So after a few plans ranging from A to E, we settled for plan F. The Camps staff worked tirelessly to make sure we ran a clinic somewhere, having to bear in mind not only our safety, but the fact that the community was depending on us. A bunch of frustrated medics probably didn't help, all of us desperate to get on with what we came here to do. They had managed to get one of our trucks to the far side of the huge chasm that had opened up in the road to one of the schools. The road from our camp to the main road was impassable, so we were to walk a few kilometres to meet the truck, open clinic, and dive back at the first sign of a downpour. We set off in single file across the fields, the neighbours having kindly allowed us access over their crops. Then the singing started. We sang all the way to the truck, and once in the truck, a constant chorus of the "Jambo" song saw us along the red mud road, past houses and shacks, the local people clearly thinking we were quite mad. A bus full of scrub clad "Mzungos" singing at the tops of their voices is probably not a sight they see every day.
Marasi school housed another 500 or so children, in several small schoolhouses. The majority of the children were Somali, the girls dressed in green skirts and yellow headdresses which surrounded their faces and came down over their shoulders, framing smiling , often shy little faces. The boys leapt about shouting "picture!picture!!!" Photobombing at every opportunity, all crowding round to see the finished result.
Clinic was busy, all of the children being dewormed, before having their feet checked, and being taught how to brush their teeth, alongside the adults who had come for the free clinic. At times it was almost overwhelming, the amount of children lining up, but all jumping to the sound of the teacher's voice, lining up in a very orderly fashion, and taking their medication with very few complaints - a very different world from the UK.
As usual I got many a giggle for my name, "Ali" being a man's name here, but I'm used to that now, and it meant they remembered me.
At about 1530 it started to rain, and we packed up like lighting, threw ourselves in the truck, negotiated the road home, trooped up the hill to the camp, and again, arrived back just as the heavens opened- the weather gods are definitely keeping an eye on us.
We gave ourselves several rounds of applause- one of our nurses won " largest family group consultation of the day" - 10 family members in one go - and another won best diagnosis- a clinical diagnosis, with no fever, but a "flat" baby who wasn't" quite right" - one of our two positive Malaria tests of the day.
At lunch break some of the nurses had led about 50 kids in the " Hokey Kokey" , which was great fun to watch, and even more fun for the kids, we laughed a lot, got a bit sunburnt when the sun was out, and back in the camp, swapped stories and screeched as the bugs dive bombed us( they have all gone a bit mad since the rain).
So we are back on track, and on for another clinic tomorrow, a bit further away, and