Sunday started with church! Suzanne stayed back at the guesthouse with her son Cole, since he had been sick for a few days. But the rest of us walked just outside the New Day property fence to church.
The New Day church has been working on a brick building. They have some of the roof on, which provided shade where bricks are set in rows as pews. We started with singing before splitting up with children and adults separate for Sunday School.
Everyone together at first.
Blu taught Sunday School and Mulenga translated.
Ron and Dee led children's Sunday School.
When the kids come back after Sunday School, they stand in front and share what they learned with the adults. (It was in form of a song with hand motions) Then, the adults share with the kids what they learned during Sunday School.
Then more singing. Kalenga plays guitar and led some of the songs.
Then the sermon with everyone together. Melvin preached this Sunday with Hilda translating.
After church and lunch, Suzanne, John and I headed to the clinic for fabrication all afternoon. We got all the prostheses laminated and sails made for fittings on Tuesdays, just had to get them all put together and supplies together on Monday. The electricity was scheduled to be off 5pm-9pm on Sunday but stayed on the whole day. This was great so we could get all the laminations finished up for Tuesday's patients.
On Monday, Suzanne and I got all the prostheses ready for fittings on Tuesday. We had told all the patients who needed to come back for fittings from Macha that the bus would pick them up on Tuesday at the Macha radio station to come back to the clinic. Sydney, from the clinic in Monze, came back on Monday to work with us doing fabrication and seeing patients Monday and Tuesday.
Ron was so awesome in putting together shelving and benches over several days as he had time between the million other things he has to do at New Day. Thank you Ron!
Suzanne and Sydney at work.
Chelle and Jacey came up to the clinic to check out progress and help where needed.
John had two patients come on Monday. One was a little boy he saw last year who is completely blind. John was able to fit one side with a prosthetic eye last year, and he needed a new prosthetic eye this year. John had talked with the boy's father last year about him attending a school for the blind. He was not in school because of the expense to go to this specialized school. John is now paying his tuition each semester. He is 1st in his class!
The boy and his father
John made a left prosthetic eye.
The other patient who came to see John was "the lady with the baby" who he fit last year with a prosthetic eye. She and her husband rode a bicycle many miles to see John. This year someone took care of their child while they made the trip to see John. She just needed a check-up and small adjustment this time.
This picture and the one below show the difference without a prosthetic eye and with one. The prosthesis is not just for the look of an eye, but also helps prevent the muscles of the patient's face from contracting on that side.
The lady and her husband getting on their bicycle to leave.
Another patient from Livingstone came on Monday for a prosthesis. His name is Anold (not to be confused with the boy Anold we see for a prosthesis each year). Anold is a mini bus driver in Livingstone. His right leg was amputated above the knee in 2015 due to diabetes. He was casted for a prosthesis and told to come back on Friday for fitting.
Teamwork on fabrication.
We started our stack of finished prostheses with supplies and shoes for fittings.
Another person who stopped by for glasses. People just kept showing up almost every day for glasses. (News travels fast.) He's using our not-so-technical way of determining which pair of glasses to use---just try them all out till they find the pair that works best.
Ah--the tedious part of burning holes through the straps for buckles on the sails for the prostheses.
Another wonderful day in Zambia!
*Next post: Tuesday, Sept. 13- Macha patient fittings
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