Uganda - Last Clinic Day

Praise the Lord we finished clinic this morning around 11:30am.  The process for stopping clinic is a different than anything I have experienced before.  At about 10am we made an announcement through one of the Africans that we weren't going to be accepting any new patients.  Those that were in line at that point were going to be seen.  The folks who weren't going to be seen we directed to one of the trees about 50 yards away from the building.  At that time Mary and me, along with several of the men from our team (Mark, Tom, Mike, and Steve) to act as bodyguards, went out to the trees to distribute vitamins and worm meds.  Ivan, our wonderful African friend who works with Here's Life for Africa, explained to the people that we were closing the clinic, how to take the meds, and to leave after receiving meds.  After this we started handing out meds.  We had two teams of three distributing meds - I handed out worm meds to the adults and children, Mark gave out vitamins, Tom gave infant worm meds.  Mary, Tom, and Steve acted as the other team. There was a sense of urgency but everyone was fairly calm.  After this we went back to the clinic to finish up with the folks that were still standing in line and had been triaged.  Shortly after the last person left we closed the clinic door to encourage those that were hanging around to leave the area.  Our concern was that we would have Africans who had been there all morning upset with us because we would not be seeing them.  God took care of this problem and it just wasn't an issue.  Everyone seemed satisfied and left without being angry.  

After lunch we had our Sunday worship with the Africans.  There was wonderful, rhythmic music with tons of clapping, chilile (the high-pitched, trill scream that is meant to be a shout of joy), and wonderful African harmonies.  Tom delivered the message for us.  Mark led the group in communion.

Tom delivering the message

Mark leading communion.

What a wonderful experience... 

receiving communion all together.

 After the service we moved right into the closing ceremonies where representatives from Here's Life, Medshare, the school where we held camp, the local mayor, and a local dignitary all had a chance to speak words of appreciation to everyone.

Steve spoke to the group

The school administrator thanked the group for coming.

 Considering that the camp location was changed at the last minute from northern Uganda near the South Sudan border to central-western Uganda near the Nile river in the Kiryandongo district this camp really came together nicely.  The local government was glad to have to us provide a clinic and the local primary school was accommodating to let us use the school buildings for the clinic.  As it turns out there has never been a mission group in this area.  After all of the thank you's had been said Mark got up and asked Harrison to join him.

Harrison giving the gifts to the school administrator.

 Harrison then got to give the soccer balls and school supplies that his school had collected to the school administrator for the school where we camped.  Mark then handed out gifts to the Here's Life and Medshare guys and to our translators and volunteers.  Thanks to the hard work of some of the ladies of the church and donations of shoes from one of the athletic stores in Huntsville we were able to gift the guys and ladies with really nice gifts.

This local official was very pleased with the gifts!  

BTW, temps were in the 90's - how this guy and others weren't passing out from the heat I don't know!

 Everyone got 5 knitted caps, a pair of athletic shoes, and assorted sunglasses and ball caps. It has taken lots of volunteers to make this camp happen as smoothly as it has.  We have had a security guy who has made sure that our tents have been secure and that our chos have been reserved for us. There are two volunteer guys who were responsible for keeping our water filled.  There are the African ladies who travel with the Here's Life group who keep the African team well fed.  I am sure that there are several other folks who worked behind the scene to make sure that everything went as smoothly as possible. We also required so many translators to deal with all of the tribes we served.  According to my translator Stephen Okun there are around 56 different languages and dialects in this region.  Stephen has been amazing talking to the folks we have served.

The knitted caps were a huge hit - especially the colorful ones!

Santo and Jennifer - two of the very nicest people.

Taking pictures after closing ceremonies.

Some very happy employees and volunteers.  

After the closing ceremony was over and we took pictures of the guys wearing their gifts we set about getting the rest of pharmacy inventoried and the waste disposed of properly.  Knowing that villagers will go through our trash to repurpose anything they can,  we had to make sure that we disposed of our pharmacy/clinic trash properly.  The easiest and most effective way to do this was to "choke the cho" - drop the stuff down the latrine holes.  Mark found out just how deep those things are when he told us that there is a significant delay between dropping the items and hearing them hit the bottom.  The refuse is gone for good!  

That evening we had plenty of time to sit around and decompress now that everything was done and we were ready to move onto the safari.  The problem was that I could not stand my hair one day longer.  Steve had taken a bottle of the well water that we had been using for washing hands and non-sanitary purposes and washed his hair the night before.  I had been thinking about cleaning my dirty, dusty, itchy hair ever since.  I took a chair out into the schoolyard, sat down, put my head back and Mary poured water onto my hair then I lathered up.  Heaven.  She then rinsed with that wonderful, cool well water and I conditioned my hair.  Heaven again.  By the time I got to the final rinse the chiding that the team was giving me had ceased.  The thought of clean hair overtook the exhaustion.  We started having a good old-fashioned foot washing - only it was hair.

 Mary helped Harrison wash his hair and he jumped up and started  proclaiming how great he felt. 

 Mike helped Nancy wash her hair.

Notice the Africans watching us.  They must have thought we were crazy!

 Then I got the chance to start washing hair for my friends. 

Patricia was first

Then Roy

Then Jerry

Then Steve

Then Mark

Then finally Mary.

Mission accomplished!

It was really a nice way to serve.  There were snarky comments made and lots of laughs but it made me happy to be able to make my team members comfortable.  

One other significant happening of the evening happened when we found out that one of the young women that travels with the Here's Life/MedReach African team is getting married on February 4th.  We all chipped in a few shillings each and were able to collect a nice monetary gift to help start her new married life. She was so appreciative of the gift that she knelt down to Patricia when she gifted her with the money.  Patricia pulled her up and congratulated her from the group.  

I slept pretty well that last night.  It could have been the fact that we discovered wool blankets in one of the MedShare chests, it could have been the earplugs to keep the noise to a minimum,  it could have been the clean hair. Most likely it was the sense of accomplishment that I had after a week of doing exactly what God wanted me to be doing at that moment.  This might just be the most fulfilling nursing experience I have ever had.  Ever.