Happy New Year

    It has been relatively quiet here for the past week. On New Year's Eve it was just Lacey, April and I at the house and we were tired so didn't stay up to watch the new year come in at all. There have been a few clinic calls now and then but nothing worth even writing about.  Life is so fragile here that sometimes when people get sick they just get scared. They think they have a very serious malady when they have vomited x3 today but have no pain anywhere. I'm sure they think too of someone they knew who maybe wasn't even sick for one day and died- whatever the cause may have been- cholera, heart attack, stroke etc... It can sometimes be very frustrating to me but to them it is very real.
   Tonight for church we had a service with Savann Mouton especially for the youth. All of the youth got together earlier in the afternoon then everyone was invited in the evening for a service with special songs and bible questions. We had teams of youth boys against youth girls for the bible quiz and it got quite animated!
    One more thing I was going to write about at Previle... Christmas afternoon we were walking to someone's house and had to pass through the yard of the local witch doctor. He was outside and there were several other people there also. We suspect someone had come and paid him money for a good luck charm or something of that sort. The witch doctor was holding a chicken in his hands, then he would spit on the chicken and rub it in. It was rather interesting to watch for a few minutes but I doubt whether any good came of it. Then that night when we were attempting to sleep they were having a party of some kind at this witch doctors house. There were drums beating, hollering and singing and all kinds of carrying on. They continued until sometime in the early morning hours. It was far enough away it didn't keep me awake but I don't think everyone in the house could say that.
     Clinic is open tomorrow for all maladies not only " emergencies" so???


P.S. I am putting in a plea for someone to come here and work in the clinic. I am planning on returning home around the first of February and as of yet we don't have anyone on the horizon to come. Please consider this, you won't regret it.