Day 45 (monday)

Her mom wasn't around at the time and she was simply emotionless (she agreed to the picture though).

This poor set of twins...the one being held has developed pneumonia (the other one is healthy).

This little guy was about the size of a football and was having breathing and heart problems.

This sweet boy stole my heart...when asked for a picture, he looked at me as if to say yes.  He is 6 years old and was horribly malnourished and has some form of cancer and will likely not make it past the next month.

This lady was struggling to get to the hospital but it's normal for her and not too uncommon to see others like her.

 

I woke up at about 6 to take care of business and then spent the next two hours writing about my observations from the Edwenase rehabilitation center. It was a nice reminder of where I had been (I totally plan on going back at least once to visit before I come home). Now for some breakfast and waiting for my journey to the hospital. Ernest arrived when he said he would and wasn't in a rush this time. We departed and eventually made our way to KATH. I was originally under the impression that we were going to have to travel for a bit but it was relatively close. I learned that it was a teaching hospital as opposed to a psychiatric clinic like I originally thought. We had conflicting information on the original letter and had to ask several people (most of which had no real idea where anything was) and eventually made our way to the social welfare office. We made our way to the right office as the secretary was aware of receiving the letter. The lady we needed to see was on rounds so we waited for a long time to meet with our contact. We spoke with Ms. Lucy, who is the head of social welfare division. After speaking to her about her job and the role her office plays in the hospital, we joined one of the social workers and visited the children's unit. There were children quite literally on their death beds, from bloating, various surgeries, pneumonia, heart problems, and more. The conditions were less than desirable to say the least. I was given permission at first to snap some pictures but then later asked to put it away, I obliged but I also got some powerful pictures. We came back and spoke with Ms. Lucy again for a few minutes and were accompanied by a young man (I had asked to see some of the other areas) and visited the psychiatry unit (there was currently only one patient (male) who was hit by a car, isn't able to speak towards any recognition of family members). We walked through a couple other units and everything was very busy and hectic and there were several patients in beds in lobbies and many people who had no means of transportation to get home and some were waiting for family members to come get them and square up with the bills (as you can imagine, many take long amounts of time, try to bail out, or just don't show up at all). We finally headed home and I was very tired. I made lunch and watched tv episodes of lie to me. I had to spend credits watching part of the first half of the Italy v Republic of Ireland match. It was wasting too much of my credits so I just had to read about it (I absolutely love their fans). Most of the rest of the evening was spent laying around, Maureen's leg was still hurting and my back has been a pain in the...back, I guess. I touched base with a few people and then just called it a night.