SUBJECT: Jungle Life - accidents, insects, and garden

AUTHOR: Betsy Burgdorff, her husband Ted, and three girls - Heidi, Kristen, and Kara, work with her sister Becky Gates and family in the village of Kaikan, Guyana.

DATE: December 17, 1996

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! I wish we could all be together for Christmas. We are having a tropical Christmas here, hot and humid and green. We do have a few reminders that Christmas is coming, such as practicing with all the school kids for the Christmas program, listening to our Christmas tapes, and our little tiny Christmas trees and nativity set.

We heard on the radio last night, talking with Pastor Kwashi in Georgetown, that David is planning to come in 2 weeks. That was good news. We hope he is able to bring the plane to Kaikan soon, and that it doesn't get tied up in red tape somewhere. We won't feel as isolated when he gets the plane here. He is supposed to be bringing microscopes and instructions for doing blood

Lady Weaver and Child

smears for malaria. That will be very nice. So far we have treated 13 people for what we assume was malaria, 3 children (1 yr., 3 yrs., 6 yrs.) and 10 adults. But it will be nice to know for sure. We've had 54 patient visits so far. Some of those were the same patient on several visits. Well, make that 55! We just had a little 2-year-old girl come who had put a seed in her nose. We couldn't really see anything. If it's still there, it's so far back we can't do anything about it.

On Sunday, the head elder's 14-year-old son, Benson, got a head injury that was kind of scary. He threw a 2-foot long stick up to knock some fruit out of a tree. The stick was sharpened at the ends with a machete, so they were pointed. Apparently the stick stuck up in the tree, and when he bent to pick up the fruit, it came loose, falling straight down and hitting him on the left side of his head, leaving a 1 1/2" gap. It knocked him out for a few seconds, and when he came to and tried to get up, he found he couldn't use his right arm. When we saw him, he had feeling in his hand, but no movement from the elbow down. We suspected a skull fracture and didn't feel comfortable dealing with it without x-ray or anything, so we recommended he go to a hospital. Fortunately they were able to make radio contact with someone and arrange a flight out that afternoon. We have since heard that he had 3 small skull fractures. They sewed him up, and he's doing OK. We haven't heard specifically about his hand, but hope that is OK. He is a very talented guitar player and plays in church every week.

We just saw another patient. Don't know if I'll be able to finish this before the plane gets here! Last night I dug a bunch of eggs out of the bottom of Kara's foot, and this morning dug a jigger out of my toe. It was just a little black spot on my little toe, which had been hurting for 3-4 days. We all looked at it through the 30X magnifier. You could see it moving its legs. It's smaller than a flea, about 1/4 the size maybe. When Kristen saw it, she said, "I want to go back to the States!" We're trying to get used to the chiggers and the jiggers!

It's going to be nice having an unmaterialistic Christmas for once. The kids have been busy making gifts for each other, quite creative! I decided to

Handmade Christmas Gifts

make some little dolls and doll house for Kara for her birthday. You have to get very creative when your resources are so limited. I've made 2 dolls so far from a pair of panties that the dog chewed a hole in. They are stuffed with foam "peanuts" that came with the meds Dr. Lara sent. The hair is made from a piece of yellow rope that Becky got off of something. Clothes are made from the bottom pieces of my dresses that I cut off. Ted has already made a darling chair and table. Kristen made a little wash tub from the bottom of a soda can, and a tiny scrub board from a piece of wood. We're having fun racking our brains and being creative.

We've started school at home again, but our books are very limited, since most are still in Georgetown. We're hoping there will be something on the plane for us today, but my hopes aren't up too high. None of our things came last week, but we did get some mail, which was wonderful!!! I was sad to hear of my favorite chicken and rooster, but I'm sure I'll get over it. I can totally understand your decision. Poor Cheyenne!

Ted's Garden

Is there any treatment for heart worms? I don't know much about it. Maybe she should be put to sleep if she gets too bad.

Ted's got a nice garden going. He transplanted lots of squash, watermelons, and melons. People are still bringing us food, almost every day, which we really appreciate. We are totally dependent on them for any fruit we get. We can occasionally get vegetables at the store.

Well, here comes the plane, so I must quit.

Love to all, Betsy

You may write to Betsy at: gates@andrews.edu

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Last Updated: March 10, 1997

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