I think…looking back at my blog entries…I have more pride issues than I realize. I’ve been slacking a bit on writing anything lately. There are still twenty-four hours in each day out here, and they are busier than ever. It’s just that….well…..things are…..simply…..going really well.
There are no earth shattering, or really just Scott shattering, experiences lately. Pttttt….I mean what fun is it to write about “all clear”? Well, a lot more than I have been giving it credit for.
Again, looking back, at the first two months; WOW…..that was tough. My changes were changing, and faster than I could keep up with. So today, I’d like to write just a general note about how good things are here.
The clinic, swamped…busier than ever. Today, slow…slower then church on Super Bowl Sunday….ooops I meant Big Game Sunday.
…if you don’t get that joke, the NFL now owns the copyright to the phrase “Super Bowl”, and that is why this year, and maybe last, grocery stores, etc, don’t have S***r B**l food, they have Big Game food. If you are a lawyer, please email me your contact information, I just might get in trouble.
ANYWAY, it was nice to have a slow day. The rainy season is upon us. This means it rains just about every day, sometimes all day for multiple days. When the rain stops, the sun does come out, and it is usually very nice. The rain also keeps the temperature down quite a bit.
The rainy season brings out a ton of mosquitoes. So many of the villagers have malaria, and more of our orphans do too. “Odd” cases in the clinic are up a little, but still I have not seen too much that has made me do a double take.
It is difficult trying to keep boundaries with clinic hours and serving the community. For a while, I feel like the only Juba/Arabic I was learning was to tell people that the clinic was closed, return tomorrow morning, the afternoons and evenings are for the orphans only unless it is a true emergency.
One evening right at 5:00 pm when we give vitamins and medicine to the orphans, a woman brought here baby in. We told her about the clinic hours, with a translator, and still she did not seem to understand. So we looked at the baby, and asked some questions (in the same language she was not understanding a minute earlier), and suggested that she return tomorrow during normal hours. Apparently she did, the line was too long, and she went home (literally across the street), and came back again at 5:00 pm. Well, you can see the circle of events here, but…..it’s all good.
This Sunday we will have a going away party for one of the missionaries, Tara. She’s been in Africa a year now and has committed her life to the continent. Unfortunately next year she is going to another school, so this weekend we celebrate her time here. Those get-togethers are usually a good bit of fun. We invite a bunch of folks from other NGOs and much of the staff too.
…since we all have different areas of responsibility, our paths don’t cross much. So, this is a really good time to hang out with the staff in a non-work setting…
We’ll have a camp fire, and even make s’mores. Now the ingredients are not top of the line. Chocolate from Uganda just doesn’t melt nor taste like Hersey’s. Local glucose biscuits are good, but not the same as graham crackers; and believe it or not, we can get marshmallows in town. I am sure it is easier than I think to mess up making marshmallows, but they haven’t.
The clinic is now staffed with just Emily and me. That means Emily doesn’t get many days off, if any. I at-least know where to get a good chunk of information for diagnosing. I am still having a very difficult time seeing the difference between puss and EXTREME dirt and wax build up in ears. Just imagine how dirty your ears would be if you lived in a place a with all dirt roads, a mud brick home with a dirt floor, that you probably slept on, and have never even heard of q-tips before, let alone seen one or used one. RIGHT…..I feel it makes it rather difficult to see the difference. Emily…doesn’t…and this is a source of a few jokes every now and then; but it’s all good. The same is true for the difference between a sore throat and tonsillitis. Oh well, she does double check me on those, every time.
Either I am getting worse with each time I play soccer, or the older boys are getting that much better. I’ll play a lot for a couple of weeks, and then the combination of rain and business in the clinic will have me miss a couple of weeks. The other day, I did a great move against one of the guys. A simple move, I just cut and changed direction; yet I did it “on a dime”. Man, I was so proud, until 30 seconds later I felt the pain in my back. Probably from moving in a direction and at a speed I had not done in years. Two days later….almost all gone.
The water pump is on the fritz. So now we have to walk across the street to what they call a boar or bore hole. I don’t know which one. We fill up tubs and buckets, the usual stuff that we do on the compound, but now across the street and it has to be pumped out vs the faucet we have. I have not attempted to carry a bucket of water on my head; I have with much small and lighter objects, and with very little success. The way I see it, since I had to work pretty hard pumping the water out of the earth, I shouldn’t risk dumping it right back on top of it.
So, you see….lots of little stories…..it’s all good. Talking with a friend Sunday night, I realized that 5 weeks from today I will be on a plane heading back to the US. The trip back will be a pleasant 32 hours, if all flights are on time. I understand I should be grateful that I sold my car as gas prices are…..well let’s keep this a positive note. I don’t know what I am looking forward to the most when I get back, and I don’t want to spend my days thinking about that. I do miss…..most of you….no…no…no….I miss all of you, and I cannot wait to see you all.
Thanks for spending a little time out here with me. As routine and exhaustion settle in, creativity takes a nose dive for me. So, if there is something you want to hear more about, please email me and I’ll do my best to write about it.
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