So after various requests we feel slightly obliged to expand on/offer some more poo-related stories.
So that may come later...
Our meeting, the other day, with the director of Madaclinics went quite well. Generally our feedback seemed to be welcome, and he seemed keen to try and improve on some of the faults. Fortunately it seems that there are many other volunteers who are going to be coming this year, which should hopefully help with the financial situation.
Aside from poo-related stories, we have also had requests for more stories/information about what we have been doing. So maybe, if we are all lucky, we can turn this post into a seamless blend of information and poo.
Photo 1 is of Tanambao village. This village is where we walked to on Wednesdays for a clinic. The population is probably somewhere between 150-250 people, spread over an area of ~25sq km. One of the great things about the village is the fruit. There are mango, banana, orange, avocado, lemon trees galore, as well as eggplant, chilli and much more. Unfortunately we only managed to get a few semi-ripe oranges towards the end of our stay, and missed the main fruit season. Philie is very jealous of the future volunteers who apparently will be able to be part of “Fruitfest 2014” (this is not a real festival; Philie just created it in her mind).
Tanambao was Vicky's (the English midwife volunteering with us) favourite village. This changed one day when she was walking around and said “this village all smells like poo”. Everywhere Vicky went in the village did smell like poo. As it transpired Vicky had a lot of poo on her shoe and was transporting the smell around. Tanambao quickly regained favour, but Vicky's shoes did not.
Just out of shot to the left of the first photo is where we held our clinic. The building looks exactly the same as all of the other houses in the photo, complete with a small wasp nest inside. We usually saw between 10-15 patients there in a morning. Perhaps a memorable case were the couple who walked 30km to get to the clinic, presented with STI's, very generously were given an intramuscular injection, and then had to limp 30km home.
The next photos are some of the things we saw near/on the way to and from Tanambao.
#3 is a chameleon (it has its mouth open)
#4 is a giant orb weaver spider
On Fridays we ventured down to Mahatsara for a clinic. The photo #5 is the interior of the clinic there. The blue bag is full of the medications we take, the books on the table are for the patients, and the coke on the floor is our little treat for walking 2 hours to the clinic.
One Friday night, as we walked back from Mahatsara, Vicky remarked “mmmm I can smell sweetcorn”. There was no sweetcorn. There were cows. The smell was cow poo.
