June 9^th (Saturday)

           This morning I woke up a little later (around 6:15am) although the roosters started around 4:00am but I was able to go back to sleep. It’s Saturday so we didn’t have to go to the hospital but we wanted to join JR on rounds. We completed rounds and performed some newborn checks. This is essentially a head-to-toe assessment on the baby before discharge. Also, Nicole and I cleaned the blood that had dried on a young man’s face in the emergency room. He had been in an accident the night before (he had been drunk and was driving a motorcycle with the nurse I had worked with the day before, Patrick, on the back) when they hit another young man on a bicycle). Everyone seems to be doing alright but they are wanting to monitor the driver of the motorbike in case he has a slow brain bleed. After we finished at the hospital (we also weighed a preemie and Fiona did a toe dressing change) we came back to our house and decided to relax and read our books and nap. We had our leftovers from the night before for our lunch and later Tiffany came by the house.

She took us down to the river where we walked along and I took pictures. She paid for the four of us to cross the river and back in a sort of dugout canoe/boat. We didn’t see any crocodiles, but it was an enjoyable ride – although the boat had a small leak so we took our shoes off and our feet got a bit wet during the crossing. I also forgot to mention, before Tiffany came, Fiona and I were sitting reading in the dining room when we heard a racket. We looked up and out the window and there was Thomas chasing a goat through our front yard! We had a good laugh and would have helped him, however he caught the goat fairly quickly.

On the return from the river, Tiffany pointed out this pepper bush that had lots of little red peppers growing on it. She said we should try one but Fiona said “NO” so we figured they must be hot. But Tiffany was asking again and I said I would if Fiona did but Fiona didn’t want to. Tiffany insisted she would eat it, so she popped one in her mouth. I figured I had said that I would and I knew it must be a sort of trick or at least it was going to be very hot. So I stuck to my word, I bit half of it and spit it out immediately. Tiffany had swallowed her’s whole. Apparently if you don’t break the skin it’s fine. The tip of my tongue and lips were very hot. My eyes started to water and I started to cough a few times. Tiffany felt bad/guilty afterwards and asked if I was all right. I was fine, I insisted, I just thought that some milk would help. Her and Fiona told me not to touch my eyes, whatever I do. I didn’t touch them. It was very hot but since it was only the tip of my tongue and lips, it wasn’t too bad. My eyes and nose just watered a bit and when we got back to the house I had some milk and water and that helped. Next we went on to the market to explore (some locals, we noticed pulled out their phones, if they had them, and seemed to take our picture, ha ha!) Tiffany also bought us this deep fried bread (tasted much like a doughnut) it was delicious. We made a pork loin dinner with potatoes and carrots for supper. Then continued our routine of playing games and reading for a while. Tomorrow the meeting is at 9:00am so we can sleep in a bit.//