Wound Care and Football

Today was assigned to wound care in the clinic.  Jessica helped me with my first one and taught me how to clean and bandage wounds, and by the end the afternoon I had cared for 7 patients.  I bandaged two fingers, a number of legs, a knee, and a heel.  Half of the injuries were from motorbikes; in the past two years there has been a large increase of vehicles on the road (and also the quantity and quality of roads), and there are not any laws governing licenses or the road.  There is no DMV, but there are many accidents.

One boy came in who had been hit by a motorbike four days prior.  He had a deep half-dollar sized gash in his knee, and a deep cut on his heel.  The knee was infected, and the flesh gray and smelly.  I cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide and pulled out the debris, and then bandaged it with sterile gauze and betadine (similar to iodine, kills bacteria).  He was also given antibiotics.  He will come back Monday and I'll redress him until he heals.

In the afternoon Sebit took the twins and me out into town to tell people about a "World Cup Outreach" we are doing this Sunday.  We also went to a football (soccer) field in the neighborhood and played with the locals.  We played with all ages, from about 7 up to 20, and had lots of fun.  There were three teams, and the losing team walked off the field and the resting team walked on.  My team won one and lost one.  I have not played soccer competitively since I was 12, and was very rusty, and very out of shape, but greatly enjoyed the game.  It was late afternoon and the sun was soon setting, so that it strained and pierced through the clouds in the horizon.  It was very beautiful.  The people here are very beautiful.