Life in Tsiko

You can probably understand that internet connections in a tiny town in Africa aren't so consistent, so that's my excuse for not regularly blogging these days.  My other doozie of an excuse is that I've been busy.  Tsiko is a pretty fun and exciting place!

We've continued our twice-daily visits to the hospital and have gotten to know the staff and some of the patients.  Kylie and I are regulars there so we've gotten to see some pretty interesting stuff.  Some pretty real and raw stuff.  That's another whole blog post about tiny premie babies, crazy amounts of malaria cases that cause death, and hospital care in Africa in general.

IF you're sensitive to yucky photos, just scroll quickly through the next couple of photos.

The other day I got to "scrub in" (don't I sound so doctor-y??) for a c-section.  AND I didn't barf or pass out.  I watched the whole thing and it was incredible!  

Here's me with Dr. Dave and Todd.  Post-c-section -- we're smiling under those masks!

Here's Todd working on the Mom's uterus, making sure it's healthy and strong.

The sad part of this petit photo journal is that I didn't get a photo of the baby girl when she was just coming out. I had no idea HOW FAST c-sections went.  I sat on my little stool watching and thinking I had 10 or 15 minutes to get my camera ready and in less than 3 minutes, I heard Todd saying, "Here she is!"  I was totally unprepared!

And here's Mom being stitched up - nastiness!

 And here's our sweet baby girl!!  

(Her auntie is holding her.)

In other news, we are excited to show you our Kylie walking -- on her own two feet!!

She went from being carried, to crutches and now walking on her own.  She's so good at getting IV's in her hand that she can now rate the nurse on how good he or she is.  I think she's up to 8 IV sites now, but she's so tough she just waits patiently while they do it.

This is what Todd did when Kylie walked over to see him at his house!  Happy doc, happy girl!

Yesterday we went to the village of Kpalime.  It's a beautiful town surrounded by mountains.  We drove up two different mountain and I took photos, but because Harmattan is so bad and there's so much dust in the air, we couldn't see clearly.  So here's what it looks like from the top of Mt. Agou during Harmattan season.  (Teddy thought the name of this mountain was Mountain Dew.)

A beautiful road-side waterfall.

Little Red Ted exploring at the bottom of the waterfall.

 So that's us.  The week has gone by quickly.  Nate started working in Kpalime at the Blind School helping rebuild a bridge and had to suffer EVERY DAY by driving his motorcycle through the mountains to get to and from work.  He's such a trooper.  

The kids and I got back to school in a feeble attempt at normal life here in Tsiko. We also swam at the pool, watched a movie with friends and the boys played with the DeKryger boys (they have four boys of similar ages, so it works great.)

Our plan was to have Kylie finish all her meds by this coming Wednesday, stay here in Tsiko til my brother Derek arrives here in Togo on Saturday (yahoooooo!) and then head north to our home in Mango.  But Kylie had a little procedure on her foot this morning and some yucky stuff came out of the wound in the back of her heel, so our plan might change a little depending on how long they will continue her on IV antibiotics. 

Time will tell. And for now, life is Tsiko is pretty calm and pretty sweet.  We are so thankful to our Father in Heaven and thankful to you for all your prayers.