Food for thought...

I went to sleep to the sound of drums and singing from the village last night. I can only imagine the dancing that was going on as well. That was after seeing a local soccer match where when your team scores everyone runs the length of the field rejoicing and I'm talking a couple hundred folks – mostly children.

In our clinic here in Bowe, I saw a 72 year old man (already beat the averages) with an apparent enlarged prostate, in excruciating pain because his bladder was distended above his waist putting pressure on his kidneys and gradually causing renal failure. I had nothing to offer in our meager clinic but to pay bus fare to the only decently equipped hospital in this country in Lilongwe. There they will place a catheter through the skin above his pubic bone into his bladder to relieve the pressure. This he will keep the rest of his life, and the concern will then be the risk for infection, which is quite high.

This was also after seeing 5 year old child who had bumped her chin in a fall and had such a terrible infection in her face I thought she had the mumps when she walked in. Thank the Lord we have a good supply of antibiotics in our clinic. This is the type of thing a child dies from here. I asked her father to bring her back to see me this afternoon, even though the clinic will not be open – the day of rest and all that.

It is difficult for me to process and reconcile such complete joy against such terrific suffering, when I can't recall experiencing or even witnessing either to that degree at home.

Just food for thought...