Malaria, Typhoid Fever, and Exciting Additions!

Traveling to third world countries comes with many of its own risks. One of those being that there is a very likely chance that one may get sick. I have had malaria twice before on some of my previous trips to Africa, so I knew this time while being in Africa for so many weeks I was taking a risk again of getting malaria. This time I was determined to do everything in my power to make sure I stayed healthy to make the most of my time here in Sierra Leone. I called my doctor before leaving for my trip and explained to her that this isn’t my first rodeo and I need them to prepare me with the best medicine to treat malaria. They again gave me the same preventative medicine I have always taken for my trip. She assured me that I shouldn’t get malaria this time as long as I took my medicine every day. 

Some things are just out of our control. Malaria found me again. But this time something was different. I continued to have fevers and headaches even after our clinics best efforts to treat me for malaria with all of the medication they had. 

After receiving multiple IV’s for several days and my condition not getting any better, we decided it was time to go to the hospital to see if they could do anything different. The head doctor of the hospital decided he wanted to run more tests on me to see if they could find anything different. Tests showed that I had malaria along with typhoid fever. I was admitted into the hospital where they administered multiple treatments that slowly helped me recover. I had so many people come and check in on me which meant the world to me, but I was so scared. It’s frightening being sick in a third world country and continually having people not know exactly what’s wrong. 

I laid in the hospital bed with Dorcas lying next to me. Even though I felt miserable, being sick bonded us together. I relied on her as if she was my own mother. She comforted me, held my hand, and most importantly made me laugh until it hurt, taking my mind off of everything. 

As I was admitted into the emergency room for something fairly insignificant to the people in Sierra Leone; others had been admitted for much more serious illnesses and injuries. A man lying in the bed next to me had been taken to the ER that day for burns covering his body from his neck to his waist. I winced just looking at him. After the head doctor had been done treating me, he went and visited every other patient in the E.R. What a miracle that was. He is usually held up in meetings or in the office all day, but that day he was able to see more patients than he normally ever does. 

Grandma Dorcas later learned that the doctor had also decided to perform a surgery himself on a woman in the ward I was in which turned out to save her life. The man with the burns all over his body was also treated by this doctor, where he made sure he was getting proper care and medication for his accident. I don’t think it’s a mistake that I got sick and was sent to the E.R. I am so thankful to Grandma Dorcas and my doctors for taking such good care of me here! 

There are so many children waiting to find their forever home here in Sierra Leone. Our deep desire is to bring more of these girls to MamaLand but we must have enough quality house mothers to care for them. All I know is that God’s timing is absolutely perfect. Dorcas and I got to interview two house mothers who we have decided to hire before I became ill. I got to interview both moms and get to know them hours before I got sick. It is incredibly exciting to think that we will be able to bring more house moms and children into our program very soon!!

Thank you for your prayers for me and this program. MamaLand, Dorcas, Ali, Devin, Beth, and I could not be more thrilled to begin this next chapter with our growing Salone family. More updates to come!