Wow! What an eye-opening and exhausting day we had. We went to a mining town for the Outreach Clinic. Driving through the poverty-stricken town was shocking in itself, but then we started seeing patients. We were in charge of counting pills and assessing the patients that Julius sent our way. We were inside a church, and it started to get very hot throughout the day. None of us even had to go to the restroom because we probably sweat out all of our liquids!
We saw many different cases that we would never see in America. One that particularly struck all of us and tugged at our heartstrings was a man who was the father of a child with cerebral palsy. You could tell that this man loved his child dearly. After talking to him for a while, we found out that the father was in prison and was tied to a bucket for 5 months. We also saw a girl with seven toes, a man with a swollen belly as hard as a rock, kids with parents that cared so much, and kids with no parents at all, people with blood pressures through the roof, and an unresponsive man carried in by his friends.
However, we could not have gotten through this day without the help of our loving God. We did not know what was wrong with the unresponsive man, and all we could do was pray for him. God gives us the strength and tools to help heal people and we couldn’t be more thankful for what He provides for us every single day.
Throughout the last couple of days, we have had many mixed emotions, but overall we are learning and growing in our faith as well as our medical knowledge. Through this experience today, we can see that in whatever situation comes our way, we have to give it to God, because He is ultimately in control. We are very excited to start day 2 of our Outreach Clinics. We ask for continued prayers for strength, energy, and compassion to spread the love of God and help heal the people of Tanzania.
Love,
Jamie
