Clinic Happenings.....

We have had many sick babies lately. Out of an average of eighty-five patients daily, ninety percent are under the age of nine and have malaria. Too many of them are weeks old and are very anemic. They are so sick that they barely cry or move. So many of the mothers are so young, early teens. And they are very frightened because if something happens to the first born they will be beaten, and they are so young that most of the time they wait too long to bring in the sick child. Then they have an over bearing mother or mother-in-law verbally abusing them the whole time they are at the clinic.

There was a young mother, maybe thirteen, with a week old little girl who was very sick. The mother-in-law came dragging this young girl by the arm into the clinic to get the baby seen. This young mother never said a word the whole time she was in the clinic, which was about 3 hours, her eyes never met anyone else's and she never showed any emotion at all. Her mother-in-law did all the talking for her. The baby was anemic, dehydrated, low hemoglobin, high malaria count and was near death. Kurgat made the decision to transfuse the baby and send her to Tokora. When the mother was told what we were going to do for the baby tears started to steam down her face, they put her and the baby and mother-in-law in the ambulance and took them to Tokora.

Two days later, a very happy smiling young girl came bouncing into the clinic with a smiling little baby on her back and a happy old lady thanking everyone she met there. This time you could not shut the young mother up, she was so happy that her baby was better and she said she was so afraid her baby was going to die that she could not talk to anyone. She thanked us for praying for her baby and paid us the money she owned but didn't have with her the first day and was giving everyone the baby to hold. Praise the Lord for His healing this little girl!!!

We are starting to see meningitis cases again. Six cases in the last few weeks, all from the same area. And all of them young. And this is right with the cycle of reoccurrence that we were told about during our last outbreak. We are hoping that it will not be as bad as the last time. So far no one has died. Tokora says they don't have the medicine they need to treat the patients, so we start treatment and transfer them there with the medicines for treatment.

We are transferring around eight patients daily to Tokora. The nurses there are actually blocking the doors to the ward when we bring patients there. It is so hard for our staff when they see the patients being treated so badly and abused verbally for being ill. Tokora resents us for many reason and they take it out on the patients. We have medicines, we pay our people regularly, and have good working conditions. We also see many more patients daily than they do and do more out reach than they do even though they get paid to do it, and we don't. It is a hard place to be....

Construction.....

We need a crew to come and work for a month!!!! We have so much going on that it seems a bit over whelming at times with all that needs done.

Bob's house has a roof and they are completing the drain field today. The inside walls need to be constructed and plumbing and electrical and solar stuff needs to be put in. Windows need to be finished, glass louvers put in, doors put on, and some flooring done and a kitchen put in. Oh yeah, ceilings of some sort will be put up also. Then it will be ready to move into.

At that point someone needs to start the remodel and repair on the old house for the Okkens!!!!! And then a workshop needs to be built, which will be a major job and granaries, clinic staff housing and somewhere in all this our house needs new ceiling and a floor and the generator shack needs a new roof as the old one blew off!!!! In between all the construction, the field work needs to be done, fences fixed, and solar panel needs to be secured because someone tried to steal it last night!!!!!!! So we could really use some help!!!!! And the kitchen that singles and visitors use daily is falling apart and that needs to be repaired/replaced also.

More about the Village outreaches and Bible studies and bull sacrifices later......