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FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: FEBRUARY 11, 2023
 
5 INFANTS RECEIVED YOUR HELPING HAND
 
On Thurs­days, the infants in our milk for­mu­la pro­gram from all over the county/district come to our mis­sion sta­tion to be checked, weighed, and giv­en their milk for­mu­la and baby cere­al. The fol­low­ing 5 infants all came to us this last Thurs­day.
 
FIRST was the 3‑week-old orphan, Joao, whom you read about 2 weeks ago. Joao’s Aunt has her own 6‑month-old baby, and it was obvi­ous that baby Joao was not receiv­ing the care he need­ed. He had con­sis­tent­ly lost weight since his Aunt took over his care three weeks pri­or, AND he has had a low grade fever for sev­er­al days which she did noth­ing about. It was time for action on Joao’s behalf. Cape­na, our office man­ag­er, took Joao and the Aunt straight to the hos­pi­tal. Social Ser­vices was imme­di­ate­ly noti­fied, and they came right over to see the infant. They agreed that Joao need­ed care that the Aunt wasn’t able to pro­vide. The Aunt grudg­ing­ly allowed the infant to be admit­ted into our fam­i­ly once Joao’s oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers agreed he should live with us. 
 

Newest mem­ber of our fam­i­ly, Joao/John, just 1 month old with Fos­ter Moth­er, Mar­i­ano.
 
SO WE HAVE 1‑MONTH-OLD JOAO NOW LIVING IN HOUSE NUMBER 6!
 
JOAO/JOHN needs a $40/month spon­sor since he will stay per­ma­nent­ly with us.
 
SECOND, the now 9‑day-old infant girl, Nel­cia, who was admit­ted into the milk pro­gram as a 1‑day-old infant last week, is now very sick and unable to take a bot­tle. She was brought in with a mouth full of thrush (fun­gus), and an infect­ed umbil­i­cal cord. BOTH are life threat­en­ing if not treat­ed. She was admit­ted to the hos­pi­tal, and our sub­sti­tute moth­er, Mari­amo, is assist­ing her. This sto­ry will con­tin­ue as this lit­tle one fights for her life.
 

9‑day old Nel­cia now in hos­pi­tal for thrush and umbil­i­cal infec­tions.
 
THIRD, Noon time:  A PREMIE NAMED JANETA, WEIGHING 1 KG/2.2 LBS was brought to us.   Her moth­er died after being trans­ferred from the Bala­ma Hos­pi­tal to the Mon­tepuez Region­al Hos­pi­tal due to her com­pli­cat­ed pre­ma­ture labor.  
 

Pre­ma­ture Jane­ta, 8‑days old. Sad­ly, the bot­tle is big­ger than her 1kg/2.2lb. body.
 
This extreme­ly frag­ile lit­tle girl could bare­ly suck a bot­tle, so prayers are need­ed for her sur­vival. She is in the care of her fam­i­ly, and her chances in this envi­ron­ment are not good.
 
AT 3 PM, I thought my work­day was done, when in walks a cou­ple with their TWO-DAY-OLD TWIN GIRLS! This fam­i­ly was sent by Social Ser­vices to our mis­sion sta­tion because the moth­er has mul­ti­ple abscess­es on both breasts and can­not breast feed. These girls, Rosel­da and Rosa, both weighed in at 2.7 kg/5.9 lbs. each.  
 

Twin girls receive 1st milk for­mu­la as Fati­ma, Assis­tant Chil­dren’s Direc­tor, teach­es the moth­er how to pre­pare the bot­tle.
 
They should do very well if the par­ents are dili­gent in clean­ing the bot­tles and using boiled water. Only time will tell.
 
Need­less to say, my staff and I were EXHAUSTED by the end of this day!
But it was a hap­py tired, as we had helped 5 lit­tle lives, giv­ing them a chance to sur­vive.
 
YOUR LOVE GIFTS MAKE THIS POSSIBLE, AND FOR THAT MY ENTIRE STAFF SENDS THEIR THANKS!
 

SNEAKY SNAKE COMES CALLING
 
This very fat ADDER (Rat­tlesnake fam­i­ly but no rat­tle) was hid­ing in the tall grass that had grown up in a few days around our Moringa trees. The fos­ter moth­ers use the very nutri­tious Moringa leaves in our children’s food, so it is nec­es­sary to keep the grass cut down in the rainy sea­son so they can safe­ly get to the trees. Due to mul­ti­ple days with heavy rains, we were unable to keep the fast-grow­ing grass under con­trol, thus it was over 1.5 meters/5 feet tall by this last Fri­day.


Sneaky Snake met his match!
 
Sneaky Snake was enjoy­ing his good hid­ing place in the grass as he searched out fat rats for his meals.  We don’t mind him eat­ing the rats, but because the ADDER is one of the biggest killers in all of Africa, his pres­ence was unwant­ed. So, our men cut­ting the grass found him, mak­ing short work of this ven­omous killer.
 

PREPARING FOR PRE-SCHOOL

ON A HAPPY NOTE, tod­dlers Julio and Fati­ma are super hap­py as they get to start pre-school next week! Our orig­i­nal 13 infants are grow­ing up fast!
 

Almost 3, Julio and Fati­ma start pre-school!
 
BLESSINGS, AND MUCH THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND KINDNESS IN GIVING TO OUR PROGRAM.
 
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF