Friday clinic - the Grand Finale to a good week

I got up at 5am, since I couldn't sleep any more with a million last day details dancing around in my head and got onto the Internet to check email and maybe make another blog post.  I was horrified to see an email from Citibank about a Fraud Alert on my account.  Moments after my computer chip credit card had been scanned at the Mediterraneo restaurant, purchases in the U.S. began to occur.  The waiter had come to my table and scanned my card, but said it wouldn't connect and that he had to bring a second scanner.  The second scanner went through.  I spent 20 minutes on the phone with the Fraud team and the only option was to cancel the card, a real pain since it's my main business card and is tied into many online accounts.  A nice start to the day, I buy our team a nice dinner and then it blows up in my face. Such is life, I'll get over it and now I have another story to tell!

We breakfasted and got to the clinic a little early, where Pastor James prayed over us and the day ahead and we began work.  It was pretty steady all day long, and when we finished, we had the usual 300 or so patients, even with a day shortened by packing up the foot lockers and recognizing our volunteers for a job well done.  We finished the week with 1546 patients having been served and exposed to the saving Gospel message, a respectable number given how rainy it has been.  At the closing of this clinic, rather than award Certificates of Appreciation, we gave out toothbrushes and toothpaste to everyone.  Sandra had brought these supplies from her dentist and we got pictures of everyone individually getting their dental supplies from Sandra, Dr. Zoch and Diana. It was a nice change of pace.

We said our goodbyes and our "until we meet agains" and got back to Rosa Mystica.  Our driver Mambo walked Sandra to Kentucky Fried Chicken nearby where she bought dinner for the two of them, I believe the Zochs rested until the 7 pm dinner at the compound and I got a shower and went over to Java House for a quiet dinner by myself before going back to Mediterraneo to let the manager know what had happened with my credit card.  It was all cordial, the damage had already been done, I was just trying to give him the courtesy of informing him of a possible problem with his staff or their credit processing procedures.  I said Hakuna Matata ("no worries" for you Lion King fans) and came back to my room to write this blog post, check into my flight for tomorrow night and to begin packing, since we are checking out in the morning.

Tomorrow morning, the team will breakfast at Rosa Mystica from 7 to 8 am and then Sandra, our friend Barrack and myself will head out to Lake Naivasha for a photo safari with Mambo as our driver.  The Zochs chose to remain at Rosa Mystica until he has to check out the condition of our dental equipment stored in Nairobi tomorrow afternoon after several years without doing a dental clinic.

We will all meet up with the other teams at the Little Daughters of St. Joseph compound Saturday afternoon before heading to the airport together for our respective flights.  If all goes well, we will be flying Kenya Airways to Paris and ten Air France to Houston, arriving in Houston around 3pm Sunday afternoon.  We'll gather up our footlockers and luggage, make our way through Customs and Immigration and then depart for Austin, hopefully by around 4 pm.  Stay tuned for more updates as it is possible...