Kette

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth! Sorry for the long silence! Some of you know that I've been a little busy over the last few months, falling in love, traveling across North America seeing family and meeting future in-laws, and getting engaged! But here I am again, back in South Sudan for the past month, with a fantastic story of hope to share with you at the end of a busy day! You may want to go back and review my entries from Oct. 29th and Nov. 13th to get the full story.

Remember Kette, the severely malnourished little girl who came to see us the same week as little John? She was severely wasted, had a very bad chest infection, and was lying lifelessly in her mother's arms, unable to even stand. Her mother struggled to feed her the goat's milk formula and other foods over the next few weeks as she took medicines to treat her infections. At the beginning she began to improve rapidly and gain a bit of weight, only to deteriorate when her mother couldn't get the milk she needed. At one point, Vicki and I wrote a letter to the pastor of the local church in their village, explaining Kette's desperate situation and asking for the church's help. We saw her one more time in November after that. She had gained a bit more weight but still had very bad pneumonia and we gave her a different antibiotic.

Recently, since we returned from Nairobi, Grace has been trying to find all our malnourished children and review them. She sent word to Kette's village and today, her mother brought her to see us. Grace came to my tukul this morning and excitedly announced that Kette was at the gate. I quickly went out to see her and looked around in confusion as I saw several adults, including her mother, and a cute, chubby 3-year-old girl wearing a dress that looked very familiar but no Kette. It took me several seconds to fully comprehend that this happy, healthy child was indeed Kette--a completely transformed Kette! I laughed, I nearly cried, as I greeted her beaming mother and took her little hand in mine. In November, she didn't have the strength to stand and was completely uninterested in the world around her. Today, she was running around, chatting with her mother, and even gave me a shy, little smile at one point.