hope

Wednesday morning.  I wake up at 5am.  I don't even remember the last time my alarm went off that early.  Brush teeth.  Put on blue scrubs.  Fill water bottles.  Breakfast service started at 3:30 this morning--the first vehicle left around 4.  It's going to be a good, albeit long, day.

Around 6:00am, my caravan leaves for Kégué Stadium.  Security teams have been there since yesterday afternoon, to help the line stay in order.  3,500 people show up. 

 

The hazy morning soon gives way to ray of sunlight.  Underneath the brightly colored, patterned fabric typical of West Africa are moms, dads, children, elderly...all with ailments, maladies, deformities, disfigurements...seeking relief.

Pre-screeners work through the line, identifying potential patients.  As the heat picks up, volunteers distribute water, peanut butter sandwiches, and laughter.

Inside the stadium are several stations.  Registration, history, physicals.  Exam rooms for max fax, plastics, and general surgeries.  X-ray, lab, pharmacy, data entry, scheduling, communications, infant feeding program, children's ministry.  Final check.  Prayer.

 

1,600 people enter the gates and proceed through the screening process. Tumors, cleft lips, goiters, hernias, burns.  People are weighed, masses are biopsied, x-rays are scheduled.

I'm working at Data Entry.  Over 1600 patients, about 550 make it to this station, after their exams.  We enter their information into a database and print ID cards.  The patients are then directed to either scheduling, lab, x-ray, or pharmacy.  Over the course of the day, I enter information for about 180 people.

Just shy of a 12-hour day, I head back to the ship in another caravan, tired and sweaty.  This is just the beginning of the outreach.  The beginning of new stories of lives transformed.