A Wonderful Clinical Day

All the kids on my lap at once :-)
The little boy on the left is the one who ran and jumped into my arms!
One of the houses!
Cows in the middle of the street...
A sleeping little boy and some peace signs!

Lions 
Getting my hair done and holding my sleeping boy!

On the way to home visits!
Bri and I with some caregivers and a patient!
Dancing and singing!
Teresa and Bri by the Ethembeni sign
First day of clinical!

Today was our second clinical day. Bri, Teresa, and I returned to the township of Mphopomeni to the Ethembeni HIV/AIDS hospice. Today we went on hospice home visits. We were driven to a drop-off point and each of us went with a caregiver to visit the homes. We traveled on foot to each home. I think I ended up walking 2-3 miles today in the rain which equals mud J. The morning was interesting. We visited several people and did a devotion with each of them. I had the privilege of praying for a few of them. However, I must admit…I was a little disappointed in God at first. I was with the same caregiver that I was with last Thursday. As a result, we went to many of the same houses we went to last week (and a few new ones). When I first realized that, like I said, I was a little disappointed. However, God proved me SO wrong. What a joy it was to return to familiar faces. They remembered me and were so welcoming! I got so many hugs! Oh and the children! All of the children remembered me! One yard that I walked into the little boy ran up to me when he saw me and jumped into my arms! I SO needed that today. For those of you who know me well, children are my passion. It’s almost as if God knew exactly what would re-energize me and refresh me. Who am I kidding? OF COURSE He knew. Praise Him for today…Oh and it gets better! I finished slightly early from the home visits. When I got back to the clinic, the head nurse asked me if I wanted to go down to the family center for the rest of the day. (OF COURSE I WANTED TO!) Now…a little background on the family center…. It is a center for vulnerable children. All of the children there are either part of child-headed households (where a sibling is the head of the house because the parents have left or passed away) or they are vulnerable in some way. They may have an extremely sick parent or are being cared for by other family members. These children are SO precious. They put me in the ECD room (early childhood development). Which was all the little kids J. I sat down, and they were a little hesitant at first. After playing a little, they all decided they wanted to do my hair Originally it was up in a pony tail…definitely wasn’t afterwards. They brushed it, braided it, knotted it, pulled it…so adorable. Then I got out my camera…they thought that was amazing! They loved seeing their pictures on the digital camera. So cute! They sang songs with me too! Oh and they all tried to sit in my lap…it was amazing! I loved every second of it. They touched your face and held hands…so amazing. Then we switched rooms and the other APU students came. We had an amazing afternoon. In addition….we got to assess a little girl. She was in a lot of pain…we looked in her mouth and she had a cracked tooth…basically a hole…we could see the root. The poor girl was in SO much pain. So we gave her some pain medication and some ice and told them they needed to get her to a dentist. That broke my heart that we couldn’t fix it…I’m a fixer J. OH!!!! And one of the little boys fell asleep in my lap! J all in all….today was amazing…

 

The Bible verse on my heart today is Psalm 9:1 “I will praise the, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvelous works.”

 

Please pray for clinical again tomorrow! We are all quite tired! J Miss you all more than anything and love you so much!