My son had 2 boys with his wife.  His wife died about 6 months ago.  He is a farmer and works from sun up to sun down.  The wife’s side of the family decided it would be best for them to keep the youngest child Tidephca with them.  We kept the older son with his papa.  Each week my son took food to their home from his gardens so they would be encouraged to feed him.  He was sad that he did not get to see his son every day.  About 1 month ago he came and told me that Tidephca was not looking good.  I went to visit him and saw that he was losing weight.  I asked what was going on and they said that he had diarrhea and had been sick.  My son went the next week and his feet were swollen.  He asked if he could take his son to the doctor.  They asked him to wait another week.  We waiting and when we went back we found Tiephca like this.  We were all shocked.  The family said that they took him to get a curse removed that someone had put on him. They said they were told their was no hope for him and that his mama was coming to take him with her.

My son took Tiephca to a local clinic.  They told him that he was very sick and might die.  They told him he needed to go to a bigger clinic and to go soon.  We talked to our neighbors and asked everyone we knew where we should take him.  After talking there were several places that we could go but they did not take kids in for care only gave prescriptions.  One of our neighbors talked about a village called Cazale.  I had never heard of the village but asked about the clinic there.  They said the take in kids that are almost dead, and if it is God’s will they are healed and recover.  I was so happy to hear there was a place I could go to get help for my grandson.  It was Friday, and the clinic was opened on Tuesday.  On Saturday morning when we woke up Tiephca was ever more swollen.  His stomach and legs were very big.  An older person in the village told me I something to try for the swelling.  I had him stand in the hot dirt, then I rubbed the dirt all over his body.  After that I took a broom and swept his feet.  This was to bring the swelling down.  I did this 3 times on Saturday. The swelling went down in his stomach but now his legs were bigger.  I went to church on Sunday and everyone prayed for him.

I left on Monday morning to begin my trip to this village called Cazale.  I walked for 3 hours down a very steep mountain path.  His papa carried him the whole way down.  Once we got to the bottom of the mountain we found a motorcycle that could take us to a bigger village.  My son went back up the mountain to tend to his animals and gardens.  I rode on the moto for about 30 minutes and arrived to the next village.  We have some friends there so we stopped and took a bath and had lunch with them.  After that we got on a tap-tap (taxi) and rode for about 1 more hour.  We got out of the tap-tap and got on another motorcycle to go into the village of Cazale. We arrived on Monday evening.  Everyone said you have to get in line very early.  When I got to the village I did not know anyone.  I asked them where the clinic was.  They showed me and I found about 30 people already lined up to get number tickets to enter the next morning.  I was a little shocked.  I found someone that was cooking food and asked to buy a plate.  The lady asked me where I was from, I told her and she said that I had come from very far away.  She explained to me about the clinic and how the process was to enter to see the nurses.  She was very nice and I asked God to bless her.  I slept on the ground that night with everyone else.

The next morning very early there was a man that came outside to give us our numbers to enter.  He asked for everyone that had appointments for that day.  I become stressed but stayed in line.  The man came to me and asked if I had an appointment and I said no, but he saw how sick Tidecha was and told me those that are very ill, babies and emergencies will pass early and he gave me a number card to get in.  He put his hand on my hand and said you do not need to be scared we will take care of you.  I went and got a chart made for him and then waited on the the bench to be seen.  The nurse spent a long time explaining to me what illness my grandson had and what had caused it.  I cried and was very sad.   She gave me 2 choices I could follow in an outpatient program or the inpatient program.  Since I live so far away we both felt like the inpatient program would be the best.  He was admitted today and now I am filling out paperwork for him to be admitted.  I am crying now becuase I will miss my grandson but I am crying also becuase I am happy there was a place that could help him.