sickness

Something that's inevitable, but dreaded is sickness. In Africa, whenever a fever is involved in a sickness, malaria is always suspected. Last weekend, Elena came down with fever and severe headache. These were the exact symptoms she had last time when her blood was tested for malaria. Since it was late and getting a test was not going to be easy, we decided to go and treat her as if it were malaria. She began to get better and by Sunday, was doing well. However, by Monday evening she had her headache again and by Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning (early) she was running fever again. She and I spent the entire morning waiting to see the Dr. yesterday. She was really miserable. He looked her over, cleaned some really gross stuff out of her ears (she can finally hear really well!) and said her throat was slightly infected. They also did a blood test to check for malaria. (By the way, the poor thing had to have her thumb pricked 4 times because the guy couldn't find blood!) She is now on antibiotics for her throat and another malaria med for that. These malaria meds really work fast. She slept well last night and, apart from a slight headache today, feels much better.

Please pray for us to remain healthy especially as right now is the malaria season with lots of standing water for mosquitoes to breed in. Thanks for all of you who knew about Elena yesterday and prayed for her. I just didn't get the chance to write to everyone asking for prayer. Praise God, she is now on the mend!!

Another thing is that we are going for holiday to Benin, leaving tomorrow. We'll stop in Kara, quite a way north of here, to visit friends and then on to Benin to speak German for a week. We're all excited to get away! Please pray for safety on these roads and a good time with friends. Thanks.