Baseball | 8/3/2015 4:00:00 PM

DETROIT -- Freshman Josh Arndt (Sterling Heights. Mich. / Oxford), a catcher on the Wayne State University baseball team, is traveling to Lira, Uganda to volunteer with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) from August 10-24.

The purpose of the trip is to offer medical care to people who have never had the ability or opportunity to receive proper medical care in the past. To achieve this, we are setting up a medical clinic in Lira, which is open to and free to anyone in need. Arndt will helping with the construction of the clinic, assisting with taking initial vitals, care, triage of patients and assisting in any way that is needed. This will be the first medical trip to Uganda that the LCMS has performed, but previous trips to Africa have resulted in the care of 1,500 people in the two week span of the clinics.

Uganda is known for its struggle with civil war, genocide and displacement of its citizens. Remnants of this can still be seen within the country, but with a growing infrastructure and the beginning of a stable government, Uganda is beginning to achieve growth despite its troubled past.

Arndt will be sharing his experiences via a blog on WSUAthletics.com. The first entry is below and be sure to check back soon for his next entry.

Entry No. 3 (September 4, 2015)
From day one, our Mercy Medical Team hit the ground running. When we arrived at our base site, the Akor Primary School in the Lira District of Uganda, there were people already waiting for care. We immediately prepped the clinic and worked out a logistical flow for registration, triage, care and treatment.
 
Everyone who came to the clinic received a registration sheet. Once they filled out the form, they went to the initial triage station where we logged the patient's heart rate, oxygen levels, blood pressure and temperature. After getting their vitals, we then worked through a translator and asked the patients what their chief ailments were.
 
After evaluation, the patient either went to see the nurses for further diagnosis or went directly to one of the doctors. Dependent on the doctor's diagnosis, the patient then either went to the wound care station, the lab, pharmacy or out take. One of the unique things about our Mercy Medical Team's clinic was the fact that we also set up an on-site pharmacy. This enabled us to give every child and adult a set of vitamins. It also helped us give long-term medicinal treatment to patients.
 
One thing that amazed me was that every single day we arrived at the clinic there were more people than the previous day. In our third day alone we saw over 750 people. We usually arrived around 9 AM. Each day there were people already waiting in line. They started standing in line at 5 AM, four hours before the clinic even opened. In addition to that, some people came from 100 kilometers away.
 
When you're working in the clinic, you see and take great joy in knowing that you're helping a lot of people. But one of the hardest parts for me was seeing those that you couldn't do anything for. I saw terminal cases and diseases and ailments that just couldn't be treated or cured. There was one young man who had end stage cancer in his mouth. His jaw was extended out two inches and his face was deformed. When the doctor told him that there was nothing that he could do and that he didn't have much time to live, I saw the pained reaction of the man. I wondered how I would have handled the news if the roles were reversed.
 
Another case was that of a severely malnourished baby. During midday, a mother approached the front of the line with a child in her arms. At first, I thought it was a newborn but after talking to the translator I found out that the child was a year and three months. The mother had walked 15 miles with the child that morning just to make it the clinic. Once the mother took off the blanket that was wrapped around the child, you could see some of the ribs protruding from the child's side. At a year and three months the child weighed just under five pounds.
 
The child ended up being rushed to the hospital, where it received intensive treatment. The staff at the hospital later told us that if the child hadn't received the treatment it did, he would have died within two days. Stories like this make the harder things a bit easier to take. But what I'm learning is that no matter how many people you help, your heart keeps coming back to those you couldn't. In the end, I suppose, we are only asked to help those who are given to us. And then, when our hands can do no more, in prayer, we entrust those in need into bigger hands.

Entry No. 2 (August 31, 2015)
After flying 21 hours from Detroit to Amsterdam to Rwanda, our Mercy Medical Team (MMT) finally arrived at Entebbe National airport in Uganda. From the airport, we drove about an hour and a half to a hotel in Kampala (the capital of Uganda) where we would stay the night. The hotel was more of a compound than anything else. It was protected by guards and surrounded by barbed wire and blockades. After a few hours of sleep, we left the hotel and began the day long drive to Lira. On both sides of the road there were slums, shack after shack. And a sea of people waded through streets filled with debris and garbage.
 
