Every Day an Adventure!

Our first week here at Namwianga has been full of new and exciting experiences! We drove into Kalomo (the nearest village, which is 7km away) to the market, attended a funeral/burial, went out to a village church for services on Sunday, and have now started our classes and service assignments.

I have been out to the havens many times. There are currently two havens (orphanages, for lack of a better term, although many of these children are not orphans). Haven 1 is for children up to 18 months and Haven 2 is for toddlers. A third haven will open sometime in the next month and will house only the AIDS and TB patients. The children come to a haven if their family is unable to take care of them. Sometimes the parents have died, but in most cases they simply cannot afford to properly care for the child. Family members are encouraged to regularly visit and to retrieve the child once he is around 3 years old. By this time, the child has survived the most difficult stage of life and is prepared for village life. If no one is ever able to take the child, he will go instead to “Eric’s House,” the actual home of a missionary couple at which 42 children are currently living.

Of course I have favorites at each haven (although they are all ADORABLE!)! Some of them are Gift, Katy, Patricia, KiKi, William, Daisy, Sam, and twins that just came in a couple nights ago – Ross and Nita (named after Dr. Ross Cochran, who is leading this trip, and his wife Anita).

Earlier this week I had my first experience in the clinic! It is a busy place, especially in the mornings, and patients travel as far as 50km to get there. Patients must first check in, and then they wait outside until a nurse is available to see them. I sat in with one of the two nurses working that day and took the temperatures and blood pressures of the patients. In most cases, the nurses are able to prescribe treatment for the patient. The most common complaints are headaches, backaches, coughing, fevers, and sneezing. Most of the time Brofen (a form of ibuprofen) is given for pain relief/fever reducer and Amoxyl for coughing and sneezing. A few of the patients we saw showed signs of malaria and/or TB, in which cases I wrote lab orders for blood tests. If a nurse is unsure of the problem, she sends the patient back to see the doctor (the only “doctor” in that day was Ms. Bingham, one of the Harding faculty accompanying us on this trip—she is a nurse practitioner who has years of experience in rural medicine). The most exciting part of the day was when I got to give my first shot! It was a form of medicine used to reduce coughing in little babies. I also saw an IV started and helped care for several AIDS patients.

Please pray for our team, as we have been here a week now and are reaching the end of the “honeymoon stage.” Ten people have been sick today, and many are experiencing the mental/emotional breakdown that culture shock brings.

We are looking forward to several exciting things: Saturday an herbal medicine man is coming to visit with us, Sunday we will attend a wedding, and next Monday we are going to Livingstone to see Victoria Falls and the surrounding area!

Tulubanana! (talk to you later)