I have had my first work week with the outreach clinic. Outreach is part of the work of Haydom Lutheran Hospital. 27 villages receive monthly visits from the outreach team. It may take take several hours to get to the villages, and some are accessible only by air. We drive for hours in rural districts with hardly any houses at all, but we still always end up in a local church. These are simple buildings, often with earth floors and simple, low wooden benches. The areas look almost uninhabited but from nowhere it pops up at least a hundred women. Pregnant women and mothers with babies on their backs, from different tribes, some have gone for several hours. When they arrive they patiently line up in different queues. So the children are weighed, they get vaccines, pregnancy examination, HIV test, en evangelical talk and teaching (family planning, hygiene, fistula after childbirth, etc.).
It is an important social meeting place for many of them. Often there is a small market near the health clinic because many take their eggs, corn, mango, or little things they want to sell to get a few extra shillings. Everything is of course done in Swahili, but some of the nurses speak a little English, so I some kind of comminication.
We always have with us a bag of nice used clothing (from Norway), which we hand out to those who need it most. It´s like Christmas Eve for some of the children or mothers who get a "new" used t-shirt or a "body" to the baby. Today a happy little boy went home with a nice Captain Beefheart T-shirt on.
At the end of the day some of the women cook hot food for us. Even if we feel that we ought to get going to be back home before dark, we must appreciate this gift. On our way home perhaps one of the local nurses has an errand to do in a not so nearby village, so the driving home can take even much longer than way out. The working days can be long sometimes, like 10-11 hours ...
Teaching in the openWhen we go off in the morning we sit like boxed sardines in the land rover. I do not know if everyone onborad are working with outreachteamet or not, people get on or off while we are driving. Yesterday we were eleven people in nine seats, and then they picked up a hitchhiker, who brought with him a spear and a live chicken. Suddenly we were12 people in the car, plus a chicken! It's amazing how it´s always room for one more. Today we had to make way for a woman who was pregnant and close to giving birth and therefore had to come back to the hospital. Fortunately, there was no birth in the car ...
Fortunately for me, we have prayers in the car (or airplane) before "take off". For that is what we do, we take off in a frantic pace along the bumpy and narrow roads. The road is sometimes more like a river bed than a road, especially after heavy rains, when there will be huge ditches and holes, and rocks that appear. So it is with my life at stake I do this!
But do´nt worry, Mom, it will be OKl. I know that these drivers have done this a many times before!
I don´t know any other people who seem to cope with waiting and distances as well as the Africans. "Pole, pole" ( = slow), is a widely used expression here. (Except when they are driving a car, then: -:). The rest of us are working on it, it's easy to get a little annoyed and stressed when things do not happen as quick as we are accustomed to.The locals are detached: "Hakuna matata"-no problem!
It is amazing to be part of this! To experience the African life and the women and children I meet here, so close. The smell, seeing the colors, eating the food, feeling the moods, listening to the voices and sounds and seeing the beautiful and lush scenery. It is a privilege.Asta (with a little help from Google translate and Erik)
It is an important social meeting place for many of them. Often there is a small market near the health clinic because many take their eggs, corn, mango, or little things they want to sell to get a few extra shillings. Everything is of course done in Swahili, but some of the nurses speak a little English, so I some kind of comminication.
We always have with us a bag of nice used clothing (from Norway), which we hand out to those who need it most. It´s like Christmas Eve for some of the children or mothers who get a "new" used t-shirt or a "body" to the baby. Today a happy little boy went home with a nice Captain Beefheart T-shirt on.
At the end of the day some of the women cook hot food for us. Even if we feel that we ought to get going to be back home before dark, we must appreciate this gift. On our way home perhaps one of the local nurses has an errand to do in a not so nearby village, so the driving home can take even much longer than way out. The working days can be long sometimes, like 10-11 hours ...
Teaching in the openWhen we go off in the morning we sit like boxed sardines in the land rover. I do not know if everyone onborad are working with outreachteamet or not, people get on or off while we are driving. Yesterday we were eleven people in nine seats, and then they picked up a hitchhiker, who brought with him a spear and a live chicken. Suddenly we were12 people in the car, plus a chicken! It's amazing how it´s always room for one more. Today we had to make way for a woman who was pregnant and close to giving birth and therefore had to come back to the hospital. Fortunately, there was no birth in the car ...
Fortunately for me, we have prayers in the car (or airplane) before "take off". For that is what we do, we take off in a frantic pace along the bumpy and narrow roads. The road is sometimes more like a river bed than a road, especially after heavy rains, when there will be huge ditches and holes, and rocks that appear. So it is with my life at stake I do this!
But do´nt worry, Mom, it will be OKl. I know that these drivers have done this a many times before!
I don´t know any other people who seem to cope with waiting and distances as well as the Africans. "Pole, pole" ( = slow), is a widely used expression here. (Except when they are driving a car, then: -:). The rest of us are working on it, it's easy to get a little annoyed and stressed when things do not happen as quick as we are accustomed to.The locals are detached: "Hakuna matata"-no problem!
It is amazing to be part of this! To experience the African life and the women and children I meet here, so close. The smell, seeing the colors, eating the food, feeling the moods, listening to the voices and sounds and seeing the beautiful and lush scenery. It is a privilege.Asta (with a little help from Google translate and Erik)
