Uganda - Clinic Day #3

Good morning early morning.  I awakened early (3am-ish) and haven't been able to get back to sleep since.  I gave up and got out of cot around 5:30am to find Mary awake too.  Sometimes the early morning visits are the best.  The roosters, the goats, and several snoring team members making a unique chorus of sound.  I was listening this morning to the roosters starting to crow.  The first rooster called out far south of us and it was nice hearing this ripple of roosters crowing that got closer and closer to the camp and then passed to the roosters north of the camp for as long as I could hear.  Very cool.  By the way, there is a rooster at the home right next our camp that is a talking rooster - at least that is what my 3:30am brain believes.  It sounds to me like he is saying "I can hear you!"  Listen for yourself and see what you think: 

Talking roosters or tired nurse?

As we were in the kitchen making and eating breakfast we talked about the happenings of yesterday.  I spoke of a strapping young man who came in complaining of an STD who repeatedly, emphatically insisted that he had never had sex -  even as I explained the concept of sexually transmitted diseases.  Mike chimed in to say that maybe what he had was the first immaculate infection.  Funny, right?  


Harrison, our med school aspiring high school senior, got quite the education yesterday.  He got to see and palpate hernias (umbilical and inguinal), got to listen to wheezing lung sounds, and demonstrate how to use an inhaler, palpate mastitis, see horrible thrush in a child's mouth, and saw many, many moms nursing their babies.  He told Mary on the first day that this trip has really confirmed his calling to medicine.  I am so impressed with this young man!  He even has managed to not blush when the scrotal wisecracks are passed amongst the nurses (Mary and me).  Unfortunately I don't have many "action shots" of Harrison because we were all so busy in the clinic I didn't take many pictures during clinic time.  Trust me though, this guy is going to be an amazing doctor one day.  

Here Harrison is seeing Dr. Mike work on a woman with a foreign body in her eye.

The medical team: Dr. Michael Boniface, me, Mary Romer RN, Dr. Jeff Jones, 

and Dr.-to-be Harrison Brown.  We worked so well together!

We learned that anytime Harrison had free time and got still he fell asleep.

This is a dangerous thing to do when Mark is around.

Because, you see, Mark likes to stack things on people's heads.

Here's Mark channelling his inner 7 year old.  

Look at the determination on that face!

Harrison can sleep anywhere in any position.  

This should serve him well in med school.  

Devotion was led by the Africans this morning.  The music keeps getting better and more animated. But the highlight of the devotion was when Abraham (the one who has many sons) delivered the message on the Great Commission. 

Abraham challenged us to use our freedom of speech to speak the truth of Christ. 

 He challenged us to make our sharing of Christ part of our work.  Because those that heard Jesus shared what he said is why we know about the gospel.  We have the most noble job of spreading the gospel.  God promises to be with us.  He spoke to the African brothers to share God with the unsaved Africans brothers.  He said that they lived with them and have many opportunities to save them from damnation.  He then challenged the Americans to not fear to speak about Christ.  He said that we are scared to speak of Christ in schools or worry about offending others.  If we know the truth - speak it!  We have the freedom of speech but we fear to speak about Christ!  We then moved into prayer time and spent the "Christ chatter" time praying for us to see the opportunitiess to minister, for the continued safety and health of the teams, our families, and for Steve Hudson.  A closing prayer was offered by Tom Boone.  

7:35pm update:

Well, we finished yet another wonderful day in clinic.  Today we took it a little easier and cut off the crowd at 500.  This put us out of the clinic at 5pm.  Considering the day was started with devotion time at 8am and clinic started right at 9am with only a break for lunch - not to mention fairly warm temps - we were tired and appreciated the break.  Clinic may have been slightly shorter but we managed to see some really cool folks. 

The government inspector and me.  She was the tallest African woman I saw that week!

Keeping the government official happy.

 The government official who inspects mission operations came through our camp.  She was very cordial and was treated like a queen!  She met all of us, seemed happy to have her picture taken with all of the medical folks, ate lunch with us, and shared our snacks.  We really needed for her to be happy, and she was.  I also had the pleasure to treat the mayor of this little town, one of the municipal officials and a Ugandan police officer. 

This officer was actually very friendly but didn't want to smile for the photo.  

I found this to be true of several of the Africans - 

all smiles before and after photos but not during.  

