Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Each Child has a Story

Tues and Wed clinic have now run together a little bit in my mind. The group has a pretty good and efficient routine developed now after three days. Well at least better than Monday when we were trying to find what worked. Yesterday, Tues there were several groups of kids and for the last group that departed late in the day I found it really encouraging when the caregiver was telling me how he was getting phone calls from some of the childrens parents who were anxious for their kids to come home after such a long day. So many kids coming through the clinic do not have parents or family so it was good to know that this group from a rural outreach area had parents for some of the kids. Kids waiting for their transport at the end of a long day. the red backpacks have a Toothbrush, crayons, coloring book, small bible, shoes, a toy, a framed photo of themself taken before seeing the Dentist and sometimes a new shirt or trousers.


i want to show you here what the kids charts sometimes look like. They are newspapers ingeniously folded and repurposed into Medical charts.








When i say each child has a story, this is of course so true. as I write this I think of a particularily sad story from yesterday, but I will write that later. instead I will briefly tell you about Jen and Janet, in the early part of the day while I am printing photos, I have some curious visitors always watching. Today I thought why not hire some local help! I had two curoius girls hanging out watching and soon put them to work cutting and framing the pictures. They were just a great help. SInce they spoke perfect english we had a nice talk. I thought I remembered them from last year and it turned out that yes, they are Mildmay patients. I was asking them where they lived etc and Jen who is eighteen explained to me that " of course her mother and father have passed". She and her 14 year old sister Janet live together alone, but get help from some other siblings, but she said they are struggling. Both girls were very nicely dressed and looked healthy. Yet two teens living alone. i paid them with a nice donated shirt each. In fact one of the shirts was double donated, brought over with Kim, who received them from the Thrifty Store in Edwards Co gratis. Really, every child has a story and many times it leads to them just wanting an opportunity to be able to go to school, to have hope for better times. Janet whispered to me, "it is my dream and wish to go to America". I truly hope she can get a good education that will lead to a good job in Uganda or wherever she goes.





Overlooking Mildmay from a higher part og the campus.


From Tuesday, Julie asked me to help as she and Dr Rose worked together on a patient.


What a beautiful smile.


Kim showing a little girl her spiderman face painting. Kim, Cathy(a local) and Janelle another Mn volunteer have been making the kids really happy by doing some great face paiting After they see the dentist. Time always seems to be short here i have lots more to write, but want to get this posted while I have an internet connection.


This group of 32 kids got off the Coaster bus and lined up without any instruction that I could see by youngest to oldest and by boys and girls. They were so cute. ~~all for now. C

Location:Kampala, Uganda

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