you never know.....

it occured to me that you just never know when you meet someone if you will stay connected over the years or if you will just say 'nice to meet you' and never see that person again. i do know that God connects us with people for a reason, but we rearely know why immediately. i met marcelo lagos 2 years ago in ollantaytambo, peru. he was (and is still) a young dental student from southern chile....land of the penguins!! i didn't know he would become one of my best friends, would travel to uganda and would take on the monumental task of organizing a potentially HUGE dental project here in conjunction with a university in spain and odontogists sin fronteras in latin america! marcelo worked here for two weeks, meeting with the minister of health and recording tons of data to forward to the university.....he must have said yasama, bunila and wakaluma a thousand times or more....he worked in naguru, an orphanage, a school and even in kisenyi slum. i can't thank him enough for his perserverance, and dedication and love for the children of the world. i miss his way of saying 'HELLOOOO friend' every morning and ending each song line he sang with o-o-o! hasta año proximo mi amigo! te extraño mucho!

i think i have had enough of the clinic this past month as i have been 3 times with the bladder infection that is yet to be cured.....the first 2 rounds i was given a packet of 2000 shilling pills....maybe you get what you pay for since that is approximately 75 cents.....! this time i had to shell out almost $10 for a different medication...sure hope this does the trick. the doctor looked at me strangely when i told him i never want to see him or my plumber again! i tried to explain about the never ending shower leak, but some things are lost in the translation! i had to cancel my trip to nairobi because spending 8 hours on the bus with a bladder infection was more than even i could handle....the good news is that mohammed and someone from the prison got to use the bus tickets, so they were not wasted.
i had a wonderful lunch at the 'mexican restauarant' with friends from tennessee. it was great to talk about home and all things american without anyone saying "WHAT?" it is truly amazing how english differs across the globe. i am constantly told that here the english is british and correct and my english is american and therefore incorrect. i try to explain that we speak our own english because we fought for and are proud of our independence! they gained independence in 1962 but still embrace all things british. i don't understand this....so i continue to use my slang and funky sentence strucure and southern pronunciation...like bray-id for bread and of course y'all. i even find myself talking to people who don't understand a word of what i am saying. peter thinks that is hilarious and always says 'they don't understand you!!!'
as i said, we made another visit to kisenyi.....i pray that y'all will look at the photo album and please find it in your hearts to help in some way. it's impossible to describe the living conditions, but i think this album depicts the desperation and hoplessness of life in the city's poorest slum. i ask myself why God called me to bandage wounds and clean cuts.....i have no expertise in these things. i treat every injury the same...water, peroxide, iodine and neosporin. i don't even know if that is the correct thing to do.....all i know is when you hold the hand of someone who is in pain or needs help, he relaxes and i can feel the gratitude. i don't think he cares if i am doing the right thing, i think the important thing is that he knows that someone cares and in this vast slum of mounds of garbage, 8 year old kids high from sniffing jet fuel, fighting for bags of rice, and people being robbed while they are sleeping on the street.....someone cares, even if she doesn't know exactly what to do or say. we are working to get more supplies.....simple things like bandaids, ointments, etc. george has sent a box from the US with such things.....OH NO another trip to the post office...GULP! but we are also going to buy malaria meds, antibiotics and maybe arv drugs. it took me a while to realize that a lot of my 'patients' were HIV+ or had AIDS. these people made marcelo nervous, he had never seen the poorest of the poor before. he wasn't comfortable in kisenyi, it scared him. a few days after our visit, he asked me why i wasn't scared. hmm, good question...! even better answer....where God leads me, He will protect me....thank you Jesus....