Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Uganda 2: 7/2/13

Well after experiencing the earthquake today and the two mangos falling from the tree and hitting our roof just now, I’d say my poor heart has done enough racing for the day. You’d think after hearing a mango BANG against our tin roof 5 times a day for the past week, I’d be used to it, but nope! It makes me jump every time!…And there goes another!

I’ve definitely had an interesting past couple of days. I went with Janine and the Chaplain of the PMI clinic to do the health evaluation/inspection there. It took 2 days to finish the whole thing and I tell you, I was very impressed with how educated and sanitary (for the most part) the staff was with procedures. Although I’ve heard all about how common malaria is here and how sick people can get from it, I guess it just didn’t hit me as hard as seeing it first hand. First there were the records we had to go through to be sure that the staff were documenting correctly all of the malaria patients that had come through in the past year, just to this clinic. The numbers were pretty astonishing. Then there were several cases in the in-patient ward who were on ivs, but the one that struck me the most was the precious little girl. /she had to have been about 6 years old and I couldn’t tell at first what was wrong with her, that is until she started convulsing. Then I was informed that Cerebral Malaria is a common form that goes into the brain. As her mother calmed her and the nurse checked on her, all I could do was pray that God heal her.

We went to the maternity ward and there was a 2 day old baby that was born 2 months early. She was the tiniest and most beautiful baby girl who I could only pray for as well that she didn’t contract HIV from her mother or potentially get malaria.

On a positive note, I got to see an ultrasound of a lady that was 3-months pregnant! Oh the joy of life! I think I was more excited about it than her though.

I went to an orphanage today called Spirit Fire. There are about 200 students, about 130 of which actually live at the orphanage. One of the staff members gave me a tour of the boys and girls dormitories and the potential play room and bathrooms that were still under construction. An American man names Son paid for the construction of the girls dorms before he went back to America, but it was his birthday today so Trish and her mom (American missionaries that live 2 houses down from me and Janine) made signs for the children to hold up as they shot a video of them singing happy birthday to him. We gave them sugar cane afterwards to celebrate! You wouldn’t believe how these kids use their teeth to peel that stuff and then chew it. We sang songs with them and taught them two Bible stories. I swear their attention spans are far longer than us Americans!

After morning devotions at the church tomorrow morning, I’ll be practicing up on my muffin making for the handicapped women I’ll be teaching on Thursday. Then I’ll be making enchiladas for my birthday dinner!

That’s all for now! God loves you and so do I!

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