I was told before we came here that Grant does not wear a watch because hours and minutes really didn't matter here. To a large extent, that is very true. Outside of the meal times being somewhat consistent from day to day, the sun dictates when we rise and when we go to bed. Since we are so near the equator, the day is right at 12 hours. Therefore, it is light at 6:30AM and dark at 6:30PM (quite the change from the late summer sunset at home). We have worship nightly at 7, and by this time it is pitch black.
After breakfast we went to the village and setup the clinic in preparation for the day. We actually held the clinic in the same buildings that were dedicated yesterday, the church and the evangelistic center. These two buildings actually provided the perfect location to hold a clinic, as there was enough space for everything we needed. The people waited in a line outside of the church, upon entering their first stop was triage. The nurses checked their vital signs and found out the gist of what was wrong, before assigning them to their final destination. They had three choices, optometry, dentistry, or medicine.
Katie and Jennifer (our optometrists) established an efficient system very quickly - they saw the most patients and finished the day with a count of 156. This number becomes even more impressive considering their machine that was going to assist them quit working not even one hour into the morning. The girls said that everyone was very grateful to receive glasses, especially the ones that needed a strong prescription and couldn't see before receiving them.
Once the doctors and the pharmacy had a little practice under their respective belts, the business started rolling through much more quickly later in the day. The collection of physicians that we have is actually perfect: one pediatrician, one family practitioner, one internist, and one cardiologist. It provides an excellent balance and they have learned to work very well as a team. Each has his own exam room, as does our dentist. The patients are sent to the pharmacy to receive their medications after their exam, where our amazing pharmacist, Alison Anderson, and her team work hard to fill the prescriptions and get the people on their way.
The numbers from the day are as follow: 58 adults and 43 children were seen by the physicians and 14 patients were seen by the dentist.
I will mention that while many of the cases that we saw included Malaria and worms, I will comment on a couple specific stories from the day.
I held a variety of responsibilities throughout the day, and part of it I spent shadowing physicians. My dad, Rodney, saw a 73 year old woman who experienced some back pain and also joint pain in her hands and knees. After speaking to her for a short time, he diagnosed her with having arthritis, prescribed her with something to help, and was ready to see the next patient. She kindly thanked us and then said something that stuck out among everyone from the day: she had walked over 4 miles to see us that morning and was so thankful to see the doctor. We stood there stunned for a moment trying to imagine what it would be like to:
- Walk to see a doctor while being in pain
- Walk four miles period (especially in Tulsa)
- Walk four miles with arthritis while being 73 years old
My second and final specific story of the day involves our dentist, Bert Johnson. He and Pastor Tom pulled teeth for most of the patients they saw. While they were pulling one particular person's tooth, after the initial force, the tooth flew out of the mouth, up into the air, and straight down into Bert's shirt. Amid the surprised expression and laughter from the room, he shook the tooth out from the bottom of his shirt and admitted that it was the first time that had ever happened to him. The rest of the clinic had a good laugh and after he cleaned up, Bert was fine.
Bonus Feature of the Day: Pictures!
We have not taken a group photo yet so I cannot send a picture of everyone, but each of these includes different members of the team. Let me make quick comments on all of the pictures although I believe they speak for themselves.
Janet Craig is seeing a patient with a translator in one of them. In another, Nancy Thompson and Jordan Hill are talking to patients.
Pastor Tom and Bert Johnson are showing their pearly whites as they help to make others' look as nice. There is one shot of the many people we helped today as they were waiting to see a doctor; as you can see, our first day was busy!
The final picture is of Marilene and Gregg as they are standing with a translator on the far right and an evangelist next to him. His story was fantastic and I thought I would share. A few months ago, Asbury sent some money for famine relief; these people desperate needed food and their next real stock of food would not come until the corn was harvested in three months. With the help of Robert, an agricultural specialist (and the fifth person in the picture), they were able to grow a special kind of pea that would harvest much faster than the corn. These peas also provided much more nutritional value than the corn that they would be eating. The community had reached the point at which they could not even eat everyday, and they had to ration their food; thus it was truly a blessing for them to receive these crops.
Unfortunately I cannot promise that I will be able to send anymore pictures, because I had to borrow a student's laptop in order to upload them onto a computer. The computer that I'm typing on right now (circa 1997) probably could not handle digital pictures. You should see us trying to use these computers; it's quite the test of patience. It takes me about 15 minutes to check 5 emails each night; broadband has spoiled us. Additionally, I was told that this is one of the faster internet connections that Tanzania receives.
Everything else is going well thus far! Thank you for your prayers and also for your emails! It was great to see the inbox tonight. Oh, and Frank, please send drugs!
Ryan
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