Shika (pronounced sika with silent H, means Smile)
Amazzi (water)
Wednesday we had around 65 patients give or take a few. The children came from the countryside in the town about 2 or 3 hours away called Mityana. Almost none of them could understand English, in contrast with the city kids we have been seeing. I spent most of the day holding children while they were being worked on. I enjoy doing this because I am helping, of course, but also because I am able to view the procedure and learn. I learned Shika today, and it came in very handy when taking pictures of the children. It is never hard to receive a smile after you show the children the picture of themselves, though. It is so funny, how they love to have their picture taken. I go to take a picture of one child, and they all swarm over and stand in line for their own picture. The simplest things make their day…
Because of the heat, we had to make sure the children were getting plenty of water. This resulted in more bodily fluid accidents, to say the least. My day ended short when the young 3 year old girl I was holding urinated on my leg :P At least I got to directly go take a shower, and by that point all patients had been seen by the Dentists. The image that stuck out to me yesterday was one of the first patients of the day came in to the clinic wearing a Halloween witch costume, as her dress. It was probably her nicest piece of clothing. And the purse she brought in with her belongings was an old rice bag.
Thursday we saw more Mildmay patients, and about five or six patients from Kids of Africa. We only saw about 45 patients today, so we worked right through lunch and were done around 2 pm. Some of the younger children would walk up to you and say “madam”, and get on their knees in front of you as a sign of respect. It was a very humbling experience, but for their culture it is just tradition.
The patient that stuck out the most for me today was an 8-year-old girl from the Kids of Africa group. The children in that group are either orphaned or abandoned. She was abandoned when she was about 3-years-old (a guess from her care-taker, showing that her “age” was also a guess). She was missing all of the teeth on the left side of her mouth, and had a hole large enough to fit your finger through leading to her sinus cavity. She could barely open her mouth. At first the Doctors thought it was a cleft palette, but the caretaker told them that when they received her, her mouth smelled terrible, leading them to think it was an infection of some sort. We do not know what actually happened, except that she has had surgery to remove her teeth on the left side along with whatever else has left her with the hole in her mouth. By God’s grace she is still surviving…
Tonight we went into town for some Scottish dancing lessons. It was nice to have a slower paced day today to recover from all the excitement of the past week. The bar was nice and outdoors, playing 80’s American music! It was a nice break. I didn’t join the dancing lessons, but watching the others at the end was fun enough for me :) Being here makes me appreciate home so much; peaceful nights, American food, ICE, and so many other things I take for granted. I am really missing my loved ones tonight. Because of Internet problems, by the time you get this message it will be Friday for me. And then Safari Saturday through Monday- that I have been looking forward to for a long time :) Goodnight.
It sounds like such an amazing experience Beth. Where are you going on your Safari? I loved mine! It was great and if they ask if you want to get up early or sleep in say you want to be up early! :) That's when there is a higher chance at seeing a male lion and/or leopards :)
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