On Friday while I was visiting Sara, the rest of the team ran a medical clinic. They had to send a few people to the local hospital in Mbale (about 10 miles away). One child had respiratory distress with asthma or RSV. A man with diabetes and a chronic sore on his leg needed extra care at the local clinic in Lusiola for wound dressing. He likely also has elephantiasis of the foot from the skin worm filaria. Bummer, because the meds for that are more difficult to get, have to be taken for 6 weeks, and will get rid of the worm but not repair the lymph damage. I saw one other patient with this on Manda. The tropical diseases have been less frequent than I might have expected, but still present during the trip. Malaria and hookworm have been the big ones. Thankfully they are treatable. Overall, the most frequent complaint has been muscle and joint aches from carrying heavy loads. Cataracts are very frequent as well (wear those sunglasses folks!)
When I got back to the orphanage I had some time to visit the lusiola clinic that Lonika has run for several years. It is just about a 10 minute walk up the hill to the small market area of Lusiola. Lonika has some limited medical training and has provided what care she can for this population there. It is 3 small rooms, but tidy with a sign out front reading Praise Medical Clinic. I am thankful that the medications we have not used yet will be available to the people through this clinic.
Saturday morning we spent packing and getting ready for our flight from Kisumu to Nairobi. We said goodbye to the rest of the team who are staying a few extra days as well as our friends at Shangilia Children's Home. After the 1 hour flight to Nairobi, Pastor Timothy met us and we went to dinner at Carnivore, the hot tourist restaurant. Think of Rodizio Grill, but with exotic African meats like crocodile and ostrich. The crocodile was not very good I have to say.
We flew at 11pm from Nairobi to Amsterdam (8hrs). I slept on the flight fairly well. Then we flew Amsterdam to Detroit (9hrs). The sun seemed to stay in one place as we flew away from it, so it was Sunday morning for about 15 hrs. After customs in Detroit we were able to get on a flight to Denver leaving 3 hrs prior to our scheduled flight, so we got in around 1pm. It was so good to be home and see Krista and the girls! Krista was waiting in the airport and bumped into Uncle Jim who was waiting for Renee's flight too! So we got to be welcomed home by them as well. Small Denver area world.
I tried to stay awake Sunday afternoon into evening, but only made it until about the beginning of the Grammys. Slept unil 3:40 or so. Will work today and get back on sleep schedule over the next few days.
I have been having many thoughts about the trip and specifics of how God showed up as well as how I can continue to come alongside the people there. I will put some of those up in the next week on this blog as I ty to debrief and synthesize. For now it's good to be home in good ol U.S.A..
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