Dear Mom and Dad,

…I met a small boy about four days ago at one of the little maize and bean farms the other day. His name is Cambonia and he is about five years old. I noticed something was wrong with his feet. On looking closer, I found many chiggers were embedded under the front part of each foot. For the last couple of days, I tried to treat him with iodine and surgical cleaner, but was causing him a lot of pain and not seeming to do much good. So today I brought him back to town with me and took him to the hospital clinic this afternoon. That was quite an experience in itself. It took two hours of standing in line to see a doctor and when I finally got in to see him with the boy, he gave a me hard time for not having the right paper. Then he gave us a prescription and we had to wait in two more lines, one for the shot of penicillin and the other to get his feet dressed. What an afternoon! I carried him two miles cross country to the main road this morning and was not all tired out as I would have been a few weeks ago. Besides education, medical competence is about the greatest need here.

Love,

Ned