Bush Beat BlogF   FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA” DATE: Sept.24,2016 FALLING FROM A TREE TODAY SERIOUSLY INJURES ONE OF OUR ORPHANS As I was busy writ­ing this blog, 3 neigh­bor­hood men walked up to my home car­ry­ing 9 year old orphan, Fer­nan­do.  He was uncon­scious after tak­ing a face first fall from a man­go tree near­by.  Seems his grand­moth­er was work­ing in her field, and did not know Fer­nan­do had run off with 2 of his bud­dies to climb this tree out in the bush..  His “friends” ran off and left him when he fell, for he was uncon­scious after hit­ting the ground.  When the 2 men found him uncon­scious, they put him in a sling and car­ried him to my house.   I am so grate­ful these men found him, or he could have been lay­ing out there for many hours before any­one missed his presence.  Thank­ful­ly, he began to open his eyes and tried to sit up, as we placed him on a mat­tress in the back of my pick-up truck.  I thought these men would then leave, but they jumped right in and helped me take him to the hos­pi­tal.   At the Emer­gency Room, we were met by Dr. Nam­posa who imme­di­ate­ly start­ed an IV of Man­na­tol (drug that reduces brain swelling).  As I write this, Fer­nan­do opened his eyes and cried when his IV was start­ed, but did not show any fight.  He is dis­ori­ent­ed and unable to speak.  He did respond with a head shake and cries of pain as we touched his ribs.  This ribs are bad­ly bruised at the least, but there are no obvi­ous fractures. Please excuse me as I cut this blog short, I will be going back to the hospital. I’ll keep you post­ed as it will be at least 24 hours before we know how bad his head injury is. SEPTEMBER FOOD GIVE OUTS A DUSTY JOB   This 12 year old girl fetch­ing BEANS.  She came alone to fetch food for her and her grand­moth­er who is too weak to make the walk to the dis­tri­b­u­tion sit     Baby San­dra, 14 months and now walk­ing well, enjoys play­ing with the rim from a bicy­cle.  Our chil­dren enjoy sim­ple toys, and many of the old­er chil­dren make their own toys.  Sparks imag­i­na­tion and improves their con­struc­tion skills.   Sun­day school lead­ers, Berti­no and Daude using our lit­tle boy and lion pup­pets to teach the chil­dren that Rebel­lion is a sin with dire con­se­quences. (Lit­tle boy skipped school, and went to play in the woods.  The lion found him and ate him up, for he was play­ing where he was not sup­posed to be.)  We try to keep our sto­ries as cul­tur­al­ly sen­si­tive as pos­si­ble, as it helps the sto­ry “stick”.  Girls Sun­day after­noon soc­cer com­pe­ti­tion a bit hit with the neigh­bor­hood children. Cape­na, our office man­ag­er who dou­bles as our expert orphan field rep. (in coor­di­na­tion with Social Ser­vices and the 22 vil­lage lead­ers), vis­it­ed the homes of 1138 orphans and their grand­moth­ers or aunts.  These chil­dren live in 22 dif­fer­ent vil­lages scat­tered across Bala­ma Dis­trict, so it’s a BIG JOB that takes at least 12 long days to accom­plish. The objec­tive is to deter­mine which homes with orphans still need our food assis­tance, and who is now able to be independent.   The num­bers below reflect the hard work per­formed by our 10 man team who loads and unloads EACH SACK (132 lbs/60kg) BY HAND, or rather African style “on their HEAD”.  It’s hard work, but our team of very strong men make it look easy. Our vis­i­tors who have tried lift­ing the sacks can tell you it’s not a job for weaklings. With our 2 trucks han­dling 4 to 5 tons per load ( weights must be reduced due to bad roads), these give outs are a 4 to 6 hour event at each dis­tri­b­u­tion site (depend­ing on the dis­tance we must trav­el).  Our clos­est dis­tri­b­u­tion is only 9 miles out in the bush (45 minute dri­ve), but the remain­ing sites are between 12 and 18 miles into the bush.  Nine­ty min­utes is the norm to cov­er those 18 miles on rough, dusty, dirt roads with many holes.   September’s give out amounts are as follows: CORN: 20.1 TONS (334 sacks) BEANS:  5.69 TONS (540) SOAP: 19 CASES  (1138 pieces) SALT:  18 SACKS (360 kg/2.2 lbs) No fork­lifts here, just a lot of strong men who know how to han­dle these sacks. Bless­ings, Bush Bun­ny Bren­da Lange Bala­ma Staff “Bush Bun­ny” Bren­da Lange