Sensory Overload or Exhaustion

I am trying to figure out if I am on sensory overload or just exhausted. But either way I am truly grateful to a great God that sustains us regardless of circumstances.

The sensory overload comes from way too many visits to clinic/hospitals in Niamey in the last week and a half. Some of these clinics were nice and others not so much, but all included really long waits and entertaining two preschoolers (because their mom was with us to translate for the sick person). I will try to give you a glimpse of one such visit: we thought this visit was going to take a half an hour while we waited to get an appointment date. Instead we spent four and a half hours entertaining a really tired three year old. He eventually fell asleep in my arms with the sweat pouring from both of us. I wasn’t able to put him down because the only place that I could have laid him on was the tile floor that I noticed had drops of blood here and there. (It was one time that I wished I had worn a head wrap—I would have gladly sacrificed messy hair for a little less heat). While I sat in this pool of sweat in the hallway in the emergency ward, I noticed a cat wonder in and out of the rooms nearby like it owned the place. I can’t even begin to describe the smells. After a number of trips to the pharmacy (where I had to buy everything from a plastic drop sheet to be used in the examination process, to a bottle of bleach), and 4 ½ hours later everything was completed including the original procedure that we thought we would only be booking. I just wish that I could say this was the only day like this instead of one of many…

The exhaustion comes from the heat and power issues. We are in the heart of the hot season and so there is a huge drain on everyone here. But to make matter worse we have been experiencing numerous blackouts, both day and night. (I suspect everyone is desperate for A/C and it’s overloading the system which was already underserviced either that or it is related to the situation in Nigeria, the source of our electricity.) For example, last night the power went off about two hours before I wanted to go to bed, when bedtime rolled around it was still out and the temperature in our room was 37.9C or 99.9F with no hope of fan, let alone air conditioning. The power did come back on, only to go off again. Unfortunately, the power outs also mean water cuts at our house. Luckily we were able to go out and buy a couple of cases of drinking water today.

Please pray for us as we try to persevere gracefully and share the love of Christ with those who are suffering with us. Pray also that we will have the strength to make it through the packing process without getting too caught up in looking toward going to Canada.

PS Could someone remind me next fall that I really want a camping fan for Christmas (the kind that runs on cordless drill batteries)and maybe a lantern, especially when I am being tempted by iphones, itouches, tvs and all the other great technology available in Canada.