Day 5
Monday, Sept. 15
Ngodzi
After team devotions and breakfast, we were met by Pastor McDuff and baby Garnet with his mother! This was the young fellow that Garnet Stewart named after himself during the 2007 Team’s stay. He looked healthy but hated having his picture taken; he cried up a storm!
We were then given the tour of the clinic by Eric, the Clinical Officer in charge here. We were impressed by the clinic’s ability to diagnose and treat HIV positive patients, and the compliance of patients in taking their drugs. This is a significant contribution to the needs in the community where AIDS is so rampant.
After our tour we had a meeting with Eric and the Health Surveillance Assistants (HSA’s) about net distribution. Then we were off to a nearby local village (Mwazalamba) and distributed over 200 nets to families previously identified as high risk (children under 5, HIV positive, orphans, chronically ill, elderly). We had a village meeting with chief and Mark made a speech on behalf of our Canadian donors. We then demonstrated how to use the nets and made the presentation of the first net, and were all moved by the experience. The village women broke into spontaneous singing and clapping, so typical of African culture.
The team divided into two groups to go house-to-house and experience the living conditions in the village. A typical thatched roof village house would have been 8’ X 10’, usually one room, no furniture and concrete floor. Children by the dozens followed everywhere. For Janet and Betty, please know that the hokey-pokey still is carrying on in Africa (led by Connie)!
In one home, Kim had the honour of naming a three week old baby girl, and named her Sophia, which means “wisdom”. She and those of us who witnessed it were all moved to tears. This is starting to become a regular event!
Steve and Mark returned to the clinic with Eric for the afternoon. He showed them through the laboratory (can do hemoglobins, urinalysis, malaria smears, acid fast bacillus for TB, HIV testing and CD4 counts) and the lab techs Enfred and John taught them a lot in a short time. They have on their wish list a chemistry machine and the ability to do a full CBC. They can test glucose but have run out of strips and will welcome the ones we brought. Steve and Mark then spent the rest of the afternoon observing in the consultation rooms with the medical officers. Later, after the rest of the team were back from the village, Prisca in the dispensary put us to work putting drug doses in dispensing bags and doing an inventory of available drugs and dosing forms. We also presented the Zip-Loc bags that we brought to help protect the medical records that each patient carries.
Finally, our full day ended with dinner and a beautiful moonrise over the lake as the fishermen were pulling in their nets. (extra beautiful in the dark when the power went out).
Quote of the day: “Let us not be blind with privilege”….
Monday, Sept. 15
Ngodzi
After team devotions and breakfast, we were met by Pastor McDuff and baby Garnet with his mother! This was the young fellow that Garnet Stewart named after himself during the 2007 Team’s stay. He looked healthy but hated having his picture taken; he cried up a storm!
We were then given the tour of the clinic by Eric, the Clinical Officer in charge here. We were impressed by the clinic’s ability to diagnose and treat HIV positive patients, and the compliance of patients in taking their drugs. This is a significant contribution to the needs in the community where AIDS is so rampant.
After our tour we had a meeting with Eric and the Health Surveillance Assistants (HSA’s) about net distribution. Then we were off to a nearby local village (Mwazalamba) and distributed over 200 nets to families previously identified as high risk (children under 5, HIV positive, orphans, chronically ill, elderly). We had a village meeting with chief and Mark made a speech on behalf of our Canadian donors. We then demonstrated how to use the nets and made the presentation of the first net, and were all moved by the experience. The village women broke into spontaneous singing and clapping, so typical of African culture.
The team divided into two groups to go house-to-house and experience the living conditions in the village. A typical thatched roof village house would have been 8’ X 10’, usually one room, no furniture and concrete floor. Children by the dozens followed everywhere. For Janet and Betty, please know that the hokey-pokey still is carrying on in Africa (led by Connie)!
In one home, Kim had the honour of naming a three week old baby girl, and named her Sophia, which means “wisdom”. She and those of us who witnessed it were all moved to tears. This is starting to become a regular event!
Steve and Mark returned to the clinic with Eric for the afternoon. He showed them through the laboratory (can do hemoglobins, urinalysis, malaria smears, acid fast bacillus for TB, HIV testing and CD4 counts) and the lab techs Enfred and John taught them a lot in a short time. They have on their wish list a chemistry machine and the ability to do a full CBC. They can test glucose but have run out of strips and will welcome the ones we brought. Steve and Mark then spent the rest of the afternoon observing in the consultation rooms with the medical officers. Later, after the rest of the team were back from the village, Prisca in the dispensary put us to work putting drug doses in dispensing bags and doing an inventory of available drugs and dosing forms. We also presented the Zip-Loc bags that we brought to help protect the medical records that each patient carries.
Finally, our full day ended with dinner and a beautiful moonrise over the lake as the fishermen were pulling in their nets. (extra beautiful in the dark when the power went out).
Quote of the day: “Let us not be blind with privilege”….
posted by Dr. Hendrik Visser at 10:19 AM
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