Health Day

Saturday was Health Day at St. John’s Lutheran. The general premise is to provide medical screening, education, and opportunities for doctor consultations in an effort to bring the public to the compound. Last year they had a successful Health Day and wanted to host it again. Instead of having a broad range of topics, it was decided that this year the focus would be diabetes. Much advertising was done through church, school, even radio and newspapers. Volunteer doctors and nurses were sought to provide the free screenings, medical equipment was borrowed from the government, and students from an American medical school based here in Antigua all came to serve for the day. The main attractions were free eye screenings, free doctors consults, and a presentation by a knowledgeable nutritionist.

Friday night the youth group from church helped to set up and clean up the rooms that were to be used. Cindy Johnston was the main organizer for the event, and she had everyone pitching in. I was set to making copies, using our temperamental Rizograph. Though it took a little longer than originally hoped, set-up went smoothly.

We were on-site at 8 to get the final touches in place for our 9:30 start time. Several people showed up at 8:30, hoping to be first in line to see the doctors. Presenters (true to Island time) showed up late, one nurse was sick, all of the nurses forgot their blood pressure cuffs, one doctor didn’t show til 11, the other doctor thought Health Day was Sunday and arrived just before noon. There were supposed to be two people conducting eye exams. The first person showed on time, but the partner was the one with the equipment. The equipment came, though the partner never did. Attendance was down from last year’s 80 to about 40. Mixed bag, really, because with the hiccups that presented themselves, we would not have been able to accommodate more. Ah well, that’s how it goes. We were able to encourage several people to come back and visit some Sunday. We’ll see how the Lord chooses to use this event for His kingdom.