Another busy clinic day

MIRIAM's JOURNAL

Feb 3, Thursday

I am tired; my feet throb. I feel guilty for even thinking and talking about being tired and having throbbing feet. What about the people that walked 4-6 hours, on way ... to be at the clinic all day and then to walk back home? To born in a country and a life where that is hard to imagine -- we are so blessed.

Today, I worked with Benic, the lab tech. I did all the blood draws, did the malaria smears and set them on the window sill, did the HIV tests and had the patients obtain urine and/or stool specimens if ordered. I did heel sticks for blood on the little ones if they only needed a malaria test; I was on my feet and squatting all day - working in a small hallway and the small lab room. I was praying all day for God to keep me safe and not to get a needle-stick injury (HIV is so prevalent here - we did bring prophylactic HIV medication if anyone if our group did get a needle-stick). Thankfully, God had his angels protecting me and all the others in our group - we did not need the prophylactic medication. None of us got really sick on this trip.

There was only enough gloves for me to change them every couple of hours. I had to manually remove the needle from the top of the syringe and put in into a small sharps container on the floor next to where I was drawing blood. By the end of the day on Friday, I was using 0.5ml insulin syringes to draw blood. For those of you that don't know what I mean by that - they are syringes that are not meant to draw blood with; they have a very small, short needle to give insulin injections. But, that was all we had left.

I was told that we did about 300 lab tests today and Benic said that the maximum he's ever done is 350 in a day!

Yummy dinner tonight - rice, fresh green beans in tomato stew sauce and lamb meat (a very special treat). And, fresh fruit - Caitlin and Mackenzie would love it - watermelon, pineapple, mango, bananas. Even the bananas with brown spots ... now, in the States, I really don't like soft and ripe bananas. I prefer them to have a slight hint of green - on the firm side. Here in Kenya, the bananas with brown spots on skin do not mean that the banana is really ripe - inside, it's perfect (no soft brown mushy spots) and delicious!

I went on a bushbaby hunt tonight with Neil. We heard them and thought we maybe saw a glimpse of one, but I didn't see the eyes or enough to convince me. So many stars out - absolutely beautiful. Ducks and bullfrogs "talking" by the river. Peaceful.

SARAH's JOURNAL

Thursday

It's hard to believe the week is almost done and we have one more day of running the clinic. My role all week has been to organize, directing - helping to ensure that we are efficient; jumping in to help wherever needed. Things are running smoothly but today I had to step back and rest due to some digestive problems. Our diet has been a lot of rice, potatoes, tomatoes and green beans, with fresh watermelon or pineapple for desert. I've been treated to a special plate of papaya and/or mango as that is to help with digestion. So far, I'm not sure it's working but I'm thoroughly enjoying the fruit they grow right here on the farm (or at their other location in Yatta 1/2 hr away) We all agree that we could eat a whole plate of the fresh pineapple, watermelon or mango - it's DELICIOUS! We had an amazing cabbage dish for lunch along with potatoes and tomato sauce. Wonder what's for dinner?! Momma Esther just handed out mangos to the children and now they are singing their daily devotions. What beautiful voices and harmony! I'm going to head for a tea and relax while listening to the music.