Pokey Little Puppies

Brendan, our teammate’s son, turned 2 years old on the 21st. He had a puppy theme for his party. This picture is of our kids getting prepared for the party. I wonder which one in our family is most like the Pokey Little Puppy?

The X-Ray

The Baka seemed intrigued with the X-ray of Boaz’ broken bone. I’m sure some of them have seen an X-ray before. We took a teenaged boy to the hospital last year to test for TB and we brought back the X-ray of his lungs.

We aren’t totally clear on what the Baka do for a broken bone. They say that they find a certain “medicine” from the forest that they rub on the area and it hardens and helps the bone to heal. Our Bantu neighbor explained to us what they do for a broken leg. They wrap it up in a splint, making it immobile. Then they break the leg of one of their chickens and when their chicken starts walking on that leg again, they say that their leg is healed as well and they can start walking on it.

Cast Signing

CastThe Baka were a bit shy at first to write on Boaz’ cast. Our neighbors and the villagers down the road have been coming the past 2 weeks, curious to see Boaz. They think that we foreigners are strange for going to the lengths that we go to when it comes to health and medicine. But they sure don’t mind when we go to those lengths for them when they have medical emergencies.

Back to Bakaland

We've been back in the bush since Thursday evening. Everyone came visiting
to see Boaz' cast. He was a little shy and preferred to stay inside most of
the weekend.

Saturday we had a cast signing party. We explained the tradition, and said
they could sign their names if they knew how, or they could just draw
something if they wanted to. It was really cute to see some of the little
kids scribbling a little. One of the teen-agers wrote in English: I love
you. We were impressed. There was a Baka man, named Naya, who's about 45
years old who wanted to make his mark too. So, he wrote "AYA" then got
upset, and crossed it out, and tried again, this time successfully with
"NAYA" (all caps). Can you imagine a life where you seldom write your own
name...and really have to concentrate to do it?

Life is getting back to normal. People are coming to the door asking for
money and work; the rain storms are pounding on our roof; we killed a
Boomsling (though it may have been a Green Mamba) snake right outside our
house; the mangoes are falling off the trees...

Boaz is enjoying the tire swing here at CTC in Youande. He's got a good attitude about all of this and is thinking up ways to have fun with his cast on. We are going back home on Wednesday. Can't wait to see how the Baka respond to Boaz and the cast. We are hoping to have a signing party...of course not many of the older generations can read or write so we'll see how that goes.

Boaz got his cast on this morning. It goes from around his chest down to his toes on his right leg. He enjoyed being in the wheel chair and cruising around the hospital compound with all of us. Too bad we'll have to leave the wheel chair here...but then again, there aren't too many wheel chair accessible places in the rainforest where we live! Tomorrow we leave for Yaounde, then back home sometime next week.

Beyond these 4 walls

This is the view Boaz will get to see tomorrow, when the doctors take him off traction and put on a cast (Spika cast?? - it will go around his waist and down his leg past his knee). He's really looking forward to going outside for the first time in 13 days.

It's been 12 days since Boaz fell out of a tree and broke his femur, 11 days since he's been on his back with his legs up in traction. We are finding things to do, friends to play with, books to read and movies to watch. The days are going pretty well, but the nights are still full of discomfort and fussing. The doctor says that he'll put a cast on Boaz either Thursday or Friday. We can't wait to take him outside for a little fresh air.

Mongulu

How would you like to live here? This is a leaf hut that is a temporary Baka house. It is built behind a more permanent mud-stick house...the Mother-in-law suit?

Number ONE

Here's our first Blog.