Brigade....Talanga

Hard to sum up today to be honest, so I am kickin' it free style....yo.

It was a great way to outreach to this new community for us. We were located in a school on the hill in the city, kind of on the edge of town. A beautiful view, which I think the pictures show, although one downside of that location was that the school has no bathroom. If you have never done a brigade, this is a downside not only for the lack of somewhere for us to go to the bathroom when needed, but when patients need to give us samples....it is not exactly a cake walk for them

either.

Speaking of patients, there were more than we anticipated seeing but the flow and working together of the group came together instantly, everything just seem, lessly starting and going forward from the first patients. It was very impressive.

The patients were varied, and it was not standard fare of just wanting something for headaches and vitamins. There was that aspect (duh, people's heads hurt, and they want to grow...or think that it will help their appetite or perhaps give them super powers, like Bam Bam)

We saw everything from the normal cough/cold, scabies, fungi, arthritis, and gastritits to abcesses on a butt (who even fainted at one point), extremely high blood sugars (one apparently over 550 or 600...whatever the max for the acucheck is) chicken pox...quickly dispatched so as not to affect anyone else if possible, venereal disease (probable) and much more. The picture here was for grandma who developed this from a pair of shoes she had (she got rid of them...seemed like a good idea) and has been treating with a home remedy (some plant.) All good...but we did not like the look of her foot in general. Although she was sure she was not diabetic, the strip told a different tale, sugar at 223. The grand daughter with her was recovering form chicken pox, no word on why she did not have a shirt.

There were patients that were Christian, some from this new movement towards a Church there, and many that when I offered to pray reacted...differently. Many just asked me "what?" but at least one that seemed a bit taken back by the idea. God did it all....He sent the medicines, He sent us, He brought them, everything. He prepared the prelim station, the doctors, the teaching station (for lessons on preventive things such as dental, hand washing, scabies, diarrhea, etc. as well as going through the Gospel and learning about God's love for them) the pharmacy, and all the people that were there to help.

Last week...no group, no rain. First two days of the group here....rain both days, and lots of it. Go figure. At least we have been missing the worst of it with people in the back of the Ford.