Friday
In the morning I worked at the clinic. I would ask patients
there name age where do they live and there occupation. Female patients I ask
how many times they have been pregnant, how many times have they given birth
and how many children are still alive. At the clinic we test for HIV and for
syphilis because it is a problem in this region. There is about 8 different
villages in the area. The closet hospital to us is 14 Km away. The older
patients when I ask there age they don’t know how old they are. Fulance is the
doctor here in Namiungo. He said sometimes a pregnant lady will come in a give
birth. They do not have the equipment here for labor but they what they can.
They also don’t have proper equipment for dressing wounds here. This is
definitely the poor area. Housing is grass roofs with sticks for walls then mud
and some use brick. Some have concrete foundations but I would say most just
have dirt.
The money for the medicine comes from the American
Salvatorians. So Americans who have
donated money. The clinic here would not be alive with out American
donations. They buy the medicine in Dar
es Salaam Dar es Salaam
A lady comes gets here blood work tested and then given
medicine. The total cost is 14,000 TSH which is about $8.00 US. However they
might pay 2,000 TSH today and then 2,000 tsh tomorrow. The patient tries and
pays what she can and when she can. The clinic might not get the money or not.
It is just the way it is. As far as wages here for example. There are two 16 yr
old boys working out on the farm digging, herding animals doing what ever needs
to be done on the farm. They are paid 1,000 tsh for one day. So your are
talking 66 cents a day. Just to put it into perspective. It is very poor here.
I went with Brother Fulance to treat a patient in a village.
We had to walk because we don’t have anything to transport in. We get there and
the patient is in bed. He can’t walk. He has had diabetes for two years now. He
is about 60 yrs old. His feet has edema and numbness. This man is a stick
figure, no meat on his bones. We test his blood sugar and it is high. These
people are poor besides there is not diabetes medicine here. They eat what ever
they grow. So he eats corn, beans, rices, Chinese spinach. Sometimes he has
chicken and other vegetables. Unfortunately there is not much we can do. The
people here thinks he has AIDS but he doesn’t. The only person who will touch
him is his wife. People here are scared of sickness and don’t want to catch
anything. They don’t understand that he has diabetes and they can’t get
infected by him. Another problem here is the trust. Some do not trust western
medicine and they refuse to take it or they refuse to get blood work. Slowly I
think they are realizing the benefit and being educated.
In they afternoon they taught me how to make bread. It is
tough work. It was a good learning experience. After wards I walked to the farm
where they are growing corn and peanuts. The peanuts here are smaller and they
are kind of mushy. Everything he is organic. They don’t have money for fertilizer
or for watering. It is all natural. The cows they let roam around to eat then
they bring them back to the farm.
Yesterday a baby cow was born. I have a picture of the 0ne hour old cow.
I will try and post it. It takes about 30 minutes to post one picture here.
I have taught two classes here so far. It is suppose to be
English but instead it is them just asking questions about America America America America
I still can’t get over the stars here. It is incredible how
many there are. The sky is covered. There is no light. Absolutely beautiful.
Well I just got informed that we are going to go slaughter a pig. So I have to
change.
Maisha poli poli – Life is slowly slowly
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