Weds Sept 5th!

Hello there,

Well we are up early today and we are getting all ready for our first Clinic Day.  We are all super pumped and ready for this day.  I am feeling much better after my long sleep that I was able to have, and I am now ready for this day!

We have a quick breakfast, and then we are off on the bus and heading out for Maranatha.  Truly this 45 min ride everyday isn't really bothering me at all, kinda nice to chill before the long days start.  I really love watching the scenery before heading in also.

We arrive and the line is already huge.  The first thing I notice is that the men have lined up on one side of the school, really not that many of them, and then the women and children are lined up on the other, and there are tons of them, its crazy!  It is fun to watch everyone waving at us as we roll is, so love that part.

We take off all of our supplies for the day of the bus, we have about 12 bags or so, of medications, seats for the us and the patients, bowls for the water for washing hands and whatnot, and our tent for outside to be able for Shirley and I to teach our classes.  I can't describe how much stuff we had, we were all packed in the bus like sardines.  LOL!!

We bring all of our supplies into the school, which now has become our clinic.  This very small 3 room building is now our new home to help all these people.  So we set up while everyone outside is getting louder and louder waiting for us to begin.  No other volunteer group that comes to this village is for medical help, so we are truly needed here and everyone has come to be seen.  In the first room we have set up 5 nurses areas with seats for our assessments, in the next very small room we have our supplies and one nurses station and a wound care area in case, and lastly in the final room we have the Zambian nurses desk where all 3 sit and look at our assessment and determine what the illness is they have and what med is needed for their treatment.  After they see them the patients then have a few steps to hit the Pharmacy line where two of us are to dispense the meds, and after them there is an area for the children to get deworming pills and a cookie...few steps over from that area is the eyeglass area.  Very small room and so much going on!!!  I can't describe in detail how small this school is to accomplish so much!

After a prayer and words of inspiration we start the day!  Shirley and I head out to help set up the tent for our classes.  We were going to teach Female Hygiene/teenager class first and then my prenatal class in the afternoon, but soon realized it would be best to switch that around since the mums and the children we there early in the am, and not many teens.  So we gathered up some of the women and started off the first class with the help of a wonderful interpreter Prexidense, she told them right off the bat that this class we are going to use the proper terminology and this class is for learning and not for laughing.  I starting off with teaching them about the basic female anatomy, I had a small white board that I had brought with me, and drew it for them so they could visualize it.  They seemed to really enjoy that part of the class, to finally understand what they are made of =)
We continued on with the stages of pregnancy and labor, and it was interesting for me to hear how they deliver and where.  The ladies stated that when they get very hot, lots of pain, sweat alot, they know its time so they walk to their clinic in village where the lay midwives are and they deliver, and then they leave and walk back to their homes right after.  They have a small CSection tray just in case, not sterile at all, very crazy to hear their stories, would love for our patients to hear that.

The class went so well, they were asking lots of questions at the end, which made me feel wonderful, because most of the time, Zambian women do not talk unless its with other people from their area, not white people.  I loved that I got some misconceptions out of the way and I felt I really made a difference!!!  For instance, one question was, the white stuff that is on the babies when they are born what is that-they were told it was sperm-they have to have sex in pregnancy they cannot say no to their husbands, so the nurse told them that is what it was, so when I told them it was vernix, they were so surprised and overjoyed.  Other questions were related to HIV and if sex hurts the baby...to very important questions-Shirley and I taught alot!!!  I absolutely loved that I was able to do this for them.

In between classes Shirley and I went to help in the clinic, since there was always a line we wanted to jump in there to help.  So her and I worked for a couple of hours while others we able to grab lunch and take a break.  When we saw the women they always came in with all of their children, so at times we would have 5 people to assess in one sitting.  Lots of Malaria, ringworm, dehydration, suspected HIV illness-pneumonias, abdominal pains and coughs (from all the dust)...so hard to see all the sick little children

Well then it was time for Shirleys class, so we rounded up the teens and was able to teach them about fetal anatomy, their periods, about abuse, and then about HIV.  The girls really seemed to pay attention and learned alot.  We handed out some gift bags at the end of each class and we just didn't have enough to go around it was sad.  But we were proud to give them something.  These girls got pads that are washable and reusable, soap, underwear and ziplock bags to wash them in, quite a nice idea.

After the class we headed over to help the girls finish up clinic day, and get all packed up again and head home.  We are all exhausted and overwhelmed by our first clinic day, we did so much in one day.  They saw over 100 people that day, I want to say closer to 200 actually.  Amazing!!!

We headed back to the Sisters and chatted the whole way home.  WE ate a great dinner, mostly chicken, he he...never a day without chicken HA HA. 

After dinner it was time to get packed up for the next day, KIDS DAY!!   We had tons of toys and games to play, hope its enough.  We know there are 155 kids in school so we aren't sure how many truly will come.

Well another night our heads hit the pillow and we are out!!!

Talk soon

Mindi