Team Highlights: November 1st

The first day in the villages is usually quite a learning experience, especially for our first timers, but with the great collaboration from everyone the teams were hitting their stride by the end of this very first full day. Boarding the bus at the end of the day, we were tired and sweaty (that’s the norm), but happy that a good day’s work got done, many people were helped, and a number of lives got saved.

One of those was a six year old boy with his mother who was picked, in distress, out of the crowd of waiting patients this afternoon. A severe, life-threatening, incarcerated hernia was identified by our physicians. The matter was of such urgency that the boy, his mother, and Linda, one of the hernia team nurses who was in Nyamboi today, were quickly loaded on one of the pickup trucks for the trip back to Carpenter for emergency surgery by the waiting hernia team. Surgery was successfully performed, and at last report our young patient was awake and eating. All in a day’s work? Indeed, but what a great example of wonderful teamwork by caring and dedicated people

My last story is about our very last patient of the day who was an elderly lady at the eye clinic. After being fitted with glasses that would somewhat improve her failing vision and being assisted out of the clinic she stopped, threw up her arms and said something in her language. David Mensah who happened to be in the building quickly interpreted for us. She said “God bless you all for coming here to help us.” What can I possibly add to that?

Everyone is reportedly in good health in case you were wondering, and I’m passing on greetings from the entire crew.

Jacques