Hey peeps! I am back. Had to get the last post off traveling thru cyberspace as it represents about 45 min of thumbing letters! I am only up to clinic set up! So ask about worship After set up and team meeting (Paul at his best shooting from the him and yet again hitting the mark!)

Ok clinic day: awake from our sleep (gender specific in church or tent!) 6am. Bed rolls stashed then out for brief walk and great view of sun rising on Kili. Breakfast and final prep/setup and people start arriving. Tues is market day in Loitoktok so it was no mistake that our clinic was that day. Check in station pat

Todd here continuing to blog after home visit interruptions (a good thing):
The stories abound and I am here to just begin the impressions and amazement. Late last night our team began connecting the dots of our interactions with so many touching stories.

I start with a story without an ending (yet). 8 yo Elizabeth has not walked in 4 months. Her mother carries to my curtained exam room with four plastic chairs . . . that’s it. My translator holds the child after mom (rather unceremoniously) dumps the child in her lap. (Later, about 9 hours, piece together that the translator is the mother’s cousin – their family is quite close) Her stick figure is punctuated by stubby swollen fingers that have difficulty closing to fist or grasp anything. Primary complaint is pain and the story begins to unravel . . . Elizabeth began having pain in November. She was having difficulty with school and her mother took her to the local hospital where they spent the next month. The details of the month have been lost – medicines and tests had no conclusion. Two months later and after further complaints of pain she stopped walking. She is a mere shadow of her frame and thankfully has tested negative to HIV in the past two months. Her big dark eyes are following the conversation rather attentively but her little heart is racing along at about 140 beats per min. (normal is about 90 ) The working assessment is and exacerbation of sickle cell disease (common in Africa as a red blood cell genetic problem) but more likely juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. She needs further testing. Her mother is expecting the testing today . . . . expectations are difficult to manage no matter the culture. Frustrations with conditions out of one’s control – difficult. And we have not even mentioned the fact that mother is watching, unable to help. We have not addressed the cost of additional tests at the Kenyata University Hospital, four and a half hours away. It might as well be Chicago, or Madison. It is difficult to watch mom carry the child once again from our clinic. God help me. . . 711 more patients left to see today. . . Isa 62. God knows the Plea of that mother and the situation of that child . . .