Nicaragua Feb 15th afternoon

We went to the clinic this am and just got back.  I am writing as we wait for lunch.

It was busy this morning.  The kids were perhaps overall better nourished and less anemic than those yesterday

A grandmother brought in her 12 year old granddaughter who weighed 20 pounds.

The report was that she had had polio, but that is not enough to explain her extreme condition.

She was malnourished and developmentally delayed and she had flies all around her.  

She will probably not live long because any infection could kill her.  She has no reserve to fight off an infection

or other illness.  But in the meantime her Grandmother cares for her and loves her.

Most today though are happy well fed (relatively) and everyone has pinworms.

They come with assorted other problems and I like that I can solve some of them in seconds.

They have certain idiomatic phrases which lead to a quick diagnosis.

¨Sleeps with his eyes open¨ means restless sleep and thus pinworms or some other infestation.

We sang and prayed with Chilo leading prior to beginning. Lori would really like Chilo.

Chilo has four children of her own, but many street kids come to her to be fed and now

she has many teens who play music and so forth.

The whole clinic is run by young men and boys and some older women.  They are a big help.

The pharmacy is getting backed up and we have to solve some of that with standard prescription writing.

In the meantime we get done a half hour before the pharmacy. 

(There are still people in the waiting room and the teens play music and do sketches to entertain them.
Bye for now.