DAY 4 - 6/1/10

Here are a few pictures of the now ever-famous Wee Wee ants... check them out in case you ever have to play Trivia Pursuit (thanks B.K.).



We had a slow day today out on the mobile clinics but we visited a local village called Big Falls not to far from Eldridge village (which is where Hillside is home to). We worked maybe 9am-3pm but we only saw 11 patients total. The real joy of the day came from mingling with the locals (I think this might be a common statement I make). We met a half dozen little children who knew all of our names very well by the end of the day. As it turns out, they all had head lice, scabies, and chickenpox (haha) that we really did not discover until after they had jumped on us and given us endless number of hugs, but it's not like we haven't ever been exposed to this stuff before in medicine. I might have scrubbed my hands and arms after that discovery, just saying!! But they were truly a joy.. after talking to one of the nurses at the clinic, I found out that these very contagious and very annoying infections (scabies, chickenpox, lice) are actually quite common and difficult to get rid of because most of the children wash up down at the creek. This is the same creek that all the dogs and critters also "wash up" in and they aren't exactly the cleanest animals. It's a toss-up... be clean? or get bugs?












Today didn't bring many other surprises for us although a group of us went out adventuring on a 3km run down a gravel road and ended up at an amazing little village called Cuxlin Ha Village (turns out it is not little and it's actually a resort/retirement village). Since we were out on a run, I don't have any pictures but look it up otherwise I'll try to make it up there again. One of the best things about walking around these little villages is discovering all of the hammocks and being homesick for yes, you guessed it, MY hammock!! :) Gives me something to look forward to!

From "my" country to yours... love.