Day 10, Friday April 25: More prosthetic fittings

We started with fabrication first thing on Friday until patients came. Blu had been contacting people whose prostheses were ready to come back for fitting on Friday.

Jason helped Chris and I with attaching the fabric pieces called "sails" to the above knee prosthetic sockets. We were so thankful he did this, because it is so tedious. He had to make holes in the cloth for screws and attach them to the laminated socket. 

Jason using the torch to heat a point to burn holes in the cloth.

Chris is working on Luckson's cast for his new socket.

The first patient who came for fitting was Osia. I'm showing her how to put on the liner while Esther translates.

Practicing walking with the prosthesis.

We also went outside for her to practice walking. She was doing well with her arm crutches but didn't feel comfortable enough to go with the crutches yet. I'm sure she'll be walking without them soon though.

Here's some of John's dental work. 

I'm not really sure what the process is for John's dental work and prosthetic eyes, but some portion has to be cooked. The pot on the left is John's and the pot on the right is dinner that Esther was cooking. :)

Grinding the carbon socket. I have an intense dislike for doing this part, because the carbon dust makes you so itchy. I tried to cover as much skin as possible to prevent the itchiness...as a result it looks a bit like a hazmat environment.

I'm not sure what this lady's actual name is. Chris saw her last trip to fit her with an above knee prosthesis, and referred to her as "big mama". You can see in this picture that she's not big...she has apparently lost a lot of weight since last time. When we asked about her weight loss, she said that times have been hard in her village. So, we're not sure if that's food shortage or sickness or what. 

She hasn't been wearing the prosthesis much due to discomfort at the bottom of her leg when wearing it. We fit her with a different style liner which helped it fit more comfortably. 

I'm not sure how to spell his name but this is how it sounds...H-jomp-way. This is the guy who had brought his prosthesis to New Day months before we got there because it was broken. Very broken...one of the metal bars on the prosthetic knee had snapped in half. It broke while he was playing soccer. :) 

The socket portion was fitting comfortably so he got a new cloth "sail" piece on the socket, a new knee and a higher activity foot. He can get back to playing soccer now. 

After we did a few alignment adjustments, he walked right out the door and hopped on his bike to ride back home.

This is Melvin. He lost his left leg above the knee from trauma. Some thieves stole things from his home and started a fire, which burned his leg. He came for a prosthesis when he heard we were there...though I'm not sure how he heard about us. He was casted on Friday and told to come back on Sunday afternoon for fitting.

Here is little Luckson's finished prosthesis. Chris knew he would need a bigger prosthesis and foot, so this foot was especially bought for him. 

*Next post is Day 11: Prosthetic fittings and trip to Luckson's village

Day 11, Saturday April 26: Prosthetic fittings and trip to Luckson's village

By Saturday, we had almost all of the prosthetic legs finished. Melvin's was still in fabrication since he had just come on Friday for casting, but everything else was ready for fitting. 

The couch of legs. :)

Here is the man that had come for a prosthetic eye that the nurse from Choma had contacted. He was back for fitting today.

I love this picture and the one below. Such a great example of the wonderful work John does. Before and after. John's talent for making these eyes is just amazing!

This is another man (closest to Esther) who came for a prosthetic eye with the other two guys. John didn't have time to make him a custom one but did have an eye already made that he could be fit with.

After fitting picture. 

And a group picture. The two guys do look very solemn in this picture, but they were thankful for John's work. Not many of the people seem to smile for pictures.

This is Luyando. She was bitten by a snake in November 2013, which is how she lost her leg above the knee. Her father brought her to see if we could give her a prosthetic leg. She was casted, and we told them to bring her back on Tuesday for fitting. We would be leaving New Day on Wednesday, so they had to come Tuesday. 

After the eye fittings and casting Luyando, plus Chris and I had been working on fabrication for Melvin's prosthesis...we set out to Luckson's village to fit him with his new prosthesis. Luckson's village is about 25 km off the main road on a very narrow, winding dirt road with many holes...something akin to driving through a cow pasture here in Texas on the little dirt tracks road. This whole trip is what I have since labeled as "driving by faith". We took the Nissan truck, which is new, dependable on running and has 4 wheel drive. However, the truck had very little fuel and there wasn't any in gas cans at New Day. Oh well, we'll just stop at a little village before we get off the main road to see if a man Blu knows had any fuel...he usually has a little that Blu can buy. 

Pictures at the place we stopped to check for fuel to buy. You can see the large amount of maize in the background, which is a major crop in Zambia.

The man had no fuel to buy, so we set off towards Luckson's village with below a 1/4 tank of fuel. We'd just trust that we had enough fuel to get there and back. 

John and Blu sat up front. Here's a look at the backseat passengers. (Jason looks way too enthusiastic...we were all wondering whether we had enough fuel.)

