Labor and Rest

It is Sunday evening and we are trying to rest. It has been a full three days since I was last able to write an update. The team is tired, but everyone is happy.

We did two days of clinic in Chilombo on Thursday and Friday. It is the village that is farthest away and takes over an hour to drive on very rough, dirt roads. The cup of coffee I tried to take one day in a covered mug kept spilling out as we jostled over the deep ruts in the road. The only bathrooms in this village are pit latrines…basically a hole in the ground with a slab of concrete poured over it and some basic wood walls around it. When you close the door, it’s often too dark to even see. We go in pairs and assist each other with holding the door open just enough to let in some light. They pack us a lunch on these days because it is much too far to drive back. Lunch these two days consisted of rice with a chicken and vegetable type stew poured over the top. There was also plenty of bread and some tuna salad available (very different than what we make in the states) along with bananas and apples. Our favorite is when they bring us some Fanta and Coke (made with cane sugar). The best Fanta flavor is one we cannot get in the states…cocopina!

We started clinic each day by about 11. The school room we were using was being used in the morning for classes. We wrapped up around 4 with a short break for lunch. In two days we saw about 170 program children in addition to some other women and children from the community. In total we saw over 200. We are working with our five team members in addition to the nurse and nurse’s assistant, 2-3 staff members and about 6 students. It takes an army for us to staff each station and get it all done

Each provider (nurses and 1 PA) need a translator. We have one person at the door matching each child to his/her record and getting them checked in. Then they have vitals taken and have their height and weight plotted on a growth chart. Then they move to the vision screening where we are trying to identify any children who may have some eyesight issues. Thankfully, we have seen very few! After this they move to the nurses station where they receive a head-to-toe check. After they are seen, they move to the pharmacy where they are given any prescribed medication. We are giving out things like Tylenol, Ibuprofen, cough and cold medicines, amoxicillin, anti-fungal creams, and a few other basic medications.

After this, they stop at the check out station where they turn in their records and receive a “sweetie” in the form of a lollipop. It takes each child about 30 minutes to move through the entire process. The children are incredibly patient as they move through the process. They wait without complaining and seem to be unconcerned with whose turn it is. We have a lot to learn from these little ones!

We made a number of changes this year to improve our clinic flow, processes, pharmacy, and record keeping. So far, the changes seem to have been positive and are impacting the way we work through our days.

We spent Saturday in Mtzilisa where we saw about 100 children. At the end of the afternoon we were able to visit a coffee shop that was started by one of COTN’s graduates and have a great visit with some friends along with some delicious coffee, tea and cakes. It was such a treat at the end of a long week! We will return to this village on Monday for one more day of clinic. We will see more children and also some of the widows in the COTN widows program. Our numbers in this village will likely top 200 as well.

In personal updates, we did hear that one of Ann’s suitcases arrived today and hopefully will be retrieved tomorrow. Ann is also sick with a chest cold and cough. We started her on antibiotics yesterday. Davis is also stuffy and congested..not sure if his is true sickness or just allergies to all the smoke and dust. Thankfully we have a lot of cold medicine with us! As we sit around this evening we are all in agreement that we are very tired.

The plan today was to have an afternoon of rest, but the morning schedule didn’t quite go according to plan and we did not have as much time as we hoped. A couple of our translators helped the team with some laundry and it is now drying on the line behind the house. We are all very tired and hoping for a good night’s sleep. Some of the team have not been sleeping very well the last few nights and it’s catching up to us. So, with that I will sign off early and crawl into bed….at 8 pm. We will be up at about 6:30 to prepare for another day of clinics.