Deworming....check!

Every day as I walk out of my apartment, down my street, through my town, I say to Karen or she says to me, “I wonder what today will hold”

Let me tell you what today held ;)

Intestinal deworming for all of our kids!

The care center director Alberto was able to get a hold of all the medication that we needed- in syrup form for the younger ones and pills for the older kids and adults.

 It went fairly well! Of course there were those who were skeptical…had a hard time choking down the syrup…decided to chew the pill instead of swallow it…threw it into the air and tried to catch it in their mouths…but overall, it was a big success!

It is wonderful that our care center can provide this and the goal is to administer it once a year. I’ve been so excited about this day for awhile now…

Because the reality of life here includes things that were never a part of my “normal” childhood. Normal childhood here means a high probability of a parasite at one point or another. I am working as the school nurse and there are SO MANY kids who come to me with bellyaches day after day. There could be many reasons for their pain, but I think the big ones are intestinal parasites and hunger. These parasites come from contaminated water, soil, and food.

Anything that we can do to make their lives a little more comfortable and ease some of their pain is really important to me. Jesus cares about the everyday physical needs of these kids- including the worms in their bellies.

Besides these types of intestinal worms, in the past, I had a kid with a worm looking thing coming out of an open sore on his foot…and another kid who coughed up a worm and then re-swallowed it. Even though these types of things are “normal” here, it’s so not normal- and that’s why I am so happy that we were able to provide this for them this week. I think that kids shouldn’t have to worry about worms in their bodies.

And by the way, I took a pill too- just in case ;)