Late entry!

Observations on the laws of Physics at Ilula:

Fighting entropy and fortifying gravity

 

Saturday 13Jan2018

 

For a moment I was sure we were fighting the forces of entropy as chaos was beginning to erupt during the health assessment session we were doing for 40 children at the Huruma orphanage on Saturday.  As I understand it, entropy is the universal force that drives everything from a state of organization into an increasing state of chaos.

Huruma Orphanage is an Iringa Diocese Program supported by Minnesota-based Friends of Huruma.  We had been asked to provide health assessments for the 40 children ages 5 to 15.  The hospital medical director, Dr Sovelo organized an agenda and appropriate laboratory investigations to provide for the children.  Things started out well organized.  We had a diverse team including an Ilula physician, nurse educator and lab staff, six nursing students to function as interpreters and our team.  We were greeted with song and performed introductions. We began with health education for the children. Dr Damaris, from Ilula, spoke about several health and sanitation issues with the children and Nurse Sophia, also of Ilula, gave a breakout session to the older children regarding sexual health and HIV.  Then we proceeded to the health assessments and that is when the physical force of entropy became evident.  We tried to herd 40 energetic kids into getting registered, getting heights/weights, having labs drawn, having a vision test and having a physical exam.  Kids were running around everywhere and we were chasing after them: “this one needs a vision screen; has this one been to lab yet? I need an interpreter for this one…”.  Anne and a nursing student manned the registration table, Bri and Elizabeth performed heights and weights; Evan and Mary ran the vision station and the physicians (Dr Damaris, Jen, Gary, Abby, Lindsey and Randy) performed the physical exams.  Amazingly, we got all the children thru each station and completed vision tests on all who could read.  Fortunately, an extensive laboratory battery of tests did not identify any serious health problems; several children will need glasses; we issued a handful of prescriptions for minor infections.  We learned a lot about how to organize such an event

 

Currently we are working on fortifying our gravitational influence as other team members begin coming to Ilula.  Gravitational force is that physical force that draws a body into a larger mass or energy.  The first team to Ilula this year has congealed into an impressive unifying energy/mass and we are looking forward to drawing others into this energy; Dr John Kvasnicka is drawn to us Sunday;  Dr Jose Debes and Tara Rick arrive on Tuesday.   The rest of the team arrive on Wednesday when  our gravitation pull will swell to twice it’s size!