Slowly slowly

So, I have been offline since last Wednesday - or I would have written more. Bright and early Thursday morning, Susan and I drove into Arusha to stock up on the basics and outfit my house with the essentials. Basically, we went grocery shopping. And it took two full days. When we got back late on Friday I was exhausted. I felt like I had been hit by a semi. All for some groceries. My mother reminded me that she can make it to and from Heinen's in under an hour. Thanks for rubbing it in.

I worked on Saturday, here at the clinic. We have a women's group who meets once a month to watch videos on health and female empowerment issues - all in Swahili. They LOVE it! Singing and crying and yelling and clapping along with the plot of the film. So much for the American standard of being quiet for your fellow movie goer.

Sunday was a lovely off day. Sara, the volunteer coordinator from RVCV, and I got to hang out and relax a bit.

Back to work this morning with a bang. A three year old girl came in, her hands and feet infested with funzas - a kind of worm that is in the dirt here and then burrows into skin. This little girl was abandoned by her mother and left to live with an elderly grandmother who is not capable of caring for this little girl. Not bathing each day combined with crawling and playing in the dirt has led to dozens of funzas.

I sat in with the doctors while they basically cut open each of her fingers and toes in order to remove these pea sized worms. Dr. Frank had sedated her and she didn't feel a thing but it was incredibly painful to watch.

We will follow up with Rift Valley Children's Village in hopes that this little girl can recover there and potentially make a move there if things don't improve.

At least she made it here before her blood went septic from the worms, which would have killed her.