Busy, busy, busy

It has been a very busy last few days. Saturday we did the prison clinic again, then had Brad Gautney and some of his crew over for dinner before they flew back to the states. On Sunday we said good by to Sherrie, then had lunch with Steffie and Laci. Monday (today) we all started at Chitipi orphan home to see Laci's sponsored child, Esnart, plus Mandy Ivey's sponsored child, Caleb. We also checked on Blessings (Julie wants to sponsor him) and Stephen (Devin is interested in him). So four kids we are connected to. And such sweet kids they are!!!  We had some Starbursts left over (thanks, Julie) that the kids enjoyed and a few little toys.  If you have a heart for children, you should seriously considering sponsoring a child. You DO make a difference!!
Then we drove to Nkhoma hospital, a mission hospital south of Lilongwe, to meet with a new doctor there, Dr. Catherine Hodge, from the US. The hospital is an old mission hospital, but it is lovely, with a great view and beautiful buildings. We actually made better time than we thought we would, so we ended up on our way home stopping at Rainbow Children again, with the intent to introduce Laci to the Kysers and their work there. It is such a lovely, peaceful place!  We didn't take many photos (since we took many just a few days ago) but we did see where they are using maize cobs to fuel their cooking fires!

I doubt there will be any more posts this trip. Tomorrow we have a few things to wrap up, then to pack and be ready to leave Wed. It doesn't seem like 5 weeks!!
Thanks for all the prayers, we have felt safe and blessed.

 Emily in the pharmacy

Examining a patient

 Emily giving instructions, with Jones translating

Sherrie and Clifford examining a wound

 More wound care.

 Group photo - Jones, Charles, Emily, me, Lucky with Clifford and Jollyn in front

Sherrie waving good bye!

 Stephen Nyirenda - such a cutie!

 Caleb shaking my hand. On the opposite couch are Esnart and Laci, next to me is Stephen

 Caleb, a ham!!

 Blessings.

 Laci and Esnart.

 On the way to Nkhoma

Not sure what Exellency means...

 Nkhoma hospital

 Laundry and goats on the hospital grounds.

 Patient coming out of the TB wards. I was impressed that the personel were all wearing masks.. well, almost all.

 On the main drive, probably waiting to take someone home - or just delivered someone to the hospital.

 Maize cobs for fuel!

The newest addition to the Rainbow family - this little guy, Moses, is the 1 1/2 week old child of Lucas and Tia. What a cutie!!

Seizure clinic, the Whiskas, Rainbow Children

Thursday morning I picked up Amayi Whiskas and together with her husband, our beloved Bambo Whiskas, we gave them some little gifts from the US and took them to lunch at Spur. They had chicken and chips! Then a big dish of ice cream for dessert. What a delightful couple!
After lunch, we went to the seizure clinic, which actually went really well - you can translate that into 'I didn't have any difficult patients'!!!  Sherrie took some temps and observed what we do, Emily was assigned the weighing station, so we got good weights on all the kids.
Friday we went out to Rainbow Children's Development, the project that the Kyser family is involved in. They have an orphanage and are teaching some permaculture, along with trying to get the orphanage more self-sustainable. Jeremy is doing a little bit of everything! He will be my new 'go to' man over here!
We checked out all the kids at Rainbow - a few had minor illnesses but most were very healthy. Then we saw a few people from the nearby village, but generally it was pretty tame as far as our usual clinics go! Emily was the pharmacist, with Sherrie doing wound care, malaria tests and helping Emily. After the clinic, I went into a village with the Kysers to check out a chronic wound and to check on a cleft palate / cleft lip child that they are trying to arrange surgery for. Turns out he was too small / malnourished last year so they have gotten him a cleft palate bottle and formula to help with that.  Today (Sat) we go back to the prison then have some US kids over for awhile. whew. I need a vacation!
Please, as you look at these photos, think about YOUR life and what blessings you have. Perhaps you could skip a dinner out and donate to some of these people? The seizure clinic is 'free' but the workers get paid, the medications are bought. This outreach is through Children of Blessing Trust, in Canada.  The Kysers (M-1 Ministries) buy food, formula, clothes, etc for the orphans and some of the villagers. If you are unsure where / how to donate, please contact me!
Enjoy the photos.

 Amayi and Bambo Whiskas at Spur. You can FEEL the love between these two!

 One of the seizure clinic patients. What a beautiful child! Remember, any donations help the kids like this! Children of Blessing Trust.

 Emily at her weigh station.

 Am I really working? Pateint with baby on back, Joyce the translator next to her. The clinic meets in the school, hence the wall decoration and the little table and chairs.

