Good Friday

Well, for us it certainly was a Good Friday - not a holiday here in Burkina Faso (the Easter Holiday is Monday) but it was our busiest clinic day so far. While the busyness is a little stressful, it is a good kind of stress - I am really glad to have lots of patients, and to be getting into the swing of things. We have some routine patients, some challenging ones - and every day we learn a lot.

Our first patient, Omar, came in for a follow up today. He was our very first patient, Dana & Leah looked after him over the Christmas holidays on the ward, with TB & HIV, very malnourished. He is 13 but weighs only 24kg... he is WAY shorter than me (which is very stunted for a 13 year old boy!) Since we've been caring for him, he started on TB drugs, improved a little, started on HIV drugs, improved a little more. Today in follow up we started him on iron (for anemia) and for the first time, he asked "what is this medicine for?". I was glad he was asking the question... here too often, people don't ask those questions.

Our new administrator, Julien, seems really good - it is GREAT to have him. He has lots of good ideas, and is MUCH more skilled at many of the admin stuff than we are. And he's enthusiastic, and dedicated to the cause. He's worked for HIV organizations in the past, and has experience as an HIV counsellor.

Its SO wonderful to feel like we're making progress. A lot of the initial work was necessary but not so obviously helpful... now, we're actually caring for kids. And its great - even if I worry about the kids, I am SO happy to be at the point where we can care for our own patients, institute our own organization, start systematic adherence counselling, and followup up etc.

Have a safe & blessed Easter weekend.
Laura