Friday, May 15: Determination=riding a bicycle 5 hours to get a leg...

Friday was mostly a fabrication day. We had seen a lot of patients in two days and definitely felt the pressure to get started on fabrication as soon as possible to ensure we had everything finished and fit before we left. 

Our sand box with casts for filling with plaster. We had to do this in "shifts" basically since there were so many casts and a small box. We filled all the casts we had taken thus far except the 4 people from Choma that already had prostheses. We had started considering 'what if we don't have enough time or materials to make all of these'. Our plan was to see if we could get to the last 4, and if not, at least they did have a prosthesis. An ill fitting leg is better than no leg. 

Chris at work modifying a leg model.

We figured out a "drying station" with a heavy chair for our leg models. Chris calls it our stalagmite leg station.

The wonderful John Brinkley hard at work fabricating eyes. In addition to the tons of fabrication he was doing, John had 4 more patients come to New Day on Friday. Only 2 of them were candidates for a prosthetic eye. He was able to fit one with an eye he had pre-made, and he casted the other patient for a custom eye. 

John has an AMAZING talent and passion for his work. This guy has been such a huge blessing in my life...so honored to be doing mission work with him.

This is Bryan. He was our cook and cleaned the guesthouse while we stayed there. It was wonderful getting to know him during our stay. We had many funny stories involving confusion based on accents. He has a very heavy accent, which was difficult sometimes, and he said we talk fast and have an accent, which was hard for him sometimes. He also let us know that Americans drink too much coffee, in his opinion. :) It was such a blessing to have Bryan prepare our meals and take care of us during our stay.

 

Luxon and his father came by bicycle Friday afternoon. They had traveled 5 hours with both of them on one bicycle to get to New Day. We gave Luxon's father money to pay to hire transport when they came back for fitting of Luxon's new prosthesis.

Luxon and Chris on the first trip in 2012. He has grown! 

Every year, Luxon has a very worn out leg that's too short since he grew. We'll need to see him every year for a new prosthesis as he grows. 

End of Friday totals: 19 people casted for prosthetic legs and 17 people that were candidates for prosthetic eyes. Some of the 17 people John had seen were fit with pre-made eyes, and the others had impressions taken for custom eyes. 

We had dinner Friday evening with the New Day kids in the dining hall. Chicken and fries..yum! It was fun to see how much the kids love Erin! Erin played and played and played with the kids on our trip.

Got a picture of the "sponsor wall" at the dining hall. Jason and I sponsor baby Justin (who was not a big fan of me trying to hold him). The kids all knew my name this year because of this picture on the sponsor wall. 

A beautiful Zambian sunset. 

*Next post: Saturday, May 16: Prosthetic Promises reaches farther!