Hospital Hazards

Got to start this week off by taking Elder Bracken to the "hospital". He hasn't been able to hear out of one of his ears for a while now so we decided it was finally time to seek some treatment. He drove down to Agoe Tuesday morning and we headed out bright and early to a specialist in Adidogome. When our taxi stopped we were more than puzzled, we were definitely not at a hospital like we were led to believe. We stopped at a run down building; which turned out to be the doctor's home. He beckoned us in and we followed him into his living room. Before I let the doctor start treating him I asked Bracken "Do you really trust this guy, we are just chilling in his living room, he is wearing basketball shorts, and he does not seem qualified?" After looking around for a second he responded "Dude, he's got medical posters up, so yeah I guess I trust him". I questioned the doctor a little more and he reassured us that he was licensed and had even done his schooling in France (when he showed us his degree it looked like it was printed off his home computer) but we agreed to let him pull the stuff clogging Bracken's ear.

He started off by shoving this tiny pipe into his ear canal. It was not the most comfortable thing so Bracken kept flinching. The doctor just kept laughing and laughing and kept telling him (in broken english) "You are American Marine- STRONG, no move" I was dying of laughter- each time the doctor said that Bracken tried to explain he wasn't a marine but he just kept saying it and then continued to explain how his small daughter wouldn't have moved. After a couple minutes of "American Marine, No move" and the ear vacuum sucking all the debris out we thought we were done so Bracken and I are just there testing his hearing now that his ear was unclogged, Bracken is halfway through a thought when the doctor shoved another pipe up his ear and instantly turned on a water jet to get the lingering dirt out. Bracken jerked his head to the side- he was not ready for that at all- and so he got soaked the doctor is making fun of him and I was still just laughing my head off. (See attached photos for Bracken's face during this whole commotion).

Besides that it was a pretty normal week. Sunday we had a party at the church to celebrate the role of women in the gospel so my companion and I were assigned babysitting duty of all the kids. Basically we just played games with them all Sunday afternoon and it was a blast. Also attached is a photo of my basketball team after we beat my companion's team in triple overtime.

Hope you guys all have a great week.
Elder Remer