Day Three
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So we wake up and get to Dawn's house for a meeting on how the clinic would be organized and who would be responsible for what. Although we had a team of approx. 15 experienced people, only two spoke the tribal language of Yalunka. We had a church leader from another village that spoke English and Yalunka which translated for the doctor. Julie and I were put in triage and would also do anything else that didn't require much communication. ie: wound tx, lab work, ect.
Our first day of clinic began at about 10:30am (we will treat 580 people in 4 full days of clinic) we treated a boy that was brought in by his father, he had a fungal infection on his scalp. His dad had taken him to a witch doctor that had them treat him with "black medicine". The treatment was to boil leaves in oil and then place them on his head. He came to us with infection and 3rd degree burns. He was maybe 11-12 yrs old, we had no pain meds to give him while we debrided and dressed it. He whimpered once and immediately his dad reminded him that he would shame his family is he cried. Julie and I plead with a translator to explain the damage of the black medicine and how painful this was, that we were so proud of him. The odor from the infection was overwhelming in the Africa heat. My oldest is his age and he is all I could think about while I treated him. He was on the clinic porch with a smile on his face first thing every morning, waiting for Julie and I. Dawn e-mailed and told us that he has been to her house to have the dressing changed and questioned her abilities, asking where Julie and I were. :-) Multiple wives is prevalent and therefore lots of STD's were seen and treated. Julie and I were surprised at the average weights. It is shameful to be thin so they wear layers of fabric. Coming to clinic was a special occasion, so everyone wore their best outfits and jewelry, it was stressed to us that Africans love to dress up. The people were average height and weighed between 80-100 lbs for women and 90-120 for full grown men. I saw one man that was 160lbs and he became a novelty! He seemed educated and they said that he probably had a thriving farm, he could tell that his card was different and asked me to convert his lbs to kg for him. He was quite happy with himself. Most looked as if they were wasting away. The babies and small ones came in with fevers and belly pain. Everyone got treated for worms and most for malaria. EVERYONE received vitamins, (thank you Aboite Missionary Church!) We worked the clinic until 5-5:30pm each day and would open by 8am. By the end of the day we were exhausted. I have never worked so hard! We would eat dinner with Dawn and head home to wait our turn in the shower line. This is fun, we were there in the "dry season" which means there is not a lot of water. We drained our water tank twice in the week we were there! Poor Jim had to keep pumping more in for us! We here at home really take that for granted!
Thought for the day: Nothing is easy here. Nothing.
Our first day of clinic began at about 10:30am (we will treat 580 people in 4 full days of clinic) we treated a boy that was brought in by his father, he had a fungal infection on his scalp. His dad had taken him to a witch doctor that had them treat him with "black medicine". The treatment was to boil leaves in oil and then place them on his head. He came to us with infection and 3rd degree burns. He was maybe 11-12 yrs old, we had no pain meds to give him while we debrided and dressed it. He whimpered once and immediately his dad reminded him that he would shame his family is he cried. Julie and I plead with a translator to explain the damage of the black medicine and how painful this was, that we were so proud of him. The odor from the infection was overwhelming in the Africa heat. My oldest is his age and he is all I could think about while I treated him. He was on the clinic porch with a smile on his face first thing every morning, waiting for Julie and I. Dawn e-mailed and told us that he has been to her house to have the dressing changed and questioned her abilities, asking where Julie and I were. :-) Multiple wives is prevalent and therefore lots of STD's were seen and treated. Julie and I were surprised at the average weights. It is shameful to be thin so they wear layers of fabric. Coming to clinic was a special occasion, so everyone wore their best outfits and jewelry, it was stressed to us that Africans love to dress up. The people were average height and weighed between 80-100 lbs for women and 90-120 for full grown men. I saw one man that was 160lbs and he became a novelty! He seemed educated and they said that he probably had a thriving farm, he could tell that his card was different and asked me to convert his lbs to kg for him. He was quite happy with himself. Most looked as if they were wasting away. The babies and small ones came in with fevers and belly pain. Everyone got treated for worms and most for malaria. EVERYONE received vitamins, (thank you Aboite Missionary Church!) We worked the clinic until 5-5:30pm each day and would open by 8am. By the end of the day we were exhausted. I have never worked so hard! We would eat dinner with Dawn and head home to wait our turn in the shower line. This is fun, we were there in the "dry season" which means there is not a lot of water. We drained our water tank twice in the week we were there! Poor Jim had to keep pumping more in for us! We here at home really take that for granted!
Thought for the day: Nothing is easy here. Nothing.
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