Friday in the village of Zifa...

Each morning Mass is at 6:00 am. The “church bell” is the banging of a pipe on a flagpole. Today was the Feast Day of the Sacred Heart and I wish I had recorded the singing of the men at the service. The African harmony is so different and soothing.

Now that they know we are here, there are usually a few patients waiting to be seen by us before breakfast. Today there was only one. We loaded up the additional medications we needed and headed off to Zifa. The distance was shorter than yesterday, but the road was worse. I really thought we were gonna roll a couple of times, but I was told I was overreacting.

We held the clinic in a classroom at the school located there. Of course this was very exciting for the students which made it in turn exciting for the teachers. We learned that one white person is a “mzungu” and more than one is “azungu”. We heard “azungu” often today. As I explained last year, mzungu literally means wanderer or journeyer.

Haley in her pharmacy.

There was a small group of patients waiting upon our arrival which continued to grow throughout the day. And today was the first time ever in my life I have performed a history and physical exam in the back of an ox cart – while it was still hooked up to the oxen. I have photos to prove it. A dear family had loaded up their 90 year old patriarch to see us. He had stopped eating and drinking a week earlier and was very dehydrated. We really had nothing to offer other than oral hydration fluids to encourage. Grace, the other physician on the trip helped me with the assessment. The gentlemen aroused somewhat during the time and I'm hoping seeing two mzungus hovering over him didn't scare the rest of the life out of him.

Patient brought in his family's ox cart.

My office in Zifa.

Coming to see the mzungu doctors.

Haley diligently working in her pharmacy to prepare medications for those waiting.

Patients waiting for medications.

We ended up seeing about 150 patients again and had many waiting to be seen, when we left. We saw some really ill children as well. One was a 12 year old with full blown AIDS. He had been diagnosed with HIV for some time but for some reason, his mother had not taken him for follow up and medications. She was also HIV positive and his father died from AIDS a couple of years ago. I saw another child with chronic ear infections and pus draining from her ears. She had been seen at the hospital, but had been given no medication – because there wasn't any to give.

We ended the day with dinner and conversation.  We have been trying to debrief each day about how to better approach our work.