Our First Colony

I just wrote this post and then accidentally deleted it so I may cut it short... Today we went to our first colony and of course I don't remember the name because I can't understand anything. It was about 45 minutes away and we set up the clinic at the nursing home in the colony. We set up a bunch of stations, blood pressure, blood sugars, medications, washing/oiling, nail clipping, debriedment and bandaging. I started off doing blood pressures which was nice because it was inside which is slightly cooler than outside. We all wore masks because Tuberculosis is so common but they made it so hot, so after about 15 minutes I decided to take my chances with TB. After doing that for a while I wanted to get in on the action so I switched stations to the nail clipping station. Big mistake. It was outside which was beastly hot, I literally had flies swarming around me and these peoples toenails were no ordinary nails. These nails were indestructible, we were using industrial strength pliers (not kidding) and I had to use both hands and all my brute strength just to bend the nails. Not to mention that every nail I did cut managed to hit me in the forehead. Needless to say I wasn't loving it, but then the last guy I helped just kept thanking me and blessing me and wishing me good luck with school so then I felt bad for being such a stink about it. Great. And there had been a spider on my leg which I flicked off and it crawled up my patients neuropathic leg. Oops. Also, we were putting this oil around their ulcers that tastes super bitter because the doctor was telling us that in the night rats will come and bite off their toes and they can't even feel it, but since the oil is so bitter the rats won't eat it. After the clinic, we visited an art school in the colony where all the art is done by the leprosy patients and it is actually really good seeing as how they have no fingers. After we got back to RSO I just relaxed and took a little nap to recover from my battle with super nails. We had dinner then had family time with the kids where we had another dance party. The new cool thing is for me to hold all 20 kids at once. It's working out really well for everyone. Then we put the little ones to bed, and Elle and I just talked while Eric watched youtube with the bigger kids. Then we came back to the hostel and talked, did a little facebook stalk naturally and now it is time for bed. We have to be up early tomorrow because we are going to this beach town and going to the beach and shopping. Should be fun! Here are some pictures of the colonies...

The nursing home where we set up the clinic

The washing assembly line