Wabwoko Clinic- Kevin Hutchinson

Wabwoko Clinic

Today we travel to Wobwoko to an epilepsy clinic. Wobwoko is about an hour’s drive past Kangulumira so about an hour and a half total. We stop at the clinic first to pick up the team and there are about 8 of us in the van. What a wonderful team of inspired and beautiful people! The drive from the clinic is much bumpier and the villages get smaller and smaller. There are still many concrete buildings and huts along the way. We arrive at a clinic in Wobwoko that they let us use for the day. As we pull in the site is overwhelming, there are around 160 people outside waiting. What a site to see! The need here is so great; I can’t believe what the need is in other villages that we are not reaching. Many of these families have been waiting for 3 hours for us to come. I feel bad because we take so long to get up and moving. If we were able to get out of the house earlier we can get to these people sooner!

We walk into the clinic and the families stare at us white Mzungus. None of them here say Mzungu though which makes me wonder why. I have been learning Luganda a bit more and have my little cheat sheet. I say things like “hello, how are you?” and “Good morning, how was your night?” The faces of these people light up when you speak Luganda. It is such a beautiful culture and the people just touch your heart. Sophia and I are assigned to count medication. We think we are going to do this for about an hour or so, little do we know this is an all-day adventure. I am planning to count medicine then go observe Steven and Barbara do their exercises and hopefully interview some parents as Teresha noted that this would be a good time to do so as many of the parents are very open and interesting.

We begin to count medicine; I put 70 phenobarbital tablets in a packet and do this about 70 more times! It is very tedious work but as I see the line I understand the need and why this needs to be done. We worked like this for about 2 hours while practicing our Luganda every once-in-a-while to families standing in line. We took a break to see Steven and Barbara working with clients. They only served about 12 children today, most just get the medication and leave because they walk so far to get there. We come back in and the rest of the day, about 3 hours, we count more medicine. It is very tiring and boring work and I was wishing I was able to observe or interview parents but understand that the work is good and needs to be done. There is such a need here!!! I hope and pray that the medication works and those other villages are able to be reached in the future.

We gather up and head off for home!