Thunder, Rain and No Electriciy

I think we all are getting pretty tired. Today the head doctor had to make the decision to return to the USA because of his father-in-law's health. He and his daughter leave tomorrow leaving 2 doctors and 2 nurses to finish the clinic. We are cutting the clinic by a half day, then have to inventory and pack up. Today, we saw a lot of people with minor complaints.

Our day started without electricity. It was cool and rainy most of the day. Someone borrowed the tent over the weekend and didn't return it so when we arrived at the clinic it looked like we had no patients. We were to go to a different church a little way out of Malawi, but it was decided that it logistically difficult to move and not practical in light of the fuel shortage. We thought the message hadn't got out that we were staying at the original church.

When I went with the Malawian lady that helps us run the clinic to the area everyone was waiting, I thought we were going to have a riot. The natives were restless. Everything settled out but for the life of me I couldn't understand why they acted like it was life or death to get a ticket to see the doctors. We saw pretty much everyone despite the fact we were essentially down a doctor.

The day was complicated by thunder, heavy rain, and no electricity. To add to it, no tent for shelter for the people. To start we were short of volunteers meaning not enough translators. No electricity also meant the clinic had insufficient light, the computer battery ran down. It was not a fun morning.

Only 2 more days!