Clinic #2

The highlight of my second full week in Uganda was definitely clinic. We held clinic this week in the village neighboring last week's clinic village which was only about 35-45 minutes outside of Jinja. There were already a ton of people of all ages gathered in the schoolyard when we arrived and we still blasted the recording of our social worker explaining what would be happening at the clinic and inviting everyone to come. As the Sole Hope staff and volunteers set up our clinic equipment, the kids sang, danced and played games. It was such a pleasure to see them all beaming with such energy, joy and anticipation. My new friend Allie (she's from Boston and is teaching math and English in a school in Jinja for 4 months) and I ventured off to find a place to use the restroom and found ourselves in a 3-foot tall mud hut with two "stalls" each with a hole in the ground. Quite a mini-adventure! My role was taking foot notes again like last week. This means that I stand behind two people who are removing jiggers and for each child they treat I fill out a personal chart that shows current jiggers, past jigger wounds and rot for the children's feet (I'll try to post a picture of one of these soon so you can get a better idea). These charts are later used for statistical and follow-up purposes. I'm actually hoping to figure out an effective system for organizing the foot notes as part of my internship because they are currently organized by village and stored in overflowing binders. Both of the clinics that I've participated in thus far have felt kind of like a beautiful blur. As a volunteer, you are so focused on doing your job and comforting the children who are scared that you have to make a conscious effort to take in all of your surroundings. What stuck out to me about this clinic was how the Sole Hope staff and volunteers work like a well-oiled machine to ensure we're able to treat as many people as possible and we do so with smiles and hope for better futures for these kids. There were so many people who needed to be treated in this village that we're holding this week's clinic there as well.