Senegal Stories: Places you wouldn't expect to find things...

What else would you do with a freshly knocked out tooth but put it in your ear?!?

A man escorted his 9- year-old son into the clinic today and sheepishly explaining that his son’s tooth had fallen out but was now stuck in his ear! I looked inside and sure enough at the very bottom of his ear canal sat the tooth…and it didn’t look like it was going anywhere anytime soon. I had recently sorted through some donated medical supplies and remembered seeing just what I needed…a pair of very long, very skinny tweezers. Within seconds the tooth was out, but how I wished I had my camera…the thing was huge! Like any good nurse, I followed up the ‘tooth-ectomy’ with some health teaching about sticking things into your ears. It’s got to be a boy thing…I can’t imagine a girl doing such a thing :)

Looks like the family has also gotten a touch bigger with the temporary addition of a new little one. On my way out to our water tower tonight, I heard a tiny ‘meow’. I followed the sound until I reached an old abandoned well and a tiny black and white kitten laying at the bottom! Well you all know that I couldn’t leave it there, so over I went, skirt and all, to climb down the 30 feet to retrieve it (I had a friend tie me off mom…I was safe). Of course I had drawn a crowd of young onlookers who all thought I was rediculous for trying to save a cat…people don’t care much for cats here…which is why it ended up tossed into the well in the first place! But, thankfully, after a few minutes, I had the little one safely in my arms. She’s a tiny little thing, probably not more than 3 or 4 weeks old.