When you put Americans to work at a Ugandan clinic

When you put Americans to work at a Ugandan clinic…

 

First of all, hi Mom! Happy anniversary! 30 years is a such a huge accomplishment. Hope Dad got you something sweet!

 

This morning was a running day for Liz and I. Tuesdays are our "short" day, with only a 3 miler. Our little road was much busier this morning starting out, since it wasn't the weekend. Boda bodas (motorcycles), bikes and kids were everywhere, getting ready for business and school! But only a few minutes in, the streets cleared out, and it seemed as if it was just Liz, the red dirt & I. I still cannot even believe that we are training here. It is such a sweet gift!

 

Today was the day we were taking the "tour" of the Musana Community Clinic that is under construction. Kyemba picked us up (on time) and we started our way down to the school. We were lucky to have Andrea come with us! We drove down and picked up Florence, one of the social workers from Musana. We drove the quick drive to the clinic, and met Haril and Edward.  I noticed Florence and Andrea get some stuff out of the back of the van, but didn't think much. We then started our tour. We heard all about the vision of the community clinic, putting a big emphasis on the community part. They want a safe place for people to come here in Iganga, where there is not quality health care. They first took us through the downstairs portion of the clinic, which will have a small emergency room, the waiting room, records room, cashier, pharmacy, a room for a fluoroscopy (x-ray) machine, a surgical unit and patient rooms.  The second story will consist of a pediatrics & maternity ward, pediatric pharmacy, dental area with x-ray machine, board room/training facility & staff area. The whole place is functional, beautiful, and such a lovely story of God's fruit. Haril said he hopes the new clinic will raise the bar for Igangan health care to bring in more quality facilities & staff. The building is able to add on more stories and they have enough space on the land to expand to 2 more buildings when needed. They will be hiring all Igandan workers and are currently looking for a couple  of American doctors to come help train the employees that will hire, for a year or so. They are really emphasizing the care that these people will receive, not only quality medical care but the compassion and love to go with it.

 

After our tour, those things that I saw strangely appear in the back of the van, came out! For the next 4 hours the 10 (plus Florence & Edward) of us swept (the 3 inches of dirt) with stick booms, scraped up chunks off the tile by hand, swept again, carried water up the stairs, scrubbed, squeegeed, scrubbed and squeegeed some more. It was really sweet to watch us all work, take turns, switch jobs, encourage each other, and help each other to knock out a big 'ol job of cleaning.

 

Today was a beautiful picture of the way God works on us. Here we were, looking this big huge dirt pile in the clinic, thinking it was going to take forever to clean. It reminded me of me. I look at what I have going on, and think, wow, that's going to take forever to clean up! But, little by little, with some shoveling, some sweeping, some scrapping, and a whole lot of people that God brings in my life, it all gets cleaned up. And just like the upstairs of the clinic today, life gets a little dirty again, but we continue, through Him, and keep on keeping on.

 

After the clinic and lunch, we returned back to Musana. Some of us worked on organizing the library, some played with the kiddos, and some went to the market to gather supplies to paint a mural.

 

We are hitting the sack early for a 5:30am wake up call to go hike Pride Rock to watch the sun rise. Can't wait!