Arrival at HEAL

Jessie's report:
Today we woke up early to head to HEAL Africa.  After about 4 nours of driving, 30 min of waiting for an accident to clear, and over an hour and a half at the border, we made it to HEAL.  Chelsie and I stayed at the border to work on getting our luggage across.  This was a huge task, thank God Chelsie speaks Swahili!  They waited about 45 min deciding on whether they wanted to search our 12 suit cases or not.  It was imposible to determine who was legitamate or not to search or handle our suit cases.  They finally decided to go ahead and search them.  We were really not sure what might happen since there is so much corruption and our suit cases were being opened for all the pubic (and beggers) to see!  My job was to sit in the car and protect our belongings!  All went well and they decided after searching about 8 suit cases that we were tired and they thought we could go.  We finally were able to meet up with the rest of the team at HEAL and tag along with the group on the hospital tour.  The place has been totally transformed from when I was here 2.5 years ago!  There are many  new buildings and departments have expanded and moved around.  I am lost!  I am excited to see the progress they have made, despite the violance in the city last year. I was really excited to see that they have the addition of a legal department at HEAL that works with the women who have been raped and mutilated to bring justice.  It is only a small step in the right direction, as the laws are in place, but the politics do not support them.  I must sign off now as our ride to our new "home" has arrived.

Continue to pray for us as we jump in and get our hands dirty, using our talents and education to further the local work of HEAL.  Tomorrow morning I will present to the physical therapy department and the orthopedic medical students on torticollis in babies.

Jessie