Hi Mom, Charlie and Aidan, I miss you all so so much, and I can鈥檛 wait to see you guys soon! Aidan, don鈥檛 worry, I know you miss me so much I will see you at the end of July. The past two days have been very busy and productive with us being at Baylor University Pediatric HIV/AIDS hospital.
You all know how much I LOVE to get up early so getting up at 5:30am was wayyyy to early. We had breakfast and of course I had coffee and then we headed to the hospital. We started our day off at the clinic at 7:30am. The clinic was absolutely amazing and reminded me a lot of facilities back home. The hospital serves between 60-80 patients a day. The clinic started their day off by singing and then prayer. The signing was absolutely beautiful, and I believe this was a great way to start the day off on the right foot. Then we all split into different groups to go into different parts of the facility. Today I got to work in the triage and blood draw room. I started on the blood draw side with two amazing nurses. Here patients would come and get blood drawn. This process was so similar to our process back home. The only different part was that they had to fill three different forms out and two of them were on paper. Patients would come in to get blood draws for CD4 counts, viral loads, and other routine blood work. The most interesting point was they would be able to do CD4 testing right in the room and it was similar to a COVID test. Also, the nurse we were with was such a badass she got every stick on the first try! Then we switched halfway, and I went to triage. I give so many props to the nurse who ran triage because she stayed so calm when this was pure chaos. This wasn鈥檛 a bad kind of chaos it was very organized chaos. Patients were coming in and out of the room. At one point there were five different patients in the room and the nurse kept all their health books organized. Adults and children would get different vital signals based on if they were sick or if it was an annual checkup. Time flew today at the clinic because so many people were in and out. After the hospital we then went back to the lodge and then got changed really quick to head to the Royal Residence. When we got to the residence then we walked around and got told about different building. We then went onto the lawn and talked with the Queen, Princess, and royal cousins. After the King arrived, we then sat down for lunch. Of course, I was super excited because they had FATCAKES woohoo! For lunch we sat and talked with the princess鈥檚 cousin (Tabitha). It was nice to just talk with her because we were all around the same age. Tabitha was so funny and heard how much I loved fatcakes and ended up wrapping four up for me. I think this is the first time that anyone has every left the royal palace with fatcakes. When then got back from the palace and then had 米兰体育. I am so sad that tomorrow is our last day in Lesotho though. We will then be heading to Kruger National Park then before our two-day venture back home. I can鈥檛 wait to see you all and show you all so so many pictures. I love you all to Pluto and back!
Mackenzie