Rainbow Childrens Clinic: A boy from village who was hit by a thrown rock and came in for wound care. Throwing rocks here is a national sport, right behind soccer!

Rainbow Children's clinic. Sweet girl with burns on left arm, axilla and breast area. Any doctors out there reading this, let me know if you know of any contacts for scar revisions in Malawi!

 Again, the clinic meeting in a school area. Emily and Sherrie in the 'pharmacy'.

 Sherrie doing some wound care.

 Jill Kyser has a friend who is a dental hygienist - she checked all the Rainbow kids.

 Sweet little guy from Rainbow!

 One of the village families. This little guy was NOT afraid of me! woohoo!

Kids lined up for fungal cream only

 Old burn scar with chronic wounds - I recommended antibiotic ointment and careful wound care, but any one out there with any other ideas? I have seen this before here and I just don't know if we are adequately addressing it! thanks in advance for any ideas.

 Jill and Jeremy Kyser working on bandaging the above wound = the azungus gather quite the crowd!!

Below, Jeremy Kyser holding the little guy they are 'fattening' up for cleft palate / cleft lip surgery. Pray for him - that he gets the surgeries he needs and they are successful!

Pothawira Orphanage and Clinic

As we wind down our trip, we still have 3 clinics left. Today will be a little crazy, so this will be short.  We went down to the Pothawira project again, and you will see photos of some of the babies at the orphanage and of some of the patients at the clinic. Anne Alaniz brought some doctors from the US to spend a little time there, word got out and the clinic got even crazier. We were there until after dark! Of course, there is a learning curve for the first time doctors, but they were real troopers about working in a resource limited area. There is still a lot of malaria, even though it is the dry season, and because it is winter here, many people are getting close to the fires to stay warm. Burns in children increase during this time of year. I was very happy to work with David, the medical student (Malawian) again. He is eager to learn and very bright. I have high hopes for this country and their medical students - they will be the answer to the health care here, not those of us who come from other countries.

Little Joseph Chisomo (you can see photos of him as a wee baby from last years blog) is now a little chunk! And so alert! The orphanage has new twins, Lucy and Chisomo. When we were taking photos, Chisomo was unhappy about something, and boy, does he have a great set of lungs!

Keep us in your prayers as we finish this very short 5 weeks! How time flies!

 Devin holding Chisomo, Lucy in front

 Severe burn from scalding water - this child is coming for daily wound care.

 Wound on child from bike accident - the Mom did NOT bring this child back as directed and the wound is getting worse.

 Impetigo on this young boy and also on his little sister.

 Ascites - getting ready to do a therapeutic tap.

 An acute burn on a child's leg

Joseph Chisomo  (JC) the wee one from last year, now fat and sassy!

Chinsopo Clinic, Area 46

Tuesday we went to Chinsopo, in area 46 of Lilongwe. Although we were still in the capital, it is a village setting. This area is very poor, and Mirjam Molenaar has started a project with the vulnerable children in this area. We set up to do a clinic, mainly with the children and moms. Lucky Nyirenda, a clinical officier, came with us, along with two translators, Clifford and Prudence, Charles - our security and crowd control expert, (along with prayer partner and song leader!), Joy a 5th year med student from Korea, Sherrie Byram, an ED nurse from Cleburne, Texas, and Emily Prince, from Weatherford, who has developed into the lead pharmacist.  No one seems to know how many people we saw, but it appears between 400 to 500. The clinic was under the trees, with Lucky and I having small tables for our office space. The pharmacy and lab operated on another two tables, with the back of the car also being utilized. The 'facilities' included a squatty potty inside a house. Lunch was a 10 minute break with hot tea and peanuts / cookies. It was delicious and refreshing! We started seeing patients at about 9:30 and were packing up by 4:30. For the last ~30 minutes, Lucky and I stopped seeing patients and helped in the pharmacy. They work hard!!!

Enjoy the photos. Thanks for the prayers for safety, as the roads can be challenging at times!

 Getting the pharmacy and lab set up

 Children lining up for worm meds

 Emily helping Joy in the pharmacy

 Sherrie passing out worm meds

 Mirjam Molenaar addressing the growing crowd of patients.

 Sherrie in her lab tech mode!

 Sherrie in the 'lab'.

 Me with the typical patients - Mom and multiple kids!

 Lucky in his office, giving directions of some sort to med student Joy

 Lucky in the surgical suite - we tried to convince this guy to let us remove the cyst / lipoma on the back of his neck, but at the last minute, he refused.

Emily managing the pharmacy. We didn't have very many men, but the ones we had wanted to cut in front of the women and children both to be seen and to get their meds. A  line means nothing to these guys!

Charles at the end of the day - we all pitched in to help the pharmacy get finished up. I mean, their work is hard!!!