And along the road, it started raining. And this wasn't just a small shower...torrential downpour. All the water seemed to flow on the road, so it sort of seemed like we were driving on a small river. So we were driving in the rain, on a super bumpy road, with little fuel, to a village that we weren't completely sure how to get to. 

                           

Here's a video of our drive. I was trying to hold the camera as still as possible but the road was so bumpy!

We made it to Luckson's village (the rain cleared up while we were there). Everyone gathered around to watch as we fit Luckson. 

Luckson was wearing some of the clothes that Chris had given him when he came to New Day for casting.

Everyone standing and watching us.

They were so hospitable and got a chair for John to sit in.

Luckson's family was so thankful for us making him a prosthesis that they gave us 3 pumpkins, a sack of peanuts (they call them ground nuts) and a live chicken. Here they are giving the chicken to Blu. Apparently giving a chicken is a very nice gift, but a live chicken is even more of a special gift. 

The rain had cleared off for our trip back to New Day. Maybe halfway back to the main road the low fuel light came on, but thankfully we made it all the way back to New Day without running out of fuel. Whew! 

Obedient was waiting for us when we returned for fitting of his prosthesis. 

He did really well with the instructions on how to walk with the prosthesis. He didn't feel comfortable enough to go without crutches yet, but he probably will be soon. 

Obedient was really excited to get his prosthesis. He was one of the people who actually smiled a lot when he got his prosthesis.

Another beautiful day in Zambia. 

*Next post is Day 12: Church, baptisms and prosthetics

Day 12, Sunday April 27: Church, baptisms, and prosthetics

Sunday started with New Day church service at the pavilion. Singing and praise, and then Geoff gave the message about baptisms. After the service, we walked to the river...many of the New Day kids and several people from the surrounding villages were baptized! 

Even the dog, Shadow, came for church :)

Here's Haley, one of the spring volunteers, with the kids before church started.

Blu led some of the songs playing guitar.

 Everyone walking to the river for the baptisms.

Here's a great picture of how women carry their babies on their backs. None of the babies ever seemed upset being tucked in a cloth on their mother's back. 

Some of the older women were sitting on the bank to watch the baptisms.

Here's John taking off his shoes to get in the water. 

Wes is baptizing Sisi in this picture. 

In addition to Wes, Blu and Geoff were baptizing people also. There were so many people they had to do 3 at a time!

And here is a picture of one of my favorite parts of our trip. This is Mweene, one of the New Day kids, and John is his sponsor. It was so special that John got to be the one to baptize Mweene. 

On Sunday afternoon Melvin came back for fitting of his above knee prosthesis. Here's Esther translating instructions for me about how to walk with the prosthesis.

Now, the story of Melvin coming to get his prosthesis isn't as ideal as the others. We had been asking each patient who came how they got there, how far away they lived and how they would return for fitting. We gave them money for transportation if they did not have a ride. Apparently, Melvin and his friend who came with him used the money we had given them for transportation to buy beer instead. They both had been drinking before they came to New Day for Melvin's fitting. It's really hard to teach a man to walk with a prosthesis if he's drunk. I know he was appreciative for the prosthesis, but it was disappointing to me that he had been drinking and couldn't focus on my instructions. I must say though, Esther gave them both a stern lecture....I don't understand Tonga but she seemed very firm in what she was telling them. We told each patient we saw, through whoever was translating, that we were there because Jesus called us to Zambia to help them by making them a prosthesis. I had prayed so much leading up to the trip that God would give me the right words to say to every patient I saw.

Later in the afternoon, we went to Alnold's village to fit him with his new prosthesis. That village wasn't nearly as far off the main road as Luckson's village.

We forgot to take the scissors...of course Chris thought I had them, and I thought she had them. So, she had to use a knife they had at the village to cut the liner.

Here's Chris making a few adjustments to his prosthesis. (And Blu with his really bright shirt.)

Alnold had really gotten good walking with his last prosthesis since the last trip. He just took off with the prosthesis like a pro. We needed to make one more adjustment that required our tools back at New Day, so we asked Alnold's father to bring him on Tuesday afternoon. 

Before we left, Blu gave Alnold a 2 liter bottle of milk from New Day's milk cow, Martha. They had extra milk from milking that morning, so we took it for Alnold's village.

Sunday night was American worship night at the dining hall with all songs in English and a Francis Chan video sermon. So much fun!

Everyone singing. Jenna on the right has such a beautiful voice! She sang a song with Blu accompanying on the guitar during church that morning with verses in both English and Tonga. She is so talented!

Blu leading with guitar for the songs.

Another beautiful day in Zambia! 

*Next post is Day 13: Trip to Zimba eye clinic and Livingstone