Once past the slums, we spent the next 10 hours driving through the heart of Uganda. At first, the roads were paved, and to be honest, much nicer then the Michigan roads. But the farther we got into the heart of Uganda the roads turned to dirt. There were times when the holes in the roads were so bad that the bus bottomed out. Surprisingly, despite the many bumps, the drive was pleasant. The scenery was breathtaking, filled with mountains and lush fields. The coolest part of the drive though was crossing the Nile River. It was something that's indescribable. The power and might of the river's current, along with its beauty, was something that pictures or words can't describe. We finally reached Lira later that night. The next day we attended a church service in the local village. The congregation was small, only 12 people, and so our presence nearly doubled their attendance. The pastor served as one of our ground liaisons during our time in Uganda. After the service we ate with the locals in the village (no silverware and so we used only our hands) and then headed back to the hotel where we began prep for the start of the clinic.           
 
Monday marked the start of the first day of the clinic. One thing you are forced to learn quickly while in Africa is patience. There's this thing called "African Time" and to an American it's the most frustrating thing ever. The African culture is based on relationships and they put a huge emphasis on this. It's not bad; it's just different than how we do things in America. And so, we spent most of Monday morning listening to long speeches and introductions from local politicians and community members, thanking us for our time. After all of the speeches and cordial introductions, we opened the clinic three hours later than our intended start time. Although we started late, we hit the ground running, eager to finally start.  

Entry No. 1 (August 3, 2015)
In ten days, our medical team will begin travel to Lira, Uganda. Each member will fly out from his or her local airport and we will all meet up in Amsterdam. I will be departing from Detroit Metro. The flight from Metro to Amsterdam will be eight hours, followed by a 12-hour flight to Entebbe national airport in Uganda. Once in Uganda, we will travel by van to our destination. The car ride is supposed to take about five hours, but Uganda is currently just finishing its rainy season. With that being said, the terrain we will be traveling on will be bumpy, and depending on how much the roads have been effected by the rain, it could take up to eight or 10 hours to reach Lira. We are slated to arrive in Lira on Sunday (August 16), and the clinic will open early Monday morning. Our team recently had a conference call to work out the last minute details. One thing we talked about was the way the clinic will be run. The clinic will be broken up into separate stations. The first station will be registration where we will get the patient's information, and assess any initial medical concerns. From there the patient will go to consultation then treatment. We will have a pharmacy on site, so any medication needed can then be distributed to the patient after they have been seen.

This is the LCMS's first trip to Uganda but we are hoping to see around 400-500 patients per day. With that much demand, we will usually work the clinic from 9 AM until it starts to get dark. A trip of this scale demands a lot of supplies. Due to travel restraints, most of the medical supplies and equipment has already been acquired and is waiting in Kenya, where it will be transported over to our clinic.

Packing for a trip like this isn't difficult, but it does require some oversight. For example, the culture in Lira dictates the types of clothing you need to wear while in country. In their culture, only small children wear shorts. The way you dress correlates with your social status, so while in country I need to wear long khaki pants and a collared shirt. Along with packing, a lot of paperwork has to be completed before I can enter the country. I recently just finished filling out paperwork with the U.S. embassy in Kampala, Uganda. This paper work is just basic information and travel information so the embassy can have my trip and location on record in case anything happens. Along with being registered with the embassy, we will all have evacuation cards, to help in the case of an emergency or national crisis. While traveling I will also have to carry numerous pieces of identification: my passport, vaccination card, NGO (Non-Government Organization) identification card and a signed letter proving I am in the country for humanitarian aid work. Before I can leave, I had to make sure I had shots for Hepatitis A and B, Typhoid, Yellow Fever, and a prescription for malaria pills to be used before departure and during my time in country.

It's been a slow process getting all of these things done. I'm grateful for this opportunity and all of the support from my friends, family and Wayne State University. I am excited to see how we will be able to help the people of Lira, and hopefully leave a lasting impact.