Ntanda

Ray greeting the children of Ntanda.

Me,  ready for patients.

Very tired today. We had a very busy, productive and somewhat challenging clinic. Plus I have this stupid little cold.

Today we left at 8:00 am to go to Ntanda. Although there was again only one person waiting upon our arrival, there was a steady stream of patients getting in line once we got the clinic set up. The H.S.A. (health surveillance officer) for Ntanda, also named Grace, welcomed us on our arrival and directed us where to set up. She was then able to spread the word quickly of our presence.

Grace, her translator, Gosten, and a grateful
patient.

It amazes me how many problems we come across in the course of one day in the population of one small village. There are so many patients with recurrent malaria, seizure disorders, asthma and HIV. Grace saw a child that had been severely burned in November of last year and has already lost the use of his hand due to tight scarring, also called contractures. His arm was severely infected and he screamed as she changed the dressing. Then as I was helping re-dress the injury, Grace warned me in the nick of time, “Be careful. He's a biter”. We ended up hving to arrange for him to go to the city, hopefully for IV antibiotics and better wound care. His poor mother had been trying to care for this herself with the help of the local “healer”. We often see the patterns of scars on patients who have been to a local healer for their problem. There were two other patients that needed expeditious care and we were able to facilitate that process as well. One was a disabled child, also with an infection. Another was a young woman with severe swelling in her feet and in her abdomen (ascites). We assume she has organ failure, possibly from chronic/recurrent malaria and had run out of her medication. She will go to the hospital in Mdisis Monday to have the fluid drained and get more medication.

Luke and Araceli in the pharmacy.

Luke and Araceli run the pharmacy on these outings, and Temeyo translates all of the medication instructions. They do a wonderful job. We actually have a better stocked formulary than many of the district clinics, which works to our patient's advantage. Not to mention, we come to them. The 12-15 kilometers traveled to reach these villages is along very rough roads that are usually only traversed on foot or by bicycle. And many of the roads are impassable during the rainy season. Our outreach clinics save a great deal of time, effort and money for the villagers.

Casey entertaining the children with their
digital images.  She was quite popular once she
overcame their fear.

The children in Ntanda were very curious and much more timid than I've experienced before. Casey was finally able to get them to loosen up by taking their photos with her digital camera and then showing them the image. They loved it but were still afraid to get too close.

I'm calling it an early night. Tomorrow we will not hold a clinic. But Casey and I have a quest. We learned that the other night when Grace had no water in the shower, it was because the cistern was empty. We also learned that the well from which the cistern is filled is about a kilometer away. Boys and men are paid to fill a 24 gallon plastic barrel and then roll it to the cistern's tank and pour it in. It takes 50 barrels to fill the tank. Tomorrow, Casey and I have challenged ourselves to contribute one barrel each. More to come...