One of the few suicide attempts I have seen here...

    A young boy, probably 14 years old, came in a couple of weeks ago with the complaint that he couldn't eat. He had sores around his mouth so I  told him I needed to look in his mouth. His tongue was covered with big sores which we found out were burns. He had tried to swallow some chemical used to spray in the gardens to kill himself. We don't think he swallowed much but he definitely got a lot in his mouth. The sores on his nose and around his mouth were from that too.

So we tried to find out what made him want to kill himself. His sister had brought him in and she said he tried to kill himself because he got spanked too often. Well, up here there isn't much we can do unless we actually see signs/symptoms of abuse and his symptoms were from the burns so... We couldn't really do anything except give him pain medicine and some protein drinks. He hasn't been back so only God knows what is happening there.
     Last week we had two children come to us with old burns. The first one was a three year old brought in by her grandma. She has burns all around her elbow and a few smaller  places on her torso. The grandma said she wasn't there when it happened but apparently the child fell onto a pot of food. When we asked how many days ago this had happened she didn't know for sure, probably eight or ten days ago. The burn was all dried out and had nothing on it and they had no pain medicine. I really can't imagine how painful that must have been. It was too dry for me to even attempt to clean the wound so I put some cream on it and a bandage and told her to come back. We never know if these people will come back for burn care or not because the first thing we do is put a dressing on it and they are taught to NEVER cover a burn. I'm not sure why they feel that way but I think they really have to have faith to come back for more dressing changes. This lady did bring the little girl back though and she has had 3 dressing changes so far. I am very happy with how it is healing.

 Today I had to laugh at the little girl though. While I was getting everything ready to do the dressing change I gave the little girl a sucker. Her grandma unwrapped it for her and handed it to her. She knew what was coming next and knew a sucker couldn't stop it so she threw it all the way across the room.
    The second child came with a burn to his hand, wrist, and arm. He is 11 years old. His burn was only five days old when they first came but they brought him because it was so painful he couldn't sleep at night. He has had one dressing change. This one looks like it will heal very nicely also. I'm just trusting they will keep coming back.
  Last Friday a young man came in and his complaint was that he couldn't hear. I looked in his ears and decided I would clean them with q-tips to start with. That didn't cut it. I had to wash them out and got amazing results from BOTH ears. I wouldn't have been able to hear either. It was just like as if he had had ear plugs in. Then I remember that these people have probably never even seen such a thing as a q-tip, let alone having money to buy them!
   Another man came in last week with a puncture wound to the back of his leg. It was very dirty. Then he says he can't tell us a lie so he will tell us what he did for it. First he had someone pour battery acid in it... I don't know why... Then he put sand in it! We got him some antibiotics and he is coming several times a week for dressing changes. Today I got more sand out of it when I cleaned it.
  Ok, that's all for now.

FYI - I am planning to stay here through December or January,  hopefully by then we will have found someone to take my place. I will gladly read emails if anyone cares to send them ;)
atoews5225@gmail.com