Overloaded by Noon

Here are a few of the issues that bombarded my morning from 7 to noon, not including those that Scott deflected: calling a headmaster in Mbarara to try and get my student a place to repeat A levels, sending messages to a doctor in Kampala about my patient with a rare AIDS- related cancer whose father called me about 8 times over the weekend in distress, finding Jack's missing school uniform pants just in time to get to school, cooking breakfast and packing lunches, talking to my two workers about one of their wives who has declared herself to be dying 4 times in 5 days, helping them process what stresses might be relevant in her life and how her husband could assist her by sending away his two abusive alcoholic brothers who are sponging off his family, holding a firm line with another neighbor for whom I paid school fees to get the orphaned daughters into a better school (rather than returning to the one where the older girl had been sexually abused by a teacher) on the condition that their responsible brother pay for little things like paper and pens, negotiating surgery for a pitiful little boy who survived through our nutrition program but now has a hernia that needs to be repaired, seeing 28 very ill in-patients and about ten consults, coming up with gloves to keep the hospital functioning, receiving report back on a patient I sent for special orthopedic consultation two weeks ago (a bust it turns out, she says her money was stolen on the way and no surgery was done, just a return note with vague reference to ongoing home-based occupational therapy), seeing two staff members, a Christ School student, and a Christ School teacher all with medical issues and a sense of special privilege, and arranging MAF flights and accommodation for team mates and upcoming visitors. So if I forget a thing or two of importance by noon . . . I trust in grace to pick up the pieces.