The morning was incredibly quiet! I was quite surprised and wondered if the
other local churches had told their people to stay away. I know this has
happened several times to missionaries.
Nola told me she had contacted the deaf school where she helps and
several other schools to tell them to send folks. Ever resourceful, Bradley took a taxi to some
local schools and to 3 factories where cigars are made to tell them about the
clinic. This definitely bolstered
business! That day we saw ~635 patients,
with ~535 of them being seen in the last 6 hours!
For our lunches we had either peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches or ham and cheese, with chips of various types and drinks. We would eat in shifts so that we could
continue treating patients. Because of
the quiet morning I had ample opportunity to talk again with Nola about the
gospel. This time I discussed
justification and imputed righteousness.
Again, she listened attentively and even asked some questions, but I
still got the feeling she was just being polite.
Ugh! I was quickly
fading by 6:30 pm, talking in French to Nola and Nola was talking to me in Spanish. We were both exhausted and getting
giddy. This was grueling, and every time
I felt myself getting impatient with the patient I would stop and ask the Lord
for the compassion of Jesus. PTL, He is
faithful to help us in our weakness.
One of my weaker points in medicine is dermatology. The Lord allowed me to meet a nurse
practitioner in Iowa that does dermatology, and I would love to spend a week
with her to learn general principles.
Unfortunately, because I’m not too sure of my diagnosis in this arena, I
had to keep consulting with the other providers. Thankfully Dr. Steve and Kelleigh were quite
patient, and Dr. Steve even gave me some basics in treating what I was seeing
with what we had available.
We finally left Condega around 8:30 pm. Needless to say, it was quieter on the bus
ride back to the hotel. I took a quick
shower, and by the time I arrived to the dining room dinner was being
served. Every evening our dinners were
very nicely prepared and delicious! I
don’t know where Maricel got the chef, but she needs to hang onto him. Several team members took pics of the
meal. For dinner there was always rice
and a salad, but the entrée changed. Some
nights chicken, others fish or pork. One
night I wasn’t quite sure what it was, but it sure tasted good. I heard it was rabbit because a stray dog had
killed the white rabbit that was hanging around the hotel, but that rabbit
wasn’t big enough to feed that many people!
I skipped the salads, even though normally I love salad. I was just a bit skeptical that the water
used to wash the fresh veggies was sufficiently potable for the American gut
:]. And there were a few folks that had
gut issues during the week.
Thankfully, Bradley had mercy on us – we get to leave an
hour later tomorrow! I hit the hay after
11 pm – too late for this early riser. I
brought the thing to put over my eyes so I could sleep even if the lights were
on, so I just pulled that down each night and was asleep in no time. PTL, He gave me a good ‘sleeper’ – noises,
lights – not a problem.
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