Mgwayi village clinic

 Getting swarmed by the kids - notice the cases and boxes in the background - our medical supplies.

 Look at the tiny table and stool they found for me to be the 'doctor's' desk - hahaha

 Joseph helping out in the pharmacy - we tried to seperate all the COTN kids with ringworm first. This was the first wave of those kids.

 The line forms - the guy with the white shirt is my translator, Chikondi.

 Sitting at my tiny stool - just glad it held me up!

 Nasty rash on a little girl's foot.

 Joseph and his translator, Davie. Joseph didn't even GET a table and stool!

The view out my window - right into a thatched hut!

Today we went to the village of Mgwayi. It is on one of the main roads out of Lilongwe, behind the Children of the Nations (COTN) office. It is a feeding site for some COTN kids (260 I think). We were swarmed by kids as soon as we got there!
 We really went to see the kids, so we started with them. Lots of ringworm and coughing. I did see a couple of kids who had Moms, but they looked malnourished. One quite malnourished, but Mom has HIV/AIDS and is on meds but very thin and appears ill - she is still breastfeeding, but the child was obviously ill and not getting enough nutrition. The second child was also thin as was the Mom. Davie (one of our COTN contacts and Joseph's translator for this clinic) will try to get these kids registered as COTN kids so they can get additional nutrition.  I started out seeing patients, with Joseph helping Sofia in the pharmacy, but when the line grew longer, Joseph jumped in and took care of folks, too. If the COTN kids get really sick, they go to the ABC clinic. The village is a short distance from a main road and the capital, so one would expect the villagers would seek medical care. Unfortunately, they do not. I am not sure if this is the expense involved with transport, the time away from home (it would be an all day ordeal) or just lack of understanding; in whatever case, it is disheartening to see so much 'un-wellness' in a village with reasonable access to the health care system in Malawi.

We did a clinic in this village last year, also. I will say that there was a nasty fungus among many of the children last year (that we treated) that seemed to be significantly lessened in those we saw today.  We can only hope that treatment last year made a difference!

This is our last scheduled village clinic for this year.  We will re-organize what is left of our medication and leave it for any in-coming teams to use.

Thanks to any and all of you who have seen fit to support us with medical supplies, medications, finances or prayers. We do really appreciate you!

Praise:
That we were able to find those two malnourished children and arrange follow up.
That we had the necessary medications for the patients we saw.
Our continued safety here.

Prayers:
continued safety as we wrap up this trip.