Village clinic at Michelle's

Today we did a village clinic at Michelle Clark's 'village'. The area has about 1000 residents, so we limited it to the women, children, and wounds. Some men did sneak in, and of course we saw the chief when he came. I am not sure how many people we saw, but it was busy all day. We had to stop at four to be able to get home in time to cook dinner. The morning started with loading up medicines in the back of the Rav4, then off to ABC to pick up our translators, Oscar and Charles, along with an ABC nurse, Carson, who also wanted to come. Carson and Michael were the pharmacy and lab (malaria tests), Joseph and I were the medical providers, Joseph was the primary sonogram tech and procedure man. It worked out pretty well! We set up on Michelle's kondi (porch), with the waiting room her front yard. It was great in that we had running water, toilets and she fixed us lunch! Usually those things are not available in a village clinic, so we were very thankful.

What did we see? Well, I have lots of photos of some very funky rashes that I won't make you guys look at! Mostly fungal in origin, with some allergic and infections thrown in just to keep it interesting. We saw lots of coughs and colds, malaria, worms, anemia, general body pains, a few urinary problems, and a couple pregnant ladies (that got sonograms to check out their babies). Joseph had a patient with a very weird cyst on her back - it felt fluid filled, but when he drained it, out came a thick, gray / black liquid. Not what we expected to see. One child had a huge spleen, so everyone had a chance to feel the spleen. Michael had a chance to use the sonogram on one of the pregnant ladies, as well as feel the spleen. We also tried to point out any interesting pathology to him (mostly the weird rashes). At the end of the day, Michael stayed at Michelle's so that he could walk into the village and visit some of the villagers. Then Michelle brought him back 'home'. She stayed for dinner and we had a great visit over beef stew - homemade from scratch, using red palm oil as the cooking oil.

Thanksgiving and Praises for: friends like Michelle, who sacrifice themselves for others; friends we have at home who, though their donations, made purchasing medications possible to treat these villagers; friends at home who actually went out and BOUGHT medications and ointments for us to use; safe travels; fellowship with other believers; great translators like Charles and Oscar.

Prayer requests: that we actually made a difference in some lives, not only by medications but mainly by showing the love of Jesus; continued safety on the roads and in the country; that our day tomorrow (possible C-section, going to the prison, meeting with the chief of surgery and the ED at Kamuzu Central Hospital) all goes as God ordains.

Pictures: Please note that I / we always ask permission before taking any photos of our patients!

Oscar, Joseph and I in the 'doctor' area

Michael feeling the spleen of a young malaria patient

Young boy with worms (protruding stomach)

Me, patient and Oscar at our end of the doctor table

Michael and Carson with patients in the pharmacy / lab

Charles, patients and Joseph at 'their' end of the doctor table

Mother and child (who had malaria)

Two little girls, ages 10 and 4, who showed up alone, both had terrible fungal rashes in their hair.