Weekend Winding Down

The weekend was a nice break from the hectic clinic schedule. There were hardly any patients to be seen and we were able to break our jet lag. We spent much of today out with Melino doing home visits. A series of patients had completed their TB therapy but had not been re-tested to see if they would need to continue therapy for another month. Since it was over a four hour walk to the village where they lived, Kigwena, we took the ambulance to hunt them down and bring them to the clinic. Unfortunately, they will most likely need to walk home when they leave tomorrow. Rachele and I have been spending most of our free time deciding where we want to focus our energy for the first month we are here. There are several projects that we could help improve, but we think it is best if we choose one and put all we have into it. It looks like we’ll be spending most days helping in the clinic with couseltations, and will spend Wednesday meeting with the staff, and Thursday and Friday having training seminars and overseeing some new policies. We will see how they are received this week.

As we are writing this, the sun is setting and there is a cool breeze. It really is humbling to see such beautiful sights. It will still take some getting used to living way out in the country and having a small community the spend all of our working and free time with. We are very excited for this week to really jump in and help out now that we have our feet under us. Thanks again for all your notes of support, it is great to hear that everyone is well back home.

The pictures are from our trip to neighboring villages, where we are greeted by school children who want to practice their English and shake hands. It can be fun to be a celebrity, but I can see already why movie stars can get sick of the attention.

Best,

Kenton and Rachele