We are working out of a small church building at the end of a narrow dirt road. It is on a hill and you can see far into the valley below. There are simple, mostly clay brick buildings, that the people live in. There is no electricity or water, only dirt floors, no doors or windows, just openings where they would be. There is a communal toilet near the church which is an outhouse with a wooden floor with a hole cut into it. In spite of this most are fairly well dressed. Most wear sandals if anything and probably never have clean feet. Some of the women's dresses are gorgeous traditional ones with fancy headscarves.

I saw lots of patients with abdominal pain, cough, allergies, skin rashes and fungal infections. I saw several with more serious issues including irregular heart beat, probable hernia and possible aneuyrsm. There is a limited amount we can do for most of them, and that is really tough. We can do a urine test and two simple blood tests but nothing else. We do have medications to dispense but in limited quantities.

Our clinic is done for the day, most of us are on the bus on the way back to where we are staying. Marc is staying behind to help pack up. We saw at least 250 patients, I saw probably 60. My last patient of the day, a 10 month old was the sickest with low oxygen and probably pneumonia. At home I would have kept him overnight, but we couldn't. I will have him come back in the morning to see him again.

We are in our clinic about to start seeing patients. It was a small muddy road with ruts on the way here. It is on a little hill overlooking a valley. There were patients already lined up when we arrived. I had several patients yesterday among our group. One was serious enough that required significant care. I saw up close the realities of lack of health care providers and facilities.

The ORH team has identified a new site and we will be starting clinics tomorrow. After an extended period of preparation we are looking forward to serving the people here.

Local Newspaper

This is a newspaper that shows the severity of the flooding that prevented our team from reaching our intended site in Kanungu. The leadership team made a good decision to turn back, as we would not have been able to reach the site and might have become stranded.

A grasshopper snack

These are fried grasshoppers, a tasty local snack!