Tuesday-Friday

Tuesday we toured the Jinja Main Hospital, which is  a government hospital. It was horrific. People sit on beds and wait for family to bring them food, water, and help them use the restroom (in buckets in the room). They see a Dr. the Dr. prescribed medication. Then it is up to the family to go to a pharmacy buy all the supplies and medication. Then the nurse would administer the medication. The only way to received treatment is to pay up front and provide everything you need in the process. You have to provide your own bed sheets even! There were people lying around in a huge room with 4 beds in a cubical type divided area. They seemed so sad. There was not a smile in the building. You can smell the wounds when you walk in. Many people were in a make shift traction for femur fractures, a small girl had burns to her upper torso and head, and other people were just sitting on beds with no treatment being in process. The Emergency room was three exam tables with no equipment in the room. Im not sure what they can really get done in there but it didnt seem like a place I would want to be even for a minute. The maternity ward was a large long room with roughly 40 beds or more lining the walls. No privacy at all. The maternity ward is usually a bright happy place in most hospitals. This was the opposite. That afternoon we followed up at the fountain of hope school with some children we treated and saw a few more. The girl with the injured foot that sharps debridement was performed on looked great and the I&D abscess was healing very well.  We brought the 15 year old girl with the mitral valve click home to travel to Kamapala with us Wednesday.

Wednesday we traveled to Kampala to see if we could get our 15 year old girl a cardiac echo or at the least an EKG. We toured the hospital, which is state of the art, and met with several department heads whom showed their facility and all they could perform. Paul got Maboe an appointment with a Dr and she was seen received an EKG and some lab work. It appeared nothing was abnormal so we finished the day by touring another hospital and clinic. We found many resources in Kampala that we can refer patients for the umbilical hernias and many other surgical needs. It was a great day knowing we have places our patients can go for continued treatment  that live in villages and even in Jinja. 

Thursday we went to a church, which is a wood framed building with dirt floors and a tin roof. We saw several patients there, but due to the rain it delayed several people coming to see us. We will be attending church at David and Sarah's on Sunday and we all look forward to this experience. We had no water when we got home due to power being out throughout the day. 

Friday we visited another village, Budondo, and saw at least 100 patients. We were in a church with two windows and 75 people. It was hot and stuffy to say the least. The people of the village welcomed us with their loud cheering and hugs. We encountered one boy whom had been an attempted sacrifice. His face had scars from being at knife point and he had many irregular scars covering his back. The reasons why he was not sacrificed we do not know but they found a reason why they could not follow through and dumped the boy near the village were he was taken in. This place is full of evil but we fight daily to keep the light of God and his glory with us as we travel out to these places. We prayed over the boy after assessing his physical needs. After seeing the patients in the village we traveled to Jinja to follow up on a girl whom we had seen at the house Thursday night. She had burned the dorsal side of her foot with hot water two weeks ago. Dad sharps debrided the wound and we dressed it with silvadene and wrapped it. It looked much better Friday afternoon, we redressed the wound and will follow up Saturday afternoon. We prayed for water and it rained Friday evening. Byron, Linda, and myself took a shower under the rain water and it was so refreshing! We caught the water in buckets to use for flushing toilets and bathing. We are so thankful for the rain!