It’s been a funny old week; another busy week for KOP – although at this time of the year it seems all the weeks are busy.

Earlier in the week a lady brought her son to KOP. He’d  been bitten by a dog a few weeks ago and was now sick. The lady asked if we could buy the prescription the doctor had given at the time of the bite, thinking it would help. She’d not been able to afford the medicine and had not realised that she could have asked us at the time.  But it was too late. The prescription was for a rabies and a tetanus vaccine. Rabies has to be administered with 72hours of the bite in order for it to be effective.  She was not told that, nor was she told that without the vaccines there was a high possibility that her son (Francis) might die.

He was sick – fever, swelling, confusion, odd behaviour and ‘something was coming out of his chest’ (Mrs Chumba didn’t know how to explain in English, and I never saw what they were talking about for myself). I didn’t know much about rabies, but from what I did know it looked like it. We took him to the hospital and he was admitted to the infectious diseases ward. The doctors confirmed my suspicions, and so it would only be a matter of time before he went completely mad and the serious symptoms which lead to death would set in.

In the evening I went to the hospital with Mrs Chumba and Jo to give them food (you don’t get food in hospital here, friends and family have to provide it) and to pray for him. Whilst we were gone Tim and all the AQ guys were praying.

But GOD is an AWESOME GOD! The next day Francis was discharged from hospital as all traces of rabies were gone and he was completely and utterly well!!!!  The hospital wouldn’t admit he was healed and it was a miracle, they figured there was a mistake or something. But I saw the difference with my own two eyes! God is a miracle working God!

On Friday we had a successful gathering of the guardians of the KOP children. We have 162 guardians, about 60 of them came, which is slightly fewer than I’d expected but a good turn out all the same. We had a good time together and many said they were encouraged by what I’d said. With the help of the AQ we were able to give each of them 2 tops, a skirt or trousers, a jumper or jacket and a pair of shoes. They were so pleased! One lady even danced out of the room she was so happy! One amusing sight was a lady who chose her jacket –which happened to be a full body all-in-one ski suit!

This morning I’ve also had to take one of the grade 11 boys to hospital as he is very sick.

We also took on a new member of staff this week.  He’s called Able. It’s a trial 3 months, but so far so good!

Let’s just see what this coming week brings!

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About 2 weeks ago on a Wednesday night I said to Gemma that it was a shame our friends Malene and Andreas hadn't been able to bring their puppy to Zambia from Denmark (in fact they had to sell her). As I thought about it I wondered if there might be a possibility of us going with them to look at puppies. I even joked  that if we found a brother and sister we could take one, and Gemma said that she'd only want a boy dog. Of course this seemed like a bit of a fantasy as Gemma hasn't enjoyed touching/handling animals because she doesn't like being able to feel the bones under the fur! But somehow we managed to keep talking about what we'd call a puppy, coming up with various names, and as we drifted of to sleep I decided that I would talk to Andreas and Malene about it the next day. The following afternoon I went to their house and was amazed to hear that had just bought a female puppy from the SPCA in town as it's mother had been hit by a car. Imagine my surprise when their next breath was to tell me that the SPCA had asked if they could also take the brother puppy (also orphaned). They very nearly bought it to present to us as a gift, but didn't think Gemma could cope with a dog. I told them about our conversation the night before and they said that the brother was really cute and in good health and that they would show us how to look after it. We all agreed that it would be best if the puppies could be kept together as they're only 6 weeks old. Malene and Andreas live opposite us andso the dogs can (and do) see each other each day.

We went to collect the dog, who we promptly named Archie and had him bathed as he was covered in his own poo. As I was driving Gemma was forced to hold the dog on the way home and by the time we were back she had got over her hatred of live furry things (she said it was worse in her head than it was in reality). For the next 3 days I was only toilet duty and Gemma sorted the food. We realise he's quite a clever dog and would only wake us up in the night when he needed to go to the toilet and would return to his bed when we told him it was bedtime. Apparently maltese poodles are some of the easiest  to train. Because of where we live we don't have to take him for walks in the traditional sense as there's plenty of room for him to run around the college and there's no fear of traffic. We've left him with his sister (with Malene and Andreas) and are looking forward to getting back to him tomorrow!