His Hands Community

Well, after two marathon days in our make shift medical clinic it is apparent that the word is out in the village. Every morning there is a long line of people waiting to be seen. We are are seeing as many community people as we can, but we are focusing our attention on the Achungo Children.

As of this moment all the children we have tested for AIDS has been negative, with the exclusion of one previously known positive and one test that was inconclusive, and we will test again. The children are relatively healthy except for many cases of worms and scabies, a skin rash that is caused by a parasite. Oral medications will clear both the worms and scabies.

It has been wonderful to see how the children are now looking forward to their time with Debbie. It was clear that there was apprehension of the unknown on the first day, but it took little time for the kids to embrace both Deb and the program. She has them singing, coloring and answering questions about the story of Noah.

It is customary in this culture for the children to raise their hand while saying (yelling) Teacher, Teacher, to be called on to answer a question. I observed this in their classrooms, and it is a sign of respect for the teacher. The first day of VBS the children would raise their hand quietly if at all. By the second day, Deb had earned this respect and all the kids could not wait to answer her questions.

The VBS class is directly adjacent to the temp medical clinic, and it is wonderful to hear the children laughing, playing, and singing while the medical team works. Kirt keeps the children calm by making balloon animals and hats that the children wear. This makes the exam a little more complicated, but Lonnie and Phil don’t seem to mind. As I watch Lonnie and Phil work with these kids and community people, it is clear that God has called them to this work. They are both tireless workers who just seem to delight in treating these beautiful people. They are a great team.

John and Tim are making great progress with the planting and have had contact with a couple of village farmers. Tim was quite impressed with their knowledge and willingness to learn. Our whole team is so impressed with Tim and what he has learned while living in Malawi, and his ability to transfer that knowledge to this community. John has developed a phased plan for Achungo and the Rodi community that can lead to self sustaining methodologies. Kirt will take the plan back to SFC to see how we can support this mission.

A miracle for Victor, the boy with a severe infection in his leg. He was transported to the hospital in Homa Bay, where they didn’t even remove the bandage! They gave him anti-inflamatories and an x-ray and sent him on his way. Phil then escorted him the next day and made certain that Victor would be treated. He met with a very good doctor that admitted him and began treatment. The group has decided to fund the treatment and the travel expenses for Victor’s aunt to Homa Bay. It looks like he will be in the hospital for 2 - 3 weeks but should recover. There is still a chance that the infection has moved into the joint. If that is the case he will need surgery in Nairobi. The group has also agreed to fund this if needed. Victor is not an Achungo orphan, but Michael has agreed to administer the funds for Victor’s medical treatment. If we had not been here when we were, there is a very good chance that Victor would not have survived. This can only be attributed as a miracle from God, and a blessing to us as we all immediately fell in love with this soft spoken courageous young man. His english is very good, and his understanding of what was happening around him and to him was great. As he waited at Achungo to be taken to the hospital with Phil, Debbie and I gave him some candy and his face lit up with a beautiful smile. He walked over to debbie and asked if he could color, and of course Debbie set him up. Phil informed us that as he went through the initial lance and drain procedure he never even made a sound, and this is really painful. 

The children receive two meals a day from Achungo, and they are cooked in an out door kitchen over a fire, most cooking in African villages is done in this manner, however most tribes construct a very efficient fire stove to conserve firewood and make cooing more efficient. Tim had done this at his home in Malawi, so he constructed on for the Achungo kitchen. It looks as if this will be replicated in the Rodi homes, as the villagers were very impressed. It is contructed with brick or clay, has a dual wall that is filled with ash to reduce heat loss, then coated with termite clay. Termite clay or mud is used in almost all construction, it is very strong, insulates very well and drys very hard. When used to make walls or bricks it is sometimes mixed with cow manure for strength.

It is Sunday and the team is taking a small break this morning before seeing more children at the clinic this afternoon. Some of the team is taking the 30 minute drive to attend church, while the others are resting or visiting the village center at Rodi. As for me, I’mm going to get a start on editing, as I have shot some incredible footage of this team in action.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 6:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.