Pallisa welcomed our team.

After an overnight stay in Jinja (source of the River Nile), this morning we bumped our way out to Pallisa in what was a 2 hour & 15 minute trip.  We are working as part of the Africa Renewal Ministries/Renewal Healthcare Network, but our first 5 clinic days are with places not associated with ARM.  These first few clinics are with people that we have met and grown to love over the years in Uganda.  We appreciate ARM helping on these “other clinics”. 

When we arrived in Pallisa, guess who was waiting to see us with a handful of flowers for Jill……That’s right, Jamil. 

 

 Oh my goodness!  First of all, he has grown at least 6 inches since I saw him last.  His right eye, which previously had a tumor, looked infinitely better.  But get this, he has moved up from primary 1 (first grade) to primary 3 (third grade) in less than 2 years, despite missing a whole trimester while having his operation and receiving radiation treatments last summer.  His English is very good.  Actually, like the past 2 years when we have visited Pallisa, he hung around my work station while I was seeing patients.  This year, however, he helped April and I translate.  

 

I kid you not.  Our hearts are swollen with pride for him.  This young man was not allowed to start school because of the distraction that his eye tumor and subsequent deformity caused.  He was shunned because many in his village thought that he was possessed by an evil spirit.  Now, he has so much going for him.  Sponsors of Due Unto Others are supporting Jamil to go to school and his continued medical care.   He has so much going well for him now.

Please keep Jamil in your prayers.  He is coming to Kampala this week for a repeat CT scan to make sure that the eye tumor has not returned.  We pray that the tumor is gone and never to return.

 

Otherwise at the clinic, we were a little rusty getting started.  I felt like a rookie as we forgot a whole trunk of medicine when we packed to leave our home base yesterday.  It just so happened that the forgotten trunk contained the allergy medicine and MALARIA medicine.  Ugghhhhh.  I hate making rookie mistakes and it took me most of the morning to get past it and enjoy helping the people of Pallisa. 

Jay is a little angry.

 

We were able to treat some people with an alternate malaria medicine, and we gave out some IOUs for the others.  We will be raiding a pharmacy in Jinja tomorrow morning and bringing the CORRECT medicines tomorrow.

 

Anna Catherine Ortego and Mason Lang have joined us for the first two weeks of this trip.  Anna is a college student at Nichols State in Louisiana.  She is majoring in pre-med.  We are delighted that she has joined us for the first 2 weeks of this trip.  Mason is my nephew and a college student at Cameron University.  Both Mason and Anna got their first taste of clinic action today.  As I type this from the ministry machine van on the 2.25 hour trip back to Jinja, they both appear exhausted.  I am anxious to hear their thoughts, on today, at our team meeting tonight.  They caught on quickly and were quite an asset in the pharmacy today. 

 

Yesterday (Wednesday), we went to the loving hearts babies’ home, before leaving Gaba.  We got to love on, play with, and feed some of the most beautiful children you will ever see.  All of them have been abandoned and are awaiting adoption.  Thankfully, all of the children that we have loved before at the babies’ home, have now been adopted.  All of the children now there, have been added since our last visit.  The ladies that work there do such a good job of bonding with and taking care of the babies.  I have to limit Jill’s time there because she starts to get a little “twitch” if she stays around those babies too long!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight we are regrouping in Jinja.  Tomorrow we will grab the needed medicines, when the pharmacy opens, and then head back to Pallisa.  We saw 213 patients today and we hope to match those numbers tomorrow.  We will see community members, students and some of the prisoners.  I am excited that tomorrow we will be presenting every student, teacher and support staff at the Arise and Shine school with a new bible.  This bible give away will be a huge deal in the school as many of the students will have a bible for the first time.  The bible project was made possible by generous donors to RawChurch and to Due Unto Others.  Thank you to everyone for helping us get this done.

Preparing for “Due Season”

Galatians 6:9

 

Jay