The Copeland Ramblings/

Allergies

Ever since we arrived here in Dakar, I, Debra have had a lot of trouble with my allergies. But ever since the rain stopped, they have gotten much worse. The dust and grime in the air is so much more free to fly around than before when it was all mud. We have visited an allergist several times. They have suggested to us that we take a few fairly drastic measures to get my life back to a functioning level. They tested my blood to see what would cause these allergies and how severely. When the doctor saw the results he gasped at the extremely high levels I was showing. He suggested that we move out of our current house and neighborhood and that we also get rid of anything that might hold mold or dust (pretty much anything other than metal and plastic! haha!). He suggests that we use hypoallergenic bedding and that we get rid of all curtains and rugs. Dakar is so extremely toxic to me, but we are doing our best to make our home less of a health war zone. We have decided to move into a cleaner quieter neighborhood. God has blessed us in a huge way. Friends of ours just moved out of their apartment. We had the opportunity to buy most of their furniture and appliances and take over their apartment. We are hoping to move sometime after Christmas. The place is a bit old and needs a little bit of TLC, but we hope to slowly get some of the things that need fixing repaired or replaced in the next few months.

A few things we are praying about are:

Buying and shipping a hypoallergenic/memory foam bed from the States.

Buying hypoallergenic pillow and bed covers.

Buying blinds for our windows instead of curtains.

Buying a dryer, since our clothes and linens are collecting massive amounts of dust out on the line each day.

Buying air purifying air conditioners.

Another huge prayer request is that our allergist suggested a desensitization treatment. It would take three years of intensive treatment but should hopefully lessen my allergies. This would be a big undertaking and would be expensive. We need to find out if our medical insurance would cover this treatment or not and go from there.

Please be praying for us as we are following Gods leading and making lots of decisions. Unfortunately, all of the things that we need to do to lessen the allergies are pretty expensive. But we are confident that if God leads He will provide. We are confident we are where God wants us and He has created me the way I am and has the power to heal me if He wants. But I believe He has also given us many tools to help in this situation. And we are always so grateful to God that He is CONSTANTLY putting things into our lives showing us our need for Him and strengthening our faith in Him daily. Thank you so much for your love, friendship, prayers and support. We are so blessed to be here in Senegal serving the Lord! Here are a few photos of our new place.

Living room, this is not our furniture. The house has a very big living room. We also have found that its much different than most Senegalese apartments. We have closets, a pantry, a bath tub and a very large balcony. All which are very rare here.

The kitchen, 3 or 4 times the size of our current kitchen. Unfortunately the cabinets need a little help.

The tub room. The washing machine will go there next to the tub. The bathroom does not have a toilet in it, just a bidet. But their is one toilet in its own little closet like room.

The toilet closet!

Closets! I have never seen such a thing here in Africa!

Our huge balcony.

My pantry! =)

There are a few more on our flickr site! Check them out!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/norm_debra

On this day..

• Vente! - 2011