Today we slept in till 8, then headed to the hospital to update blogs, send emails etc. After finishing we headed back to the mission to get ready to leave for the Aka village. Like I mentioned before, the Aka are a jungle-dwelling people who live very simple and humble lifestyles. We were going to the Aka village to open a clinic for the day so that the people could have access to free medical care. The Aka are some of the poorest people and they often don’t seek any medical attention because they know they cannot afford it. So Priscilla, Miles, the Lunsfords, Dr. Tenpenny, Mama Sarah, and I all packed up some gear to head to the jungle for the day. We drove about 6 miles to the Aka village, and when we got there, people started to crowd. The pastor of the church in this Aka village took us to the church so we could set up our stuff there, the church was the only “sheltered area” from the sun that wasn’t someone’s house. So we unloaded our medicine, set up chairs and tables to examine people on, and began the day. Lauren Lunsford and I took vitals all day and were situated at the front of the church. We both had a chair and then another chair facing us. We both had a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff, but we had to share 1 thermometer and one pen. It was quite interesting. Pens are like gold around here, for some reason no one ever has any, you would think we could at least have like a handful, but no, we had 4 pens total. So Lauren and I switched back and forth using one pen to write down vitals for a majority of the day.

One cool thing that Congo, and I’m assuming other African countries do similarly is that each person keeps a carne. You’re wondering now, well what the heck is a carne? A carne is a little booklet that holds that person’s ENTIRE medical history. When a person goes to the hospital, they bring their carne, and the carne is where the doctor or consultant writes vital signs, diagnosis, medications and more. It is so handy! Any doctor from any hospital in Congo or in another country can then look back at previous illnesses and care.

So today, every Aka person would walk in with their carne, we would write down their vitals, and then send them to Miles to explain what was wrong with them. Miles speaks fluent French and is learning Lingala fast so he is quite the help! He would examine each person, ask very specific questions, write down what he could grasp from the conversation, and then send them to Dr. Tenpenny to talk some more. Dr. Tenpenny would then go over Miles' notes, ask more questions, and if necessary prescribe medications or refer them to the hospital if they needed to have surgery. Dr. Tenpenny would then send the patient to Priscilla who would give them what was prescribed, explain when and how many to take, and then send them on their way!

We spent about 6 hours doing this process, I did vitals on 50+ people and so did Lauren…it was a longgggg day!

After finishing up the clinic around 5pm we headed back to the mission. A few of us watched a movie at the Tenpenny house, ate treats, and then headed to bed around 9 because we were all so exhausted!

Below are pictures of the line of Aka people waiting to be checked, us checking them, and also a stud of a kid who is carrying a gun made entirely of plant stems, what a dude.