October 16th started out like most days. We woke up
before our alarm due to the brilliant sun shining in our bedroom. It was
5:40am.
Noé told me that these are the longest days of the year. Not
sure how long it’ll last but it’s already been at least a week… We’ll try to
keep track and let you know!
We talked a little about the day ahead of us, prayed
together, and started getting ready to leave for work at 7:30am.
Getting to UCBC, I did what professionals should (not) do
while waiting for my outlook to download new emails – went on Facebook. :)
Nothing terribly interesting, but I did have a message in my
inbox from Hannah – Becky is in labor!
I shared the news with Noé (he’d prayed for her and the baby
at home that morning) – we excitedly rejoiced knowing that soon we’d have news
of the birth of our little nephew / niece!
And then I went back to work.
It actually was a fairly productive day, in spite of my
almost obsessive checking of email to see if anyone had sent us an update!
Nothing arrived before we left to go home around 5:30pm. So, we went home and
started to make dinner.
On the menu was a delicious peanut sauce that Noé introduced
me to not long after we got married (yay!).
Before getting in the gate, Noé’s phone rang – it was his
brother Bethuel. I heard Noé tell him we just got home from work. As I went in
the gate, Noé turned the motorcycle around and said, “I’ll be back!”
Wait, what?! He had the biggest smile on his face… He
promised he’d be quick, since it looked like it would storm momentarily. With
an “I love you!” he left.
So I went to the house with David (me having somewhat of a
grumpy attitude – because I wanted to go too!). We started getting things ready
to make our dinner:
· Charcoal
for the fire (thankfully, David started it!)
· Rice
– for the boys (see next point). We remove the chaff, and as many stones as
possible – in hindsight I can say that we did a poor job with the stones that
night :(
· Potatoes
(Hannah Elizabeth, I think I’m turning into you – rice is just not my favorite
thing lately!) – to peel and boil
· Veggies
– tomatoes, onions, and green peppers (we need to buy garlic and carrots!)
· Peanut
butter – from peanuts we roasted and then ground into our own delicious peanut
butter the day before.
So I peeled the potatoes while David started on the fire. By
this time the rain was coming down like it wouldn’t ever stop. I had David
bring the fires (or two small stoves) into the house so that we didn’t have to
keep going between the house and the outside kitchen in the rain (poor kid, he
was soaked).
We put the potatoes on the fire and I started cutting
veggies. First tomatoes. And then one of the green peppers. David began picking
through the rice. And he went running for the gate since he heard the horn of
the motorcycle. Shortly after that, Noé came onto the porch by me – totally
drenched (and I thought David had been wet earlier!).
After changing – Noé came back by me holding something we
hadn’t seen in over two months. MY PASSPORT!
His brother, who had been helping us with connections in
Kinshasa knew that a friend was traveling that day, and asked them to carry our
passport (which, rather than staying with the Embassy, had been safe at the
home of a close family member – whew!) – to Beni. But he didn’t tell us it was
en route.
So when Bethuel called Noé it was to tell him that the
passport was at his house – in Beni! He’d gone to get it from the airport
himself not long before calling us. He said he wanted to make sure they
actually sent my passport and that there was a visa in it before letting us
know it had arrived!
Noé opened it up to show me that it really was my passport
(my hands were covered in tomato and green peppers) – and went to the visa that
Congo gave us… It was really there!! Three years. Haha!
So for the next three years, I won’t have to deal with any
of the Congolese Embassies to get new visas… No more $500 bills every six
months. Although this one cost more than $500 – it will be MUCH cheaper in the
long-run!
And the receipts were there too. Apparently this visa costs
$200. So for all of the money that we paid – the official office only got a
percentage of it… Oh, Congo.
But – we have my passport back at last! And it actually has
the visa stamped and signed (with a lovely Congolese postage stamp on the visa
page – who knew there were stamps here?).
Well, after all, I went back to cutting green peppers. They
smelled so good – they were picked the day before. Two of my fingers were
starting to feel a little strange but I must have cut them while cutting the
veggies. And then I cut the onion up. And one more tomato for good measure.
Noé started on the peanut sauce preparation and then I went
to wash my hands – the strange feeling was annoying. A little later, more of my
fingers felt weird, almost hot… And it gradually (in spite of several hand
washings) turned to a burning sensation.
The soap and water were not removing whatever was on my
fingers… which was spreading to most of my fingers. I got out the Fells Naptha
soap that Mom helped me buy in January (removes oils!). Didn’t do a thing. Then
it was getting painful just to be near the heat of the kitchen. Noé suggested I
wash my hands with alcohol – good idea, but it didn’t work.
I ran my hands under cold water just for the relief it
brought, but that was temporary. Started fanning my hands as the “heat” kept
going up. Noé suggested we try lemons – it smelled way better than the alcohol
but was just as effective, sadly.
It was now 7pm, dinner was all ready – Noé finished up the
rice and peanut sauce with our veggies (which, I had him taste – they weren’t
spicy!), and all was on the table. I couldn’t hardly sit at the table without
putting my fingers into a bowl of water. It did little to soothe the burning.
I wanted to call Mom or Dad – to see how Becky was, to find
out if the baby was born (it would have been 12pm in Chicago), and to ask Mom
about a solution to the burning! But we didn’t have a lot of phone credit and decided
we would only make local calls.
Noé grabbed a handheld fan and started trying to help my
hands “cool” down. David said that sometimes when he or others cut hot peppers
and got the oils on their hands, they cover their hands with cassava flour. It hurt
putting it on and didn’t change a thing (after 10 minutes – how long were we
supposed to wait?!).
Noé wanted to take me to the doctor. I didn’t want to go
(burned by green peppers? No way!). And it was still pouring. So we agreed to
call the doctor. He suggested Vaseline (we didn’t have any) or palm oil (we
have plenty of that!).
I spread it all over my fingers, and the palms of my hands.
After about 15 minutes, it seemed like the burning had spread to the palms of
my hands (yep, dumb move touching other parts of my body!). Noé was done
waiting and after talking to his brother in law who’s a nurse – he decided to
go look for a prescription that Jerlas suggested, at one of the pharmacies.
It was just before 8pm at this point – not even 30 minutes with
the orange palm oil all over my hands.
David took over fanning my hands while Noé was gone – the
rain stopped just as he was leaving! At about 8:30, Noé was back.
While away, I began to feel a little bit of change in my
fingers, especially my left hand. When Noé got home, he was thrilled to hear
that – and showed me the 4 or 5 different medications he brought home (including
creams, pills and sleeping meds? Haha!).
The “pharmacist” suggested sleeping meds, in case the
burning didn’t stop; “at least she’ll be able to sleep!” They cost like $0.25 –
not a big deal. We knew we wouldn't use them. One of the creams Noé had been
reluctant to buy – it wasn’t what Jerlas suggested, but again, the “pharmacist” – was
more like Neosporin. Great for burns… But my hands weren’t really burned… They
just felt like it!
The other cream was a topical steroid which probably would
have helped a lot. But I knew that the burning sensation was going down – after
reading the paper with information on the medicine, some of the pain in my
right hand had decreased and it was entirely gone from my left at that point!
And the idea of using a topical steroid for hands burned by green peppers –
just didn’t seem justified.
So we opted to leave the palm oil on my hands – it seemed to
be working after all! And at 9pm, sat down to eat dinner.
Everything tasted great. I ate holding a spoon with my palm
oil-covered left hand since my right was still burning (not an easy thing to do
I tell you!). The food was a little cool by that point… But it was in no way
spicy.
What in the world?! Yeah, we still don’t know.
So after dinner, we prayed with David, said good night and I
washed my hands! By that point I felt only a slight burning in 2 of my fingers
in my right hand – hooray for progress!
It was then 10pm, ready for bed at last! So we decided to
call Dad and check on the status of things there. He sounded exhausted and
asked if we got his email (No?! Why?!).
 |
| Isn't she precious?! |
Becky and Jon’s baby had been born! Alexandria Marie Brown.
:) Sounds adorable, I know.
So we talked to Jon briefly – it seems that we called while
he, Dad and Mom were eating lunch when Becky and Alexandria rested. Noé and I
found out that she had been born at 12:13pm (less than three hours earlier).
And if we had called when I originally wanted to – it would have been 13
minutes before the birth. Ha – not good timing, in other words!
After a few minutes we hung up and my formerly-oiled hands
felt so much better… But still burning just a little. So we put on some
Neosporin just in case – and went to sleep... knowing that it had been a full,
amazing day!
Becky and Jon and Marcus had their little girl, Noé and I
got my passport back, we found out that palm oil has some incredible ability to
soothe burns from weird peppers, and I had the satisfaction of knowing that I
correctly guessed the day that little Alexandria Marie would be born!
Thank God for wonderful days!
*By the way – we woke up the next day and all of the burning
in my fingers was gone, as was the redness of my skin! Hooray!
