We got the first rain since November today. A good thunder storm with a lot of rain. It has been hot, 120° Fahrenheit  so the rain will cool it down.

The baby I admitted Monday evening that I told the dad that I do not know if she will live went home fine Saturday AM. We have not had a death here in over 3 weeks and we have had quite a few sick children. We treat God heals. God is good. The midwives have been busy with deliveries and though many have been difficult all babies and mothers are doing well. PTL

There were many folks who commented on the puff adder bite. Many wondered how she lived. She got bit on the finger tip and I do not believe the snake could inject enough venom to kill the woman. Her arm swelled up a lot. She actually came in almost 24 hours after the bite so I knew that if she was still alive she would probably live.

I am planning to sleep well tonight with the cool weather from the rain it may even get down to the 80s. Love, Tom

By Sham Musyoki (RN)

Today three year old Akuei Teng Ulol was brought to our clinic with extensive burns covering about 36% of his body. The burn was caused from boiling water which poured on him after he was left at home alone without anyone to watch over him. His father carried him from the village of Korking, which is very far, a whole day walking. With daytime temperatures reaching over 120 F, this journey was not an easy one. We’re just so thankful our clinic is here to help them, otherwise what would they do?

This is one of the very many incidences resulting from lack of safety in so many homes and one reason our clinic is shifting its focus more to the community and preventative care. We have started training through the CHE program, Whitney recently taught the Community Health Worker’s (CHW’S) on how to conduct a ‘healthy home’ visit and also Margit has begun her CHW training on Saturday mornings. Our desire is to bring awareness and prevent accidents before they happen by conducting home safety training during our home visits and share ways of making the home area a safe place for the little ones who are quite adventurous in early childhood.

Akuei is doing quite well and is currently admitted in our clinic. Please pray for his quick recovery and also pray for his family.

Hello all I am a little down. Walked into the observation room to see a little one with pertussis ,malaria and probably pneumonia. I admitted the child last night and saw the child at 9am this am at recheck at 3 pm the child was not breathing and the heart rate was dropping.I did mouth to mouth and the heart rate improved and I used my IV suction tubes to try to clear the airway and called for help. In the meantime the grandmother kept grabbing the baby from me for in her eyes the baby was dead. In Dinka land if there is no movement they are dead . The infant did die and it is so frustrating.I wish I would have checked the infant sooner but I can only do so much. At times lately I feel we are dealing with spiritual warfare. I have mentioned the witch doctors a few times and I have seen most of the deaths come in patients who see the witch doctor before seeing us. In my eyes they are powerless for they cannot stand up to the God I serve. I actually pity the witch doctors for they are deceived.I will once again ask for your prayer support. There is much good going on here. Many children and mothers are living because we are here. I see smiling Dinka faces all the time and most of the time I can even laugh with the patients.

Hello all. Nothing out of the ordinary . Today we had a third child in 3 weeks convulse aspirate and die. In each case the parents have waited 5-8 days with child being sick then gone to witch doctor then finally showed up at our clinic. It is hard to imagine in America that witch doctors still have so much influence here. Truth is they do and families argue whether to bring the sick to our clinic or the witch doctor.Tonight a child with convulsions was brought into the clinic . They were headed to the witch doctor when the convulsion started so they came to us first. I pray the child makes it through the night and we are hopeful because they never made it to the witch doctor.I see around an average of 60 patients daily. I enjoy the little ones . The scarey thing about little ones is that usually they get better but they can go bad very quickly and unexpectedly. I spend a lot of time training the community health workers I work with. I tell them what I am doing and thinking and why. Some day they may be out in the villages treating the malaria and common things to be able to get care to those in far villages (hours of walking away) so we can treat the malaria sooner. The community health workers are smart and maybe someday will put the village witch doctor out of business.

Well I have never been accused of stealing someones toes while they slept till now. On Sunday I got called into the room with a man who was shot in his foot Saturday. Everyone knew the toes which had lost their blood flow needed to come off for they had developed gangrene. He was asleep with ketamine and I removed the 3rd-5th toes to keep him from loosing his foot leg and possibly life. On Monday when he noticed his toes being gone at the time of the dressing change he started a little uproar but me being blessed by not knowing much Dinka was oblivious to the going ons. By the next day all was better for his father realized that we did what needed to be done and all are my friends again. I am glad I did the right thing and we never gave the young man the chance to make the wrong decision.Word is if I was at the cattle camp and stole someone’s toes they would shoot you. I am know known as the crazy toe stealing kawaja(whiteman). Fame and notoriety that what I am all about.

We are all blessed because out of twenty gunshot wounds we only had one case of gangrene which we quickly took care of I believe the drains and debriement we did all day Sunday prevented a lot of gangrene. We had learned our lessons well on caring for those wounds . Most of all we are blessed by God who brings all healing. All week long we have been caring for the wounded and seeing our usual cases. The numbers have been down some because of less malaria with the dry season and I believe our aggressive treatment of malaria is knocking down the numbers. I remember 2 years ago we were seeing many seizing aspirating children with malaria at this time of the year. God is good.

We were visited by members of the UN several days ago Dennis tells me. They said they were evaluating the cattle wars and everyone in the area was saying how much In Deed and Truth workers helped in caring for the wounded. They came by to see our work and give us thanks. Made me feel good. Though we do not do this for the thanks we all I hope work to bring God glory because it is His hand that brings all healing.

Another friend of mine from Canada named Ed came by this week. His group puts in bore hole wells for free. They are looking at the possibility of placing bore hole wells with solar powered pumps to bring water for cattle in areas where there is grass during the dry season and no water. It would be done for the Tonj and Cuiebet tribes so they could stay home more and there would be less chance of fighting.That would be nice.

Speaking of gangrene on Thursday a teenage boy was brought in he had an infection of his chest that started one month earlier at his clavicular area . One week ago he was taken to the village surgeon ( witch doctor, traditional healer) and he received a cut . When he got to us you could smell the gangrene from a long way off and I was fearful that one of the gunshot wounds had went bad. I saw the boy and his whole chest was covered with pus and dead skin. The community health worker asked me if he was going to die and I said I do not think so but I do not know where we will get skin to cover the muscle. I removed on Thursday and Friday most of the skin and subcutaneous tissue down to muscle on his chest for it was all dead and infected. We have him on antibiotics and after we get the infection under control we will try to figure out how to cover the chest wall. Mike Stick, any suggestions? Pray for that young man .

Today I preached on Proverbs 3:5 – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” A lesson we must live by daily here. We also lead the singing – Dennis, Pritty and Sham my fellow workers and Robert a friend. We have lots of fun practicing on Saturday nights and we have fun leading the singing. It is a great motivation for the congregation to sing loud when I help lead the singing. I taught the Dinkas the word yee haw today. Love, Tom