A walk on the wild side.

Last week we were bored and we thought instead of waiting for sick and injured patients to find us, why don't we go out looking for them? So we decided, the next day, we were going to pack lunches, grab our 2L bottles of water and just walk around the jungle and look for sick people. We didn't care that we don't really speak the language that well. Sam knew how to say "Is there any sick people here?" and so we figured that suffice. 

Nomark's foot

We started out at the project and Micheil suggested that we ride the motorcycle with her and visit a couple of patients.The three of us climbed onto the little 125 motorbike and rode through the jungle. The ride was a little scary considering its the rainy season and all the dirt roads are now giant mud puddles but we managed to gain control of our nerves. Micheil, of course, could always be counted on for "calming" advice ("Close your eyes, Feel the pain") lol. 

Richard's leg. The blackness is
merely charcoal residue.

Our first stop was to check on Richard and his brother, Nomark. Richard's leg is starting to look like a normal leg now and Nomarks foot is back to normal. Only a few more charcoal treatments and the boys should be completely healed. 

Then we stopped over to visit Nini's home in Sabsaban. Nini's oldest brother, Susoy (the first of the 8 children), had an accident a couple of days earlier. He fell, from a coconut tree, 15 ft. and landed on his feet. It happened during the weekend so we couldn't take him to get a X-ray done at the hospital, because it was closed.  His family had taken him to see some sort of "village chiropracter/healer" and said that they "popped his spine back into place and all he would need was some Amoxicillin". After hearing this Sam was freaking out. Amoxicillin??? How would that help a broken back??? Sam did an assessment on him, making sure he could move his toes and stuff, and there wasn't anything we could do for him except to pray and instruct him to lay as flat as possible, without moving. (This week we were able to check on him again and Susoy is able to walk, sit and move around, but is still really sore which he probably will be for awhile But praise God that this 15 year old is not paralyzed.)

Can you see the swelling of the spine?

After visiting Susoy we headed back to the project. Not even 45 sec from driving off we wiped out on the motorcycle. The best part is we had the video camera running. So we got to capture us going down (unfortunately the camera turned off on impact) Anyways, Praise God, again, they only injury was a huge bruise on Allison's leg..lol.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

After we returned to the project we realized we still had some time to hike around the village to try and find some other patients. We came to a house where we had been told a man had injured his foot in a motorcycle accident (oh! the irony) Sam grabbed her Kerlix, Peroxide, Antibiotic Ointment, and some bandages and went to work. There was so much gravel and dirt covering the wound that she didn't realizing how deep it was until she finished cleaning it. In the end, it wasn't too bad. She wrapped up his foot and instructed him to keep it clean and to put the ointment on it daily. (A couple of days later Micheil saw him walking down the road without a limp. He said it was healing fine :) )

It was a really fun day. We definitely want to try our walking adventure again some other time. Till then...

~Me and Her