Yay! Ceiling Fans!!!

2/26/09 @ 7:30

Queen is a nurse that is from Nigeria but works and lives in Minnesota. She works at United, the hospital in Saint Paul that I used to work at before moving to Des Moines. Queen owns a 9 bedroom house about an hour and a half away from the village where we are working. She has taken us to her house for the night (and possibly tomorrow night too). Her house is not super luxurious or anything, but after last night it is heaven on earth. She has ceiling fans, and some of her rooms even have air-conditioning! The windows have screens, too, so we won’t need to use our mosquito bed nets. Also, she has a shower! Queen has been wonderful - she's a wonderful person and she is very protective of us here. We are so lucky to have her with us!

This weekend we are going to a different village to work. We will be doing the same things as part of the same program to detect and treat malaria, and improve the health of children there in general through Vitamin A supplementation and de-worming treatment.

Steph just came in and told me she has located our first cockroach. He’s lying belly-up on what has just now been identified by her as my side of the bed for tonight. At least he's belly-up (dead). What a friend. (-:

Thanks for checking in and I’m sorry it took so long for me to get something posted on here. I appreciate your thoughts and prayers while I’m here. I feel like I’m truly part of an amazing effort here in Nigeria, one that has already saved the lives of kids in the village. I am confident that this project’s plan of attack is both appropriate and effective. It seems to be well-organized and as efficient as anything can be here in Nigeria!

Good night!