The First Four Days

Friday, June 20

If you've been following this blog, relax. You haven't missed any entries for Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. There is so much going on and so much to photograph, and the preparation and posting of blog entries seems to take so long here, that I have fallen too far behind in my writing to ever catch up. So I'm changing tack. Instead of recounting each day's activities, over the next day or so I will begin focusing on interesting medical and personal stories. There are literally dozens, and I think they will illustrate how profoundly CURE International's work here is affecting lives.

But that's for later.

Today is Friday. This evening and tomorrow, nineteen members of our team are leaving for home. They and their skills will be missed. And I thought this would be a good time to post the statistics for the first four days (thanks to Paulette Fittshur, who collects and tallies the numbers for us after working in the pharmacy all day).

Here are the stats on the services the mission has provided as of about 6:30 pm last night, when the clinic closed.
Oral surgeries 1,017
Dental restorations 457
amalgam preps 442
compositions 625
Dental cleanings 69
Medical examinations and treatments
Adults 763
Children 666
Physical therapy examinations
and treatments 152
Laboratory tests 184
Eye care services 186
Prescriptions 4,214
Piperazine doses (treatment for intestinal parasites)
Adult 718
Child 738
Vitamins packs (30-day)
Adult 874
Child 963
People given health and
Christian instruction 1,604
Decisions for the Lord 146

A solid four days of work.
Also today, I want to post a slide show of as many of the North American members of the mission as possible. A lot will depend on the speed of the Internet connection (it varies from day to day). And I'm sure I'll miss some members -- for which I apologize ahead of time. But I know that people back home will enjoy seeing that their loved ones are happy, healthy, busy and thinking of them.