of the incubator and washed the babies with little cotton balls and water (soap in the creases!). Next we gently massaged vaseline into their skin. After that we fed the babies with a cup! (Sort of like a little plastic shot glass.) Mothers express milk and it is combined with formula to make a determined amount of liquid. The baby gets some of the milk via the cup and then the rest is given through a feeding tube leading into the stomach through the nose. I asked Eric why there were no bottles and apparently due to difficulty in sterilizing at home, other than a cup, breast-feeding is only recommended. The student nurse who worked with Joan and me patiently had us do all of this on our own and explained as we worked. Meanwhile the nursery is very warm, as it should be, but by the time we leave we feel we have just had a spa treatment and have sweated out all of our toxins!

Today the mother wanted to care for one of the babies so I washed a different little girl and her mother fed her.

We have donated the toys to the pediatrics ward of the hospital. For now the toys are stored in a storage unit and sometime next week we will take some of them into the ward and hand them out. Periodically, the toys will be given out at the ward as there are new patients. Apparently the storage unit is in chaos so Rachel volunteered Joan and me to organize it while we are here.

It rained the first few days we were here but since then it has been warm during the day but always cool at night. Kids play outside all day long. Anna, one of the "McCropder" kids found a chameleon and gave it to us. You can see it here with Rachel and Maggie. We put it on the hanging veggie/fruit basket and it happily consumes fruit flies. Afraid our little Mwizi (means thief) may not be getting enough to eat, we take him for walks every so often and let him snatch up extra flies sitting on the sidewalk. Mwizi has an exceptionally long tongue and a deadly aim.

Well, believe it or not, I have been working on this entry since around 9 a.m. and it is now 4 p.m. so I now understand why I don't get pictures and messages from Rachel every day!

Please keep us and Tenwek in your prayers!

Jean Selle