Pictures...

More pictures... I had some good down time today to sit at the computer and upload pictures. Enjoy!

Candice with Feda. She burned her hands after falling into a fire. Candice just finished making a splint so that her fingers don't contract. 

Siblings... the one in the front looks older or at least the same age as the other one, but he is actually much younger. The one in the back (Merci Dieu) is being treated for malnutrition. 

A "gas station". People literally pull up on their motorcycles, buy a bottle of gas and put it in their tank right there. Much different from the gas stations I'm used to.

The dug out boats that we used to cross the river on the way to the river market. It was a small market on an "island" in the middle of the river. The market itself wasn't all that different from the market in Impfondo, but the trip there was a fun adventure. 

I love this picture. Most people here are not used to getting their pictures taking and NEVER smile. Although she looks kind of miserable, she was very pleasant.

Posing on the "beach". The sand was actually quite nice. We could have brought our beach towels and had a picnic!

One of the little boys at the market that I shook hands with. He gave me his hand, but his face looked like he was very scared! I hope we showed him that white people aren't all that bad :). 

Candice learning how to crush up spices. She makes a good African :)

This is Julie. She was admitted for malnutrition. It was Kwashiorkor type which means that she was deficient in protein. When she first came, she was swollen everywhere. Her face was all swollen, her hands and feet were really big and her belly was huge! She was also very miserable and wouldn't smile no matter how much I tried. She was given a special kind of milk that provided nutrition, but also helped her get rid of all the excess fluid she had on board. As soon as the edema went down, she was much happier. We found out that she has the cutest little smile and loves to be tickled. She has a shaved head because she had lice before coming in so her mom shaved off her hair. Unfortunately because she's malnourished, her hair is not growing back very quickly. She is adorable though. All of the kids here are, but out of all of them she is who I would bring home if I could! 

Merci Dieu, one of the children admitted for malnutrition getting every last drop of her milk! Like we mentioned before, it takes about a week, but after that they love their milk. It is wonderful to see them grow and look healthy and become happy. You can see that her hair still isn't very healthy, but she's getting much better.

This is the outdoor oven that we used to bake bread and cookies (sometimes cake and brownies)! It is a lot of fun. It's tough sometimes getting the fire going, but once it's going, the oven (a barrel in cement) heats up quickly. It's a little tough controlling the temperature (well, you really can't control the temperature), so you just have to check frequently so the goodies don't burn! All of the ingredients for things don't really exist here, so sometimes we have to get creative, but for the most part we've had some great desserts and snacks :).