Jambo! Bonjour! Hello!

What a mixture of languages we are hearing! We arrived safely to the MTI team house on Saturday night in Mbarara town. There we are well cared for by Opio and Sheila, who cook for us. It is like a Walk to Emmaeus, their service is very Christ like. I am teamed up with a wonderful physician from D.C., Ian Shenk. He is an MTI veteran, so I am great company.

We travel each day about 1 hour to the Nakivale resettlement area, where the refugees are living. Upon our arrival the "clinic", we are greeted by the sweet faces of women, babies on their backs, children, and men of all ages, patiently waiting to be seen. I am working with a translator, Joey, a young Congolese man. He was a teacher in North Kivu, DRC, before fleeing due to the war in his area. Now he makes $2.00 as a translator, for this Muzungu woman, who often realizes that a medication is not going to heal the trauma the patient before has experienced.

Today, a woman sat before me, with a history of asthma. She reported feeling as if her heart was "pounding", and had difficulty sleeping at night. Upon further conversation, she told us that her husband had been killed in the fighting in Congo. She was 8 months pregnant when she crossed the border into Uganda, and became a refugee. She became ill during the journey with vomiting, and diarrhea, and she delivered a stillborn baby. I wanted to wrap my arms around her, but prayed instead that God will wrap her in comfort and grace. Please pray for Rebeka.

There is a Save the Children "school" behind the area where we are working. The laughter of the children soothes my heart as I fumble at times to say the right thing, or provide an answer to the patient before me. The children are amazing little souls, so resilient and happy! Domeson, the teacher, fled the Congo where he was a teacher in December. Now, he teaches the refugee children in a makeshift school. I am impressed that an education is being provided.

Yesterday, we sent a young woman, first pregnancy, to the referral hospital in Nakivale for a cesarean section. She had been laboring for 3 days. Upon exam her pelvis appeared to be too small to deliver the baby. However, using the doppler that MTI had sent with me, I was able to get fetal heart tones! We were told today, that the Nakivale hospital did not do a cesarean, and the baby died.

We have seen many sick babies, lots of pneumonia, some malaria, and always diarrhea. Moses the IV master, can get an IV in almost anyone! He is a Ugandan nurse working with MTI and he is amazing! I cannot imagine what would be happening here if not by the grace of God, that MTI has been allowed to work here.

Mungu akubariki!