The Day that Went On Forever....And Ever...And Ever!

Sorry I didn't blog last night but there was no way. The brain was absolutely dead. The plan was to run our clinic for three days from 9-12 and then move on with the schedule. Well, that is NOT what happened. Not even close. We were all up and ready at 8 to work out any last glitches. The first group of children were here at 9. What we didn't plan on was the doctor and the governmental physician not showing up until 11 to 11:30. By then the kids were hot and we were stressing out! So we (Brian and I) started the picture process (we wanted to get a picture to put with each medical file and a picture for each sponsor) and the letter writing to each sponsor. That in itself was a challenge. First, we had to make sure we got the right file for each child. No easy process as we soon figured out. They were all so eager to get their picture taken that anytime a file was flashed to find its owner there were several willing to take it. Multiple times we had to paste pictures over other pictures to get them right! Meanwhile the medical team was working hard. Josh was taking an oral HIV test, swabbing each child; then they moved to Amanda who looked in each child's mouth and determined there were many dental issues that were beyond our level of expertise. (Now I know many of you are thinking that doesn't take much!) Just getting them to open their mouths and move their tongue was a challenge. She now has mouth muscles she didn't know she had! Then they left to Nicole for vision testing. The physician had already told us that all Ugandan children have 20/60 vision so I don't really know what the point was except, by miracle, we found that wasn't true. Just imagine our surprise!! This worked great during the daylight hours. But you have to understand we didn't finish til close to 10 pm last night. So there was Nicole with a flashlight shining on the chart for the kids to hold so they could tell her what symbol they were seeing and a little helper shining a light on the chart 20 feet away. I'm sure the US medical board would definitely approve of our system. But it worked. The funny thing is that the guard and watchman, Moses, can't see a thing. He can see the top row, in broad daylight, but the next two symbols, no way. AND I MEAN NO WAY!!! And he is our protection. I'm feeling pretty confident. I mean all I have at home is Maddie and I think she could do more harm!! But seeing the process in the complete darkness was pretty funny. Though it worked and we were still able to do the job we came to do. They they shifted to height and weight. That was probably the most fun for the kids. No probing, no prodding, just step on a scale! After that they got to the Blake who with a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff looked very doctor like. He said the kids just flocked to him to see what he was doing but once the cuff started swelling they were a little freaked out. And they crowded around him like you wouldn't believe. He kept saying it was amazing because he did and said the exact same thing over and over and over again and still they stood like they'd never seen it before. Then they went to the doctor where they were immunized (and probably realized they shouldn't have been so eager to grab their file!) and checked out. We ended up with ZERO positive for AIDS (hallelujah); six positive for syphilis; and 35 are now being treated for one medical illness or another. Thank goodness for Tamara. We are finishing up the final group of kids this morning that we couldn't locate yesterday and then we are done! It was a LONG day. We finally sat down for the first time at about 10 last night and we were just giddy. I don't think anyone could say an intelligent thought. And then I had to sit down and try to put names to all the numbers I had shot to make sure we had the right names with the right pictures. That took another few hours and by the time I got in bed I just collapsed. Didn't even shower and didn't even care!!

The great news is NO AIDS. The second great news is that as a team we all worked so well together. Even in exhaustion we were all willing to be there for one another. And after 12 hours in the hot sun, we were all able to laugh and love on the kids. They young kids have been amazing. Colton has the heart of gold. He is with those kids every chance he gets as is Jaimie. Kayla and Liz are right there with them. They all have such a heart. It is amazing to watch. I can see both my kids, and Sam and John thriving in this environment. They would be loving on the kids like there was no tomorrow.

I will blog again tonight. Right now I am leaving to go walk around the neighborhood and take pictures. Love you all. We are going to Susan's mother's house for lunch today so I have a little more than 30 minutes.

Thanks for being a part of this journey.