Katie George
June 18, 2015

Today Team Mutomo spent our day at an outreach clinic in a village about thirty minutes away from where we're staying. We traveled on rocky dirt roads in the Fatima Girls' bus with four other medical professionals from Kavu, the clinic supported by the Dominican Sisters for the community. Dr. Hansen, Kate, and Mrs. Feltz kept busy all day long, seeing one hundred and three patients while the others measured the kids' height and weight for research. The outreach clinic comes to certain villages on a monthly basis. The majority of the patients are women and children as few middle- aged men attend. Our medical team did an impressive job treating today's patients with, for the most part, nothing but Tylenol, anti-fungal cream, and Amoxicillian. Meanwhile, students prepared bags of medications for distribution, handed out bracelets for the children who got checked, and helped take vitals. People were treated for malaria, viruses, open wounds as a result of domestic abuse, and more were coming to get the vaccination to prevent Elephant Titus which has begun to spread in Northern Africa.

Throughout our busy day, a few of us had the opportunity to see the village of the day's patients. One woman we met readily greeted us and invited us into her home. She is a mother of five young children, with the youngest being just seven months old. We were informed that she divorced eight months ago, and her husband left and provides no financial support. Her house has two rooms. The first room is the "sitting room;" although, it is a completely empty, cement room. Their second room is the bedroom with nothing but a thin cloth lying on the floor for all six family members covered by the roof constructed of plastic bags and potato sacks. The remarkable thing is that this house was given to her, which brings me to my next observation.

We are working with people who deal with severe poverty, but their sense of community is unfathomably rich. As we walk through the streets or ride through the town in the bus, people greet us with waves and smiles so often that my arm gets tired on any journey longer than twenty minutes. Not only are Zambians the most welcoming people I've ever met, but they show that same level of care and compassion to one another. At the clinic today, mothers were helping other mothers, children were carrying their baby siblings, one little boy comforted Mrs. Simon when she got sick, and a young girl brushed off my pants for me after I stood up from sitting in the dirt. The line took roughly six hours to get through, and one woman was selling fritas, a common fried bread snack in Zambia. When women and children came to her with little or no money, although she likely did not have much money herself, she would readily give them a frita anyway.

The people of Zambia have made our trip here so wonderful and have taught us what it really is to be welcoming and caring. I think I speak for everyone when I say that I have loved every minute here and am sad that the end of our trip is coming so soon!

Tomorrow we're headed back to Barefoot School to paint a mural then to St. Anthony's Orphanage; we'll keep you updated!