* By this point in the trip my camera battery was finished but others on the team have pictures so more will follow evenutally
8/22 Worshiped with the tiny Nabwal church in the morning. They had a building but the roof caved in due to the heavy rains so because everyone knew where we were staying we just held church in the open field there. Dr. Will preached. Many children and women but also some warriors (though I think there were just there to see what was going on) attended. We again pulled out our medications, though by now it was slim pickings. It was immediately obvious that Dr. Will was never going to be able to see all who were left to be seen so I began to see patients also leaving the VHT's to do all the wound care and driver John and Heidi to pass meds. They were very good, catching errors and making substitutions where things were gone. I guess hours of practice.... I was supposed to be seeing mostly easy stuff and passing the more complicated kids over to Dr. Will but these were by far the sickest kids we had seen yet. Word had gone out to the farther villages that we were there and the sickest had worked hard to arrive. It was really hard. Early afternoon we had to finish but the crowd had just kept getting bigger. We passed out parasite meds for everyone and quick packed up the last of the tents and supplies. We also had 4 soldiers left from our armed guard (two had traveled with Val's car when she left the day before) in addition to all of us from the team who were left. It was a little crowded to say the least. Add to that the rain from the night before and the car was just too heavy to manage the mud and bad road. About five minutes into the drive we all unloaded again and let John go on ahead with the supplies to wait for us where the road became more passable. After walking roughly 20 kilometers, a few hours later we met back up with them and loaded back up to drive the last little bit. A couple of us said we would just finish walking but the soldier escort said this region was just too unsafe and we had to get back in and they rode on top. We spent the night back in Iriri and besides my feet from hurting from the skin that I had walked, off slept great. That is until 1:30am when we were roused back out of bed. One of the soldiers who had been a part of our escort had been shot. Dr. Bob and I quickly packed all of the medical equipment that we thought we might need and prepared to jump into Val's truck. Then word came over the radio that he had just died. Dr. Bob and Val and a few others went anyway to transport the body back to the barracks.

8/23 Morning came quickly. We spent the day seeing patients from around Iriri who had medical needs. Then early afternoon we packed up all of the last of our things and loaded the first land rover leaving half of the stuff for the Val's truck when she returned to take the rest of the team. We headed back to Moroto but were only about an hour into the trip when Val call to say she got a flat and both of her spares were bad. So we turned around. Then in the dark John changed the tire and put his spare on her truck. We all went to Iriri together and as the thunder rumbled and lightening cracked we raced to get all of the remaining things loaded and tied under tarps. Then we began the several hour trip. The rain held off thankfully because the roads were still bad even dry. We stopped at Val's home in Kangole and unloaded some things around 11pm. Then on to Moroto to the CLIDE office to unload other things and then to the guest house to unload the visitors and their bags. We had a cup of tea there and some oreo cookies for dinner and then Heidi, Val and I loaded into her truck one more time and headed back to Kangole. It was quite the adventure but the bad news is I was starting to feel ill again. By the time we had tossed our mattresses on the floor of Heidi's grass thatched hut we were out cold.

8/24 Once we managed to drag ourselves out of bed we had a little hot water to wash up in. (nice!) Then back on the road to meet the visitors back in Moroto and debrief and plan for the future. A lot of brain storming and looking at what it would take to get some more permanent things in these areas. Sorted and repacked the last of the medical supplies. A meal in downtown Moroto. A day to catch our breaths a little bit again. Heidi, Dr. Val and I all headed to back to Kangole to sleep at their place.

8/25 For a change of pace I spent much of the day hanging out with the US military guys who work in Moroto. They do a lot of work with Dr. Val and CLIDE does some consulting for them. Got to see a little of the work that Val does when she isn't hanging out with a bunch of foreigners. I have really enjoyed my time with her and would love to be able to continue to learn from her and work with her in the future. It is amazing what she has been through and her stories but also what God has done with the sacrifices she has been willing to make.

8/26 Up early one more time to get back to Moroto to catch John and the others from the CLIDE office in Soroti who were headed back. Dr. Val was going to get the Drs and nurses on the plane in Moroto and John had to get all the way back to Kampala in time to pick them up on that end to get them from the MAF plane to the international plane. We were planning on leaving town about 8am for the 5 hour drive back but by the time we loaded the car it was closer to 9. The truck was running rough and John wanted to stop on our way out of town to check some things. That turned into about an hour stop but we finally pulled out. Only to drive about 20 minutes only to decide we still were having vehicle issues and that we needed to go back. That stop turned into another hour as the carburetor was taken off but after “lunch” we were finally on the road again. The roads were rough but tolerable so we made it back to Soroti by about 5pm. What an adventure.