 The pastor's conference ended today and so several of the pastors also came through clinic.  I had the privilege to see one of the female pastors, although I didn't know she was a pastor until it was time for her to leave and I said "God bless you" to her and she very emphatically blessed me and thanked me for coming all the way from America to see her countrymen.  She blessed me and my family and praised God for all of us.  One her way out of the clinic she stopped to thank the interpreters, the pharmacist and all of the pharmacy helpers.  She was all smiles and truly was a joy to serve.


Mary had a very cute little old man that we dubbed "The Human Fossil". 

Another fellow who smiled until the camera came out.

Notice the pink framed reading glasses he was given today.  

He rocked those frames!

He was such a delight - animated and engaging - and so tiny!  

 He was 93!  Steve Hudson of MedReach told me that he had never seen an African that old.  With a life expectancy of around 47, the 70 year olds that we have seen are considered very old.  And why was he at clinic today?  He fell off his bike!  Unbelievable!  He was charming and spry and a joy to talk to through the translator.  The best part was when I jokingly asked him what plans he had for the second half of his life - Mary's translator Santo took my question to mean did he know where his eternal life would be spent.  Santo then very sweetly and sincerely talked to him about making a decision for Christ.  The old man said that he wanted to make sure that he spent his eternity in heaven.  He listened to what Santo had to say to him and asked if we could pray with him so that he could ask Christ into his heart.  We of course obliged him and he left a happy man.  Such a joy to meet him. 

Santo very sweetly engaging this gentleman.

Santo explaining to me that he desired to know Christ and to spend his eternity in heaven.

What a powerful witness our translators have been to our patients and to us!

  Over and over again I have been impressed with the professionalism and witness of our translators.  They are very open with their faith and are bold in their willingness to share the gospel.  They set the bar very high for the rest of us!

Before dark we all got the opportunity to walk to the nearby village about 500 yards away.  It was like walking through National Geographic magazine yet very organized - sort of a village main street. 

This woman, with her baby strapped to her back, 

was running the grist mill when we came by.  

It's 5 o'clock somewhere and these gentlemen were enjoying 

their adult beverage of choice, probably homemade.

Lots of motorcycle and bicycle repair shops around.  

With their roads I don't doubt that these guys do a steady business.

Ladies working outside their shop. 

I haven't seen a treadle sewing machine in a very long time.

The gang's all here!

Everyone came out while we were walking through.  

It was obvious that we were the evening's entertainment for them.  

I don't imagine that they see white folks too often.

 There were homemade brick and adobe buildings on a relatively small scale - the average building was probably 8x16 and looked to be two rooms - the front room being a store, the back room probably living quarters.  There were stores, bike repair shops, grist mill, and grain storage.  Several folks came up to us and wanted us to take their pictures. 


 After taking one rather inebriated man's picture he was very insistent that I marry him.  When I showed him my wedding ring and told him I was married he said he didn't mind that I was married.  My funny nurse friend Mary told me that my reputation for checking kids for inguinal hernias and undescended testicles had preceded me.  Hey, a girl's gotta be known for something, right?  

The gentleman on the right?  

He's the one that got away.  

Meanwhile, back at the ranch we had lots of eggs and bananas left to use up before they spoiled so I scrounged through the trunks of kitchen supplies and managed to find a can of cream.  With a little bit of a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix, cinnamon and sugar, and some shortbread cookies I managed to come up with a semi-decent banana pudding.  Not great, but not too shabby.  Mark cooked dinner for us that was wonderful.  We had pan fried summer sausage with pan fried potatoes with peppers and onions.  Yum. 


After dinner several of us gathered around and had an opportunity to meet as a group to share experiences and chat for a while before scattering to our tents for our baby wipe baths and bed. 

 Mike and Nancy - finally feeling better.  

 Mark

 Brenda

Sweet Jerry

Steve solving the problems of the world via cellphone.

Harrison and Patricia chillin'.

Heidi, who I managed to catch without a smile on her face. 

Sorry about that Heidi.

Roy, the man with a million stories (and all of them interesting!)

 Everyone expressed the thankfulness for this mission trip.  It is hard work but very rewarding.  Being a Martha-, not a Mary-type personality, I am much more comfortable and joyful doing this kind of work for Christ.  I do not have the gift of teaching or evangelism, but I most definitely have the gift of compassion and helping.  I feel like I am in my element here.  Also, being the listmaker that I am, I am making notes for next time.  I have talked with both doctors - the wonderful African Dr. Michael Boniface and the infinitely patient American pediatrician Dr. Jeff Jones and the fearless pharmacist, Penny Pickering and have requested that after this clinic we correspond via  email and come up with a really comprehensive list of medications and supplies that we need to do clinic.  All are on board to help make this happen.