Thankful Dec 2

     It is a time of thanksgiving at least for the American holiday.  All the expatriates had Thanksgiving meal together which was very nice.  We are thankful for good health although I did have malaria last week but I am ok now.  I began my quinine early so as not to miss any days work.  Dolores had a “cold” and sore throat.  How do you get that with 65 to 90 temperature weather and dry?  As everyone in America gears up for the “holiday season”  we don’t have a Thanksgiving holiday here but it is Chad Independence Day on Nov 28.  Christmas is not much of a holiday here either.  We will try to make it a little festive with some decorations around the house of Danae’s.  We often think about how thankful we were born in USA rather than here.  People here often have very little to look forward to but a short hard life with many episodes of malaria and parasites and loss of perhaps half of their children.  I am thankful that I was not born a Chadian in some remote village with no knowledge of the outside world or of Jesus.  Especially I am glad that I was not born a female in Chad as many of them are not given opportunity to be educated and have to look forward to just having babies and being a wife of some man that may beat her up every so often if she does not please him just right.  Be thankful for your rights and privileges in America even though they are being eroded.  
     The French doctor that was supposed to be here for a week did not come but we now have a very nice German neurosurgeon that has come here for 3 weeks to experience “mission medicine”.  Actually he has spent time in Rwanda about the time of the genocide, also spent time in New Guinea and 3 years in Australia.  He speaks good English but not much French.  His wife left him 2 years ago.  
     I have been busy with hospital rounds and surgeries.  I have done about 120 procedures since Oct 26.  I did two SIGN nails or intramedulary rods on open fracture tibia last week.  One of them has no x-rays yet.  The other had one preop before arriving here a few days after the accident.  We had another bladder stone and another mastectomy recently.    
     We have had no internet service most of the time the past two weeks but are thankful when we can get on for a few minutes and perhaps send email or read one of yours.  Even when it works it is very very slow.  We appreciate your notes when they come through like a breath of fresh air with your news bits.

Love, Rollin and Dolores
Our emails:  drbland@sbcglobal.net and dfbland@gmail.com