Where has the time gone?!

I've been here two months and the sadness of only having 4 weeks left here is slowly creeping up on me!

I missed a week of updates because it has been slow here and I felt like I didn't have much to share!

There hasn't been any plastic surgery since before Christmas, and slowly all of the kids from the ward are going to the Hope Center. We only have about 4 kiddos left but plastic surgery operations will resume on January 20th so it will quickly get busy. I went to the Hope center for church today and I met a few of the women awaiting surgery! One of them just had a baby 6 days ago, what a doll! Can't wait to get ALL the snuggles once her mom is admitted! 

One of my favorite experiences last week was going to the dress ceremony. The dress ceremony is a graduation ceremony for all of the women who have had surgery to repair obstetric fistulas from complicated births. These complications could be avoided with a C-section, but since a lot of people in Africa don't have access to medical care, they labor for days and finally vaginally deliver with infant mortality, severe complications, and tearing. I can't even imagine the pain they have endured. A lot of these women have leaked urine/feces for years.  At the dress ceremony the women all wear new dresses and they looked absolutely stunning! Chaplaincy led several songs and the women danced and sang. As they were dancing I got a little choked up thinking about the last time these women were able to dance without fear of leaking. It was pure joy to watch! The women spoke either English, French, or Fulfulde and every story was translated into the other two languages each time. Every woman got 2 minutes to tell their stories-they went something like this: "I have suffered for 2, 6, 9, 12, 14, 28 years" "My child had died by the time he was delivered""I don't have any living children" "I have had 1,2,3 previous surgeries without any help." "I was an outcast" and they all ended the same way- in such happiness to reveal that they were no longer leaking and their fistula had been healed! With the significant medical history, some of the women weren't completely healed but wanted to come to the dress ceremony anyway. It is sad that not everyone is able to leave completely healed, but it is also so refreshing to see someone SO grateful to the medical team for their care.  And I am so happy for the women who have been healed. I can't wait for them to return to their villages and communities healed! Below are some photos of the women dancing at the beginning of the ceremony. 

I haven't been the greatest at taking photos this week but one of the photographers took this photo with my favorite patient and mamma earlier this week. This week Marimou(the little girl I've been calling Kari) started calling me Mamma Sisi. I learned that in Fulfulde mom or Mommy is "NeNe" and that Mamma is what they call grandmas. Through broken english, broken french, and some fulfulde words I learned the difference between Nene and Mamma. Once I realized what she was trying to say I realized that she was calling me Marimou's grandma! Which *technically* is possible. The mother is 18, and had Marimou at 16, and I'm 16 years older than her Mamma. But still FAR from being a grandma 😂 Anyway, some Chaplaincy team members and nurses overheard Marimou call me this on the dock/ward this week and now they call me Mamma Sisi as well. Usually mamma is reserved for women my mom's age that also have their own children, and I'm usually called Tantine Sisi (which I think of as auntie).  Not a mamma yet but I'll take it as a compliment. 

Oh how I LOVE this sweet babe! 

 I'm not quite sure what I did in my spare time until two weeks ago. But we've done about a million puzzles since then! It started with just Chelsea and I, and we've slowly accrued quite the puzzling group!

My puzzle crew

Not sure what we did with our lives before we discovered the puzzles

 We went to the flower market both last weekend and this weekend to drop our fabric at at local tailor. I also shopped around for Souvenirs and learned to bargain. A phrase I picked up from my best friend  Lauren is "Get outta here" and I started saying that when they would offer me a price. They would laugh and I would laugh, then I would stick to my price and get the products for the price I wanted.  This guy kept saying "Pffff, just give me the money, give it." It was actually kinda fun and I bought more things that I had money and had to borrow from my friend Chelsea.

Flower market treasures

Wish I had room for it all!

SO pretty!

 My friend Chelsea and I both had pants made at the Flower market. Then one of my friends, named Christiane, offered to take us to her friend Violin's aunt who is tailor to have some dresses made. Both Violin and Christiane are from Cameroon and bilingual so I felt comfortable going places with them. We had fun seeing the local community and getting to spend some time away from work with the crew. What great gals! So I dropped off 21 yards of fabric and I'm having 6 items made, a bit much? Absolutely, but we're just trying to support the local economy 😂. She said we could come pick it up this next weekend but we're going to the Twin Crater Lakes for a weekend away. So we have to wait until the following week, I can't wait to see it all!

Our Tailor in her shop. She was so sweet and kind. I wish I could sew with her a day and learn a thing or two!

We only have three weekends left and I'm trying to pack in as much as I can in my time remaining here. We are going away for the weekend to the twin crater lakes to hike, swim, and stay in a villa. I can't wait!