1970: a year of happenings.......................

John was such a village boy and was so happy at home, but fearful if we were not near by.  He would have had to have special permission to go to ICA that year (because of his late birthday)  and we did not feel he was ready for that.  He did everything with the village kids - even lining up with the school kids in town when they got their innoculations.  There were about eighty children in a class at the Santidougou school, and when the dispensary people came from town to give innoculations, John lined up for his shot with the rest of them. The Dr. told each child to stand, forming a line, with his elbow stuck out and his sleeve pulled up.  This way he could go down the line and swab each arm with alcohol and then go back down the line giving each child the required shot. When the Dr. got down the line to about arm number 23, he saw that this arm was white, so he threw out his (by now) dirty piece of cotton and started over with a new alcohol swab for that little white arm! 

We also had the idea that perhaps John could enroll in CP1 at our local school (which Dad had built and staffed with Christian teachers) and thus have his first grade at home. John march proudly off to class with his little slate and chalk.  But after having to sit still for long periods of time while each child had to individually pronounce "a" and then "i" and so on, John was bored out of his tree, and so we decided that was NOT a good idea.  So he just waited till the next summer and started school at ICA. I taught him kindergarten.

We also had a shock in early 1970, when we got a telegram from ICA saying Cheryl (who was then in eighth grade) would not be admitted back in school for that semester.  PANIC! Dad called the school - not an easy thing to do, but he finally got through.  It was a minor infraction that she and a friend had been involved in - and would have been handled differently by other dorm parents - but they would send her books and lessons home and she would be admitted back the next semester!   Wow! What a shock!  Here was I with a pre-schooler at home and carrying Mark in the seventh month - and now I had an eighth grader to teach!  Dad went down and talked to the school director, and to show just how insensitive the school leadership was at that time, they later wrote and asked if Dad would speak at the 8th grade graduation since his daughter was graduating!  Dad declined - I am not sure that he did it gracefully!!  We did take her to graduate with her friends.

It turned out to be a great time for Cheryl and for all of us. She did her studies every day and had her little brother at home. It was almost as if the girls who had to STAY at ICA were the ones being punished!  It also meant that Cheryl would be home for the birth of our new baby!

I was thinking recently of how God weaves the tapestry representing our lives. The picture He is weaving is a beautiful and complete picture, but underneath the thread is hanging down and the colors are blurred and we cannot really see what He is making of our lives.  And thus it was for us during that period of time.  But when the tapestry was finished and we can now look back at the other side, we see the beauty God was performing in our daughter's life.

Cheryl always loved nursing - she used to help her Dad in his dispensary and she was more than happy to go with us to the Ferké hospital for Mark's birth.  We had a lot to do at home and did not want to be at Ferké too long, so we waited until it was almost time for him to be born.  And I started to have some labor pains before the date, so we got ourselves ready in the middle of the night to leave for that several hour trip - on horrible roads - from Bobo to Ferké! 

At this time, we had an open jeep for a work vehicle and our family car was a VW BUG.  Remember those??  Small, cramped....and we had Dad, John, me, Cheryl, a new puppy and all of our baggage.  We also took along a large heavy quilt and a pillow and my bottle of alcohol I used for deliveries.  If I had the baby on the road, I figured I could tell Milt what to do and thus the quilt and the pillow.  By the time we got to Banfora, my contractions had slowed down, (we had stopped also in Bobo to tell my parents that we were on our way!) and so we stopped at the empty mission house in Sienna for a couple hours of rest.  Then up again and on that horrible road - it was not paved at that time! - and we finally bounced into Ferké about daylight, a little the worse for the wear!  But the baby was securely intact and my contractions had stopped.  (One of the nurses told me later that she was so glad I did not deliver then, as I looked so horrible weary! - I wonder why??)  We had sent Yusufu and his newly married bride, Ane, down by train so as to have a cook and a housekeeper during our stay.  Jessie had been assigned as our mission nurse to help with delivery - but when Mark decided to be born (two weeks or so after arrival)  Jessie was occupied with hospital work. But Dad was there with me.

You have to realize that the "labor room" at the hospital was VERY tiny!  There was room for the patient's bed and a chair beside the bed and a little crib there. It was also the place where they took care of their preemie babies, which is what Aunt Jessie was doing.  I knew the time was close and Dad called Dr. Steve to come - Steve wanted to air condition the delivery room so he ran out to start up the greasy machine and came back with his dirty hands, calling for his sterile gloved - he knew the baby was ready to pop. Fortunately Dad was there to direct operations and said it was too late for the delivery room, so Mark was born right there. When they pulled out a clean sheet to put over me, a scorpion fell out of the sheet on the bed - again Dad to the rescue to kill the scorpion!  Can you imagine having a baby and at the same time being bitten in the seat with a scorpion!! I can still see Dr. Steve calling for his sterile gloves and Mark was already breathing his first breaths.    I never did see the inside of that delivery room!!

But you, Mark, were not breathing normally. You were kind of a grey color, and the nurses were all fussing over you when they took us both back to the little house where our family was staying.  Aunt Linda was head nurse and I could hear someone saying in a panicky voice, "Call Linda!" I was wondering what was going on!!  Linda walked in a few minutes later while the other nurses hovered over the little crib they had put you in, and I kept asking what was wrong. Linda had picked a pretty rose on her way into my room and without even looking over at the crib she congratulated me and gave me the rose - then went to the baby. (Talk about the right psychology!  I had been getting panicky about you!)   She went and turned you on your side. Evidently you had swallowed a lot of fluid during birth and you also just wanted to sleep.  She showed me how to hold you and flick your little feet to keep you awake, and after Dad and I spent the night doing that, you were a normal rosy color - and again a big Pierce baby!  What an experience!  We were so delighted to have you as part of our family!

We went back to Santidougou and settled into life there. I had produced another son for the village and everyone was happy!  So were we...........................