Saturday, May 19, 2012

The Zambian Legacies

Bilharzia:  a tropical disease acquired by swimming in infected tropical waters.  So says the BBC website.

We've got it.  I could stick a little picture of it on here, if I could.  If I do, please know Evangel or James helped me (i.e. did it for me).  My friend Margie sent me a picture of one, taken through a microscope. 

It's kind of exciting to have an unusual (to us) tropical disease.  Our doctor does follow up on us!  How cool is that?!?  He has called SMS ed (texted), and emailed me.  Someone should make a movie about him, but he doesn't look like Billy Ray Cyrus. 

Also someone from a data base called to ask questions, and that made us feel so, so...documented. 

But, as tropical diseases go, this one is not too bad.  No fevers, vomiting, or the big D, just a few headaches and joint pains.  I guess we caught it in time because it can be deadly if left for years.  It's a parasite that can eat things if left alone, but those joint pains bothered me enough to schedule a doctor's appointment, and he tested for malaria, typhoid and Bilharzia. 

It takes awhile to diagnose, so I was a few days getting diagnosed, then another couple of days to get the treatment.  As soon as I knew I had it, we had to get the rest of the gang tested too, so we had a fun family outing to get poked.  I got the idea the nurses thought we were rather an interesting case.

The treatment is just two doses of pills, taken right at bedtime as they cause nausea.  Not too bad!  In 2 weeks we'll re-test to make sure we're bug free, or snail free. 

Another legacy makes me laugh.  :-)  In Puta there was a kindergarten teacher who had her little class of little kids sing the same song every day, several times. 

"Finger one, finger one,
Where are you?
Finger two, finger two,
Where are you?"

Only it sounds more like
"Fingah, one, fingah one,
Way ah you?"

Well, now that we're home, we'll all be working diligently on our homeschool, writing, or whatever, and someone will just burst out, "Fingah one, fingah one, Way ah you?''

Some advertising guru out to get that tune, because it is definitely a sticky one, that people will remember and sing. 

And what legacy did we leave in Zambia?  Hopefully they remember a group that loved them enough to brave the Great North Road for the reason of telling them about the hope of a home in heaven.  Some of them saw Paul preach about Jesus and draw pictures to explain.  I hope there are now brothers and sisters that will grow and we will meet them in Heaven someday, and we'll laugh about how strange they thought we were, and how God used our strangeness to peak their curiousity, and change their eternal destiny.  Sounds like a lofty goal on this cold, rainy Saturday, but "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high places."    And "we hope for that we see not."

Our God is able!

1 comment: