screening day take 2

i'm behind on how many posts i need to get up but to be honest, it has been absolutely mad here with 12-14 hour days on the weekdays as well as 2-6 hours on the weekends. i have some i.o.u.'s in mind but for now will just share about our second screening day.

last weekend, we held a second screening day so that we could fill our remaining holes in the surgery schedule. for those of you who've read how the first screening went, i don't have to tell you that there was a bit of concern in each heart as we approached this second screening. a new site was selected and increased security measures (including riot police as a precaution) were in place to hopefully keep the day from being a repeat of the previous screening.

several of our men went out at 2pm the day before to get the site secure and prepare. there were already people waiting for them when they arrived to the site. a long afternoon/evening/night passed for the men as they did some pre-screening to keep out of line those who had medical conditions that we weren't able to treat as well as to keep the line in order. when we arrived at 5:30am the next morning, the west africans who had spent the night in line were SEATED in a nice orderly line! well done security team. as soon as it was light we started screening the hundreds of people who had waited to be seen. as always, there were some we had to say no to which breaks our hearts but many who we were able to say yes to and they filed in to the lines behind the gate of registration, seeing a physician and then getting a surgery date figured out. we were able to fill in most of the rest of the surgery schedule!

now, we are starting to settle into a bit of the routine of the outreach so hopefully, the pace will calm and i can get to the i.o.u.'s soon.