My Visit to Uromi

I went to Uromi on Saturday. It is the place where we do our annual medical mission trips. I went to visit Father John who runs the Children's Home in the town and has acted as our "administrator" for our medical mission supplies. He keeps track of all the drugs and equipment that we send him and another volunteer, Lucky, comes and picks them up before each clinic. We have 5 clinic sites in Uromi that are run by the public health nurses that staff the public health clinics where our free clinics are held. A recent medical school graduate has been the volunteer doctor overseeing the clinics. We've been so lucky to build this volunteer network finally. It only took 6 years!

After taking care of "business" I got to play with the little kids while the big kids were doing devotionals in the chapel. Here are some cute shots of the kiddos:

Me poisoning their teeth with sugary suckers

Pretending to be innocent of above said crimes.

They were fascinated with rubbing my white skin.

This kid was so excited he peed his pants. Right on my foot.

After playing for a while I went back to my room to "rest and refresh" (and wash pee off my foot). I then had dinner with Father John & the seminarian who has been staying with him. After that we went to the chapel to finish up night time prayers with the kids. Then it was time for bed. At 8:30pm. I know how to live I'm telling you.

But that's ok, I read for a while before falling asleep because I had to get up at 5:15 am because I had to make it to 6 am mass! Definitely a different lifestyle. After mass we had breakfast and watched the Catholic network on tv and the driver came to fetch me at 1o. I was back in Benin by noon and have been hanging out all day!

Quickie Update

I woke up this morning and my throat was NOT hurting, thank goodness. I'm a little congested but nothing bad so I'm hoping my rest and relaxation yesterday helped, as well as the extra vitamins and zinc tablets. I'm hoping this is the worst of it and then it'll be over!

We had our last day of staff development training today. It was very interesting overall but I'm glad it's over. My butt is seriously hurting from sitting in plastic chairs for hours at a time (as well as my overall anxiety level of sitting in them!) so I'm glad I won't have to do that anymore. I learned a lot about the University and the general campus environment which is of course very helpful to my work.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow since the training ended a day early. I want to try and get to the market and get some small craft items to send with Father John to the US for the fundraising event for the foundation. Other than that, I will hopefully take it easy and get some work done. I will be in Uromi all weekend visiting Father John & the children at the home, which is always fun and should be nice. The M's driver will take me on Saturday and Father John will arrange for transport back to Benin on Sunday. I'm sure I will attend mass with the children on Sunday as they have a chapel on the grounds. Hopefully I will get to check out some of the clinics or at least meet with some of the people who have been working hard the past year keeping our clinics running.

I have a few short posts coming up soon, but I'm not sure I'll finish them tonight. Stay posted!