Give a kick

"Give a Kick" is a non-profit organization started by a student currently at Princeton to distribute donated soccer balls as part of structured programs in developing countries.  We were able to get 25 brand new soccer balls for this trip and started the process of giving them out today.  Koutiala Hospital has a soccer outreach program for local teenagers and we donated 5 balls to their team this afternoon during their practice.  You can see photos of the team and their new soccer balls below.  Tomorrow we will deliver soccer balls to several other youth programs in Koutiala.

 It is currently the hot/dry season in Mali....not sure why it is also the season that everyone plays soccer!  Lots of dust everywhere.

 These were the only balls that the team had to play with and were definitely worn down.

 Patrick playing with some patients from the hospital while we were watching the action.

Local kids playing soccer near Brett's house.

The final leg of our trip is now complete! We arrived in Koutiala this afternoon and Brett took us out for a ride and to give Patrick a tour of the hospital.  Here are a few pictures to give you a sense of the day....  

The road leading from Brett's house to Koutiala Hospital.  The large tree on the left is a Baobab, which looks like it has been turned upside down with its roots sticking into the air.

 Koutiala Hospital is in the process of building a tennis court and the foundation is in place at this point.  Patrick will be helping with the process of laying the concrete towards the end of the week.  This will serve as a place for the children to play and also as an area of recreation for the missionaries.

 The children who are being treated at the hospital for a long period of time are always ready to play.  The little girl on the right has Hodgkin lymphoma of the neck and is receiving chemotherapy.  The boy wearing a bandage on his head had a scalding burn as a young child and then developed a rare skin cancer at the site of the burn.  He required complicated surgery and skin grafts and is recovering at the hospital.

Jara always ready with a smile!

 Future tennis court....

This little man (Chake) came to Koutiala with a severe infection which ultimately led to the loss of both of his legs and the majority of his fingers (likely severe DIC for those medical folks).  He responded to medical therapy and finally started walking with his prosthetic legs!  He was happy to walk over to get a piece of candy.  His mom is walking behind him with the baby brother strapped to her back.

 Getting some encouragement from the other kids at the hospital.

The MacLean kids playing in a sand pile with the patients from the hospital.

This boy came to the hospital with draining wounds from both of his legs.  He was diagnosed with bone infection at multiple locations.  His mother says that he has a history of bone pains as a younger child and Brett is suspecting sickle cell disease.  They will be able to test him for sickle cell in the comings months.  His wounds are slowly healing with the appropriate antibiotics.

This one is for all of the Strums or Flemings checking out this blog... didn't take long for Patrick to end up on the roof with the kids!

 Leg wounds from above.... getting better, but hard to believe that they ever heal with all of that dirt all over his legs.

 Various animals at Brett and Sheri MacLean's house.

View of the airport in Bamako from the start of our trip this morning.

 The MacLeans desert turtle.

 Quiet Sunday afternoon in Koutiala.

 Koutiala Hospital soccer outreach.  Thanks to "Give a Kick" for donating 25 new soccer balls for the program!

Guest house in Bamako where we stayed last night.

Safe in Bamako

Patrick and I arrived safely in Bamako tonight around 8:30pm local time (east coast of US is 5 hours earlier). The flight from Paris to Bamako was smooth and the local mission director was there to meet us at the airport. It is a balmy 75 here tonight.

The bags mostly arrived unscathed, except for my big medicine box that I thought was invincible but it definitely was beaten up on the way over! About 3/4 of the medicines were recovered. All of the sickle screening equipment was just fine.

We will have breakfast at the guest house in the morning and then start our 7 hour car trip to Koutiala. We will be heading south, which will take us directly away from the recent turmoil here in Mali.

The pics below show Patrick with all of our bags at the airport and my destroyed medicine box.

Sickle Cell Screening

This will give you an overview of the sickle cell screening program.....

The face of Burkitt Lymphoma

Burkitt Lymphoma is the most common and fastest growing of all cancers diagnosed in Africa.  Without prompt treatment it is universally fatal, but with 6 cycles of standard chemotherapy it is curable in >95% of cases.  The cost of this treatment is around $1,000 per case, compared to several hundred thousand in the US.  Despite the relative reduced cost of treatment in Africa, families in Mali live on less than $1-2/day and are unable to pay this amount of money.   Brett and Sheri MacLean have a cancer fund that helps to provide this needed treatment.

Since the MacLeans returned to Mali on Feb 15th, 4 new cases of Burkitt Lymphoma have been diagnosed and all of the patients are improving with treatment.  The pictures below show how quickly these tumors (typically of the face) grow.

Mamadou, below in the Africa United shirt, was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma during my last trip to Mali (see post from Aug 2011). This picture was taken recently when he was visiting the hospital with his younger brother.  He is cured of his cancer and doing well!  

Heading back to Mali

Today is the start of my long trip to Mali. I will leave Greenville at 12pm and then fly through Atlanta with an arrival in Paris tomorrow morning at around 8am. I meet up with Patrick Fleming, a good friend from WFU, in Paris and then our last flight into Bamako, Mali will arrive on Sat night. Continue to pray for our safety and that we would follow God's leadership over the next several weeks. I will send out more updates about the specific plans for this trip over the next day.
The picture attached to this post is a look at the Peds cancer ward at the hospital. All of these kids are being treated for different types of lymphoma. The dirt floor of the hospital definitely doesn't look like our polished unit here in Greenville, but the fight is still the same. Despite the costs and the fact that the odds are definitely against them, these kids still deserve a chance to beat their disease. In the meantime, they feel the love and respect of the medical team at Koutiala Hospital! These are the faces that are bringing me back to Mali!

Pray for Moussa

There are many images and experiences that I will never forget from my first trip to Mali, but one of the kids that touched me the most while I was there was Moussa.

His smile, the Goodwill pinstripe suit, the way he enjoyed learning how to juggle, his joy in the midst of poverty....I will not soon forget those memories and I am sure that God will continue to speak to me through children like Moussa.

He was diagnosed with a kidney tumor (Wilms tumor) shortly before I arrived in Koutiala in August 2011.  His tumor was so large in the beginning that it could not entirely be removed.  He received standard chemotherapy, but was not able to have radiation therapy (none available in the entire country) that would be standard in the US.  The tumor in his belly recently came back and the doctors at the hospital quickly realized that providing more treatment would not improve his chances of survival and would only cause more suffering.  He is now back at the hospital where he is receiving comfort care and is surrounded by the staff  who do such a great job reflecting the love of Jesus to all who walk through the doors of Koutiala Hospital.

This is Moussa now... still smiling, but now wasted by continued growth of the tumor and the fact that he is no longer able to eat.  The staff at Koutiala Hospital will keep him comfortable and surround him with love in these last days or weeks of his life.  But even more than this, they will show him the love of Jesus with the ultimate power over death.

If you have time over the next several days, pray for Moussa.  Pray that he will remain comfortable, that he will feel God's love, and that he will know that a home free from suffering has already been prepared for him.