Eggs and ABCs

So, the grossest thing happened yesterday. I mean, I guess gross things
happen everyday since I work in a 3rd world country mission hospital and
bike through a meat market to get to work, but this really got to me. It
all started when I decided to make some cookies yesterday afternoon
using a recipe that called for eggs. Recipes calling for eggs here are
tricky, because we have eggs very inconsistently and when eggs are
scarce, you have to decide whether or not to use the ‘fake egg’ recipe
which can turn your brownies to rubber or leave an extra baking powder
taste. However, yesterday was special, because there was a bag of eggs
in the fridge, just waiting to be added to my cookie batter and I only
needed one. So, I got out the bag from the fridge and chose two eggs
that looked like good options and placed them in water to make sure that
they didn’t float. That is supposed to be a fool proof test in
determining whether or not an egg is good or bad. They both remained at
the bottom of the basin, so I grabbed one and cracked it into a bowl
(not the batter bowl- that is too risky). Well, when I cracked it, out
came not only a yolk, but a fetal embryionic chicken. Gross. Disgusting.
So I tossed that one and went on to egg option number two. But, same
story. Then I grabbed two more eggs from the bag and proceeded to do the
float test again. One seemed tempted to float, so I placed it to the
side and went on with egg number four. At this point, I was doubting the
validity of the float test and decided to also do the spin test just to
be sure. I placed the egg on the counter and gave it a spin. The only
problem was that I couldn’t remember if it was supposed to spin or
wobble, and what meant what, but the egg spun great. Anyway, moment of
truth, I cracked it on the side of the bowl, opened it up, and out came
another huge disgusting little chicken embryo thing again!!! It was so
gross and I had to flee the kitchen. I mean, how gross to open an egg
and get a little animal. I mean, its one thing if its Easter and you
open an egg and get a baby chocolate bunny, but wow, this takes it to a
whole new level. So all you people getting ready to make cookies, be
thankful for your embryo free eggs.

Anyway, I am off today. I cleaned all kinds of stuff and just made
bread. You all probably think that I make bread everyday. I really
don’t, I just make bread when I am off and that is usually also the best
time to blog. Sadly, my time in the OR is over and I am back working in
the wards. I worked on Saturday and since we are more understaffed than
usual, I had six wards, which equaled 34 patients and left me wondering
if you ever reach a point as a nurse where after you take so many vital
signs, you never have to do them again. If that is the case, I think I
might be about to reach that point. There should be some kind of rule
about that. I remember in nursing school when we would do any kind of
clinical or community activity, it just ended up being us doing vital
signs for whoever was overseeing us. I guess I just need to accept it:
taking vital signs is my present and future. But anyway, Saturday was a
good day and there were no catastrophes which was awesome since it was
pretty busy trying to keep 34 people and all their family members happy
and medicated.

One cool thing about today is that I am starting to teach English to one
of our old patients…I referenced him in a previous post as the friend of
Freckle. Since he has recovered from his extremely contagious pulmonary
TB that was thankfully not passed on to Freckle, he is now back out in
the community and ready to learn! He is a friend of the other Sarah
(missionary who has been here since the 80’s) and is in her leprosy
program and she wants him to learn English to help with translation.
Today is our first lesson so I am planning on assessing what he knows
already and trying to go from there. That should be fun because he is
great and I enjoy attempting to teach English.

I just finished reading a book called God’s Missionary by Amy Carmichael
which she wrote for young missionaries who are new to the field or who
are considering going. I then started her book “Things as they are:
mission work in southern India,” where she details her experiences
evangelizing in the early 1900s and the difficulties and disappointments
she continually encountered. The people that she worked with were so
enmeshed in their caste system that they would rarely accept Jesus
because they would have to break their caste to do so which would result
in expulsion from their homes and social isolation. As a result, Amy and
her coworkers rarely saw any fruit from their efforts, but they
continued so faithfully. I long to imitate her maturity, faithfulness
and commitment to preaching the gospel.

While I was writing this, my English student showed up so we just had
our English lesson at the guard hut. It was almost two hours long. After
an hour, I figured he would be ready to quit but he was like, “No, I can
go until this evening!” Wow. That was not how I felt my first day of
language school in Paris (I think I blogged about that…). Every time I
start to teach English, I realize that I don’t understand it very well…
But, hopefully he can effectively learn the basics. The highlight of the
lesson was singing the ABCs. I was impressed because it seemed like he
knew the song at first. After he sang it a few times, one of the guards
who had been listening in on the lesson scooted a little closer and
joined in on the song. They sang it together over and over and over
again until it morphed into a completely new rendition of the ABC song
that I couldn’t quite sing along with any more. The letter “H” was a
doozy. We will keep working on it.
That is all for today!

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