We had a busy day today - went to the ABC clinic to put in an order for additional meds for the afternoon village clinic, then to get more $$, a prescription for Lariam (malaria medications). I usually take the cheaper stuff but it doesn't have quite the protection as Lariam, and this year I have seen quite a bit of malaria even this late in the 'season'. We decided to eat lunch at 'Macdaud's' - sort of a McDonalds - well, not exactly.. well, not even really close, but they do have arches on their sign: reddish arches. It is probably about as close to 'fast food' as you will get there. Inside they have two big pictures of Obama along with quotes from him, a poster of Islamic prayers and a couple of signs for no smoking or drinking. Take that for whatever you wish. We just thought it was interesting to see Obama's picture and quotes in a Muslim resturant along with Islamic prayers. I had curry chicken, rice and chips, and Jose had crumbed chicken pieces with chips and rice. We both survived! Actually the curry was pretty good!
We got to the feeding village, Mtsiliza, at 2 PM. The other team from COTN (with a dentist) came shortly thereafter and checked children's teeth. COTN not only does children, but also has an outreach to widows - they teach new skills, have sewing machines for them to use, do Bible studies and offer general support. They have a little shop in their meeting place where you can buy their handiwork! You can see some of their stuff in the background of the photos. Every year they graduate that particular group and take on another group. Widows in this country do not do well. There is no 'community property' and when the husband dies, his family (parents, uncles, brothers, etc) can come and take everything - food, clothes, money, even children if they want them. The widow is left with nothing. We had agreed to examine the ladies in the widow's project, screening for blood pressure and treating any illnesses that we could. There were only 27 of them, plus the workers that assisted in the program, plus the two girls that translated for us and also one of their friends that they sort of 'slipped' into the line! So maybe 35 total. We found a couple of high blood pressures, lots of eye complaints - cataracts are a terrible problem here, and most people can neither pay for the surgery or get transport to the few places that do that surgery. So they slowly go blind. Some of the ladies probably just needed glasses, but those are hard to acquire, also. We saw tons of coughs, and just about everyone had 'general body pain' - I think it comes from years and years of hard work combined with poor nutrition. A couple of the ladies had malaria, one nasty rash, a burn, and assorted other things. The other team brought over a couple of the kids they saw that had more than dental problems - these two little ones both had very nasty rashes, and fortunately we had some medication for them! We had two young ladies to work as translators - Cecilia and Eddah. We were so busy I did not get a photo of them. They are students at one of the universities, studying nutrition, and are spending 2 months as 'interns' in the home for teenage girl orphans, so I am sure we will see them again. They were delightful.
We finished and got home to NO WATER!! And we really, really want to take a shower! And washing my 'white' coat would be a good idea, too! Oh well, maybe it will be on later tonight.
The pictures: the kids dancing around outside the dental clinic area, Jose and I with the 'head widow' (helps run the program) and one of her helpers where we had the clinic. Macdaud's - inside and outside. Enjoy!
Prayer requests: a piece of luggage that was supposed to come with a team on Monday still has not arrived (none of their luggage has arrived). It contains many of the medications that we need here, plus some of the medical supplies. Pray that it arrives intact and soon.
Also pray for our strength. For some reason, both Jose and I seem to be constantly tired this trip. By 7 or 8 PM we are worn out!
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