Tanzania Medical Team Monday, June 23, 2008

Spreading the love out in the bush

So yesterday's post wasn't really a summary of our day at all. I figured I'd get back to summarizing because that's really what you really want to hear. But first, one more thing about yesterday. The more I thought about it I realized the significance of the church service. Rarely do we slow down and simply sit in the presence of God and listen. We are always going to Him in prayer (whether it be in thanks, asking for forgiveness, or searching for guidance and wisdom). We are always ready to be the one who speaks first. I think talking too much can be a problem many of us face in our relationship with God. Sometimes I especially need to simply sit in His presence and just listen. Once I realized the significance of what I heard yesterday, it hit me what I had been doing... absolutely nothing. I had two hours to shut down and just listen. No speaking, no asking, nothing. Just sitting there listening in His presence. I think I'll probably do that more often once I get back to the Western Hemisphere.

So back to summarizing. Today we left the seminary at 7:30 and headed to Muhungamkola ("lots of rice"), a village near the village we were at yesterday. When Tanzanians say they are going to these primitive villages out in the middle of nowhere they say they're going out to "the bush", because many of the villages are surrounded by wild grass with empty hills rolling on and on as far as the eye can see. To be honest, most of this trip has felt like an episode of Lost, from the landscape to my constant hope that I will turn around and see Mr. Ecko.

So anyway, our first day of clinics went very well. Almost too well it seemed. Everything just began to flow once we got all the translators there and started seeing patients. First the patients go to triage where the problem is communicated and the severity is determined. From there, they either go to optometry or medical, depending on their chief complaint of course. The fairly healthy mothers and babies are sometimes just sent to the pharmacy to pick up vitamins and Albendazole (worm meds). Everyone (except for the pregnant mothers) receive the worm-killing meds just because of the prevalence of worm infections. After each patient needing attention goes through the medical clinic and sees doctors, they are sent to the pharmacy. Everyone always has something they need to take, whether it's just vitamins or a dual therapy of anti-malarial meds.

I tried to upload some great pictures of different things being done at the clinics, but the internet isn't really cooperating at the moment. Next time I'll post some more specific stories and things about people we've met, but right now I'm pretty darn tired. The jet lag has finally settled, but a day of helping patients back to back for 8 hours can kind of drain the energy, especially when they don't speak your language. I hope everything is great back home. One day down and four to go.

Talk to you soon.
God bless.

PS- the food is great. I mean today at lunch I had some chicken's spinal cord spewing out of the back vertebrae into my rice and beans, but other than that its pretty darn good. No, to be honest they put coconut milk in their rice which makes it pretty much amazing. Beans haven't gotten old yet, and the meat is almost always good. You just have to be careful when eating away from the seminary. Breakfast cream of wheat with granola hasn't gotten old either, pretty good stuff, especially when warm. Spencer, you will be glad to hear that I'm making my coffee extra strong each morning. Something about their delicious coffee just makes you want more (about 2+ tablespoons per cup to be exact).