"Good bye, Bananas."

This was our last day in Bul Kur & at the Galileo School.  Being Sunday, we got to visit their local church...in a mud hut!

mud hut church

Singing on the fly!

They greeted us in the church with a choir performance. Nick and I got to host the children’s story time outside under a tree. We used the back of the van to hold up our feltboard. Translators were very animated and helped to convey the story to the children. Then Georgianna and I taught an impromptu song and made up the hand motions on the fly. Skillz!  The children picked up the tune and motions quickly and were able to perform the song for us perfectly.

After church the community leaders had prepared a special, traditional meal for us with posho, beans, chicken & Mirinda. All to be eaten with our hands. So fun.

yummo!

Pharm Tech Nick

After our meal we set up another day of medical clinic in the new school building. (Just a short walk from the mud hut church) This time we were a well oiled machine. Katie saw patients with wounds and malaria and I saw patients with other complaints.  Nick ran the pharmacy again and we were able to  see several adults and children.  I kept finding myself having the same conversation. Unfortunately, the lack of easily accessible clean water and food leads to myriad of health problems. Many, many distended bellies full of what I can only guess are intestinal worms, several skin infections, many discussions about stomach pains and gastrointestinal issues.  Many of theses  problems are solved with a round of antibiotics, but the people lived so far away from a doctor’s office and even if they went to the doctor, they could not pay for care or medicine. So the solution is to live with the pain and inconvenience and continue about your daily lives hoping you don’t get so ill that you die. That’s the reality for a large population of the world.

We wrapped as the sun was going down, and we gave lots of hugs and closing remarks. One sweet teacher said, “Remember to tell you friends that you built America in Bul Kur.” Everyone sends their greetings to our friends and family back in the states.  

Last photo of the team before we drove away.

As we drove away the children yelled, “Goodbye, bananas!” at me. I like that I've become known as a silly song that helped to bring smiles to kids who were afraid to smile. "Bananas" I shall be.

We drove back to the Acholi Inn and showered for dinner. I ate my standard fish and chapati with a cup of African tea.  The mosquitoes also joined us for dinner. They feasted on my legs.

Fried tilapia, chapati slices, and veggies. 

I dozed off to sleep around 1am listening the nightly thunder storm.  The power was out again in the hotel and there was no electricity to power the wall AC unit.  Luckily I’ve mastered sleeping with no covers with the help of a mosquito  net.  We've learned that AC wall units are merely for decoration.

All in all, it was a great day.