Burn Care

As a result of the increased use of wood for cooking, we have seen an increase in the number of burns. During the past months, the clinic has cared for many burn patients, some minor and some fairly extensive. The girl shown below is a regular patient at the clinic. She came in recently with a facial burn that was 24 hours old. Our nurse Ling had seen the girl the night before and provided some basic care and a tetanus injection. The next morning when she came to our regular clinic, her eyes had swollen shut and the burns were causing her severe pain.

The first picture I was able to get was on day #3 after the burn. She was looking somewhat better by this time. We continued daily debridement and cleaning for her for more than 2 weeks. I was concerned about the amount of scarring that would occur but she did remarkably well. Even the pigment in her skin began to return after some time. She continues to do well and is seen at the clinic with the rest of her family.

Day # 7

Weeks later...

Cooking

A few months ago, I posted a picture of some kids dragging a bag of sticks they had gathered for their family to use in cooking.
( http://thegilmers.blogspot.com/2008/03/firewood.html ). I thought I would show you a picture of an actual kitchen in the home of one of our patients. This kitchen actually doubles as a restaurant in the front part of their home.

Boys collecting sticks on the road to our house

What's Shaking?

Last night, I left Allan and the kids downstairs watching a DVD of the Andy Griffith Show while I went upstairs to put on my jammies. While I was up there, I decided to do a couple sudoku puzzles. I was lying on the bed working one, when the bed began to shake. Then the windows began to rattle. Hmmm, I thought. "I wonder if they feel this downstairs?" The shaking stopped and I went back to my puzzle. A few minutes later Allan came to the kitchen to fix a drink. "Did you feel that shaking?" I asked. His reply was "What shaking?" "I think we just had an earthquake."
Allan and the kids soon joined me upstairs and the shaking was forgotten. About 9:15 Al got on the internet to check email and the news. "Hey Ginger, listen to this...'A 4.5-magnitude earthquake shook several portions of Luzon at 8:01 Sunday night, the Philippine Institute for Volcanology and Seismology said....'" The epicenter was quite a ways from us making our region only felt intensity 3 which causes little damage and not everyone can feel. That explains why Allan and the kids didn't feel it, but three floors up the house shook a bit. I do have to say living in the Pacific Ring of Fire is never dull- typhoons, tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes

Flame Tree

In 2001 before we went to Kenya, a friend recommended I read the book "The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood". It is the story of a 6 year old British girl who moves to Kenya with her family. I don't really remember too much about the book except the name and as far as I know we never saw a flame tree during the 9 weeks we were in Kenya. Naively, I thought this tree was indigenous to Africa. Imagine my surprise when we moved here to be told the beautiful tree in our back yard is a flame tree. Each year as hot season begins to draw to a close, the flame trees begin to bloom their bright orange blossoms. I love these trees. Their display of color is just gorgeous. It may even rank above Azaleas in Augusta, GA. So enjoy this view of our backyard. It is what I see when looking out the kitchen or bedroom windows.