Being able to go to Mildmay and visit our Dental clinic is a very big deal to the kids and communities that come. So kids come wearing their best clothes sometimes, some of the boys come wearing a full suit, usually several sizes too big and sometimes even wearing a tie. Thursday was a light day in the clinic which, not what we thought would happen, in fact we had been expecting a huge amount of kids, but due to several reasons less kids came through than expected.
Each day the clinic starts with Paul, that is Dr Paul reflecting on the previous day, thoughts on the day ahead and then he has been handing it over to Janelle for a devotion. It's a great way to start the day. On Thursday morning, Paul told us that one of the local Milday patients who was in on Wed managed to get on a Van with a group of rural outreach patients!! a creative patient he said, a wanderer! It's so hard to understand how that could possibly happen unless you are here or if you think about the fact that the Mildmay patient was there without a parent and the rural kids maybe have two caretakers to 25 or so children. I challenge anyone to take 25 kids for a day with maybe one other adult, many of the kids may be sick etc, so you have the idea I am sure. So the mistake was discovered and the little guy spent the night hours away from his home safely with a caretaker. The plan was for him to be put on a taxi( not like a taxi in the US) and to be sent on a journey that might involve some very careful transfers back home. I understand he made it back safely, thankfully.
First, I missed Friday because I was sick, so what I write is what I heard of Friday.. So Friday was 90 patients, well actually 89, because little Mr 90 had made it known he was really afraid of the dentist. Near the end of the day luckily Janelle went looking for Mr 90 knowing it would be good to have him seen earlier than later, and that he had been afraid. He was nowhere to be found. After some investigation, it turned out he had managed to get on a departing bus headed hours away in the wrong direction. Coordination had to occur to have the bus going in one direction, meet up with another bus which would also have to travel an hour or more in the wrong direction to reunite 90 with the right group. exhausting for both groups of kids, the caretakers, bus driver and any parents waiting.
I am sometimes sorry to even write about the really hard things, but I think I should. At the end of the day on Friday Dr Paul had a little patient who needed many extractions, but he was so sick and burning with fever, he couldn't work on him. Worse he had pus oozing from an ear. i am sorry to write this. He simply could not be worked on. But so many kids are helped so much. The dentists and assistants take such great and personal care of each child. Outside the support volunteers are trying to make the day comfortable and fun.
For my Minnesots readers, we had a little boy on Wed wearing a sweatshirt that said, Camp Foley Whitefish Lake! I have to pst quickly I am almost out of battery, and the internet goes off here at soon. ~~ all for now C
Location:Kampala, Uganda
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