New Places

I went with Sam yesterday on a supervising visit. Sam has a degree as a PA and an additional degree in public health. His role with Doctors for Global Health is that he visits the village health workers and examines the patients that they have assessed during the week/month. What this actually means is hiking up mountains and through fields to very remote homesteads in the hopes of finding people who may or may not have already left home for work that day. He then may advise patients on pertinent topics and then provides medications to the village health worker each Friday which they then distribute to their own community. Needless to say, it is a tough job. The first village we visited was a farming area. We checked on a newborn and the baby’s mother. We visited a man who had 4 wives and more sensitive illness that I am not going to discuss on a blog. As we strolled through the rows of potatoes and wheat I could not help but notice that most mothers were accompanied by their very young children. I learned from the village health worker that her area had a great deal of poverty, malnutrition and alcoholism. It is in areas like this where the village health workers seem so useful. These individuals are part of the community and are able to help their peers and so I think it is a very effective model (as opposed to having outsiders come in or forcing people to travel long distances for healthcare).

The second and last visit (time constraints) was up in the mountains. We had to park the motorcycle in the nearby village and hike until we met Jane, the village health worker from her community. Jane is a warrior (not actually, but this woman is tough). She is 52 years old, has 9 children (6 boys, 3 girls) and 3 grandchildren. And she is influential enough in her village that she got over 40 people to sign up for the insurance plan that the hospital offers (provides transport to hospital, reduced price for meds/free meds when possible). I thought when we reached Jane that was the end of the hike. Wrong. So wrong. We climbed about one mile and met a man who had been gored by a bull and had received surgery to remove several ribs. The surgical incision was oozing pus…not good. Sam informed this man that Jane would bring him antibiotics on Friday. Then so much more climbing. At the edge of the community, right by the wall that marks the beginning of the national park (think elephants, gorillas, large cats etc) we checked on a newborn and her mother. Sam also tried to discuss family planning with the men at this homestead. One of the guys has 8 children but he said in his own family he was baby number 10 so if his dad had considered family planning he would not be alive. Tough logic to reason with. Sam told the men that they marry for love and if their wives have 10 children it means they have less love or time for the husband. I am not so sure about this but it seemed to get the men to actually consider family planning as an option so sure why not. Then we descended the mountain, saw a few more patients and took the long, bumpy, rocky, hilly ride home (not my favorite motorcycle day).

Today we visited the Congo refugee camp. Whoever settled this continent and made the country lines really messed up when it came to the Congo. It is a HUGE country with no stable government and lots of resources. This has lead to regular emergence of rebel groups claiming areas for their own and has forced entire villages to flee. The camp that I visited is a short-term camp. People stay for 5 days-3 weeks and are then transferred to the more permanent camps. In 2013 the rebel fighting resulted in the camp housing 8,000 refugees in the month of March. There are currently around 200 people there but the numbers change on a daily basis. I was not permitted to take a picture but it was just several large white tents where people sleep, one larger building where there were 8 children in “school” and a hut where meals were being prepared. We walked in to the building where the children were and I watched as they built towers out of blocks. The person leading the tour pointed to a sign on the wall that listed activities for the week, which included singing and dancing. We were told that they try to have activities to distract the kids and adults from the difficult situation that they are in, though I am not so sure how successful these efforts have been.

I was there around breakfast time and watched as people took these orange plastic cups (look like our baking measuring cups) and received one cup full of porridge. Residents receive 3 basic meals per day. We were able to speak with the nurses at the camp and I learned that the 5 major illnesses that are seen are 1. Upper respiratory infections 2. Malaria 3. Diarrhea 4. Skin problems 5. Chronic illnesses. There is also a very high rate of malnutrition among the refugees. I didn’t really have the opportunity to speak with anyone who is staying there but we are returning one week from Monday so I will have more stories then.

When we got back we got to shadow in the chronic care clinic and are now working on database entry.

As I am now settling into a routine I will probably be blogging less often but I will make sure to keep you updated with any interesting stories.

Til next time,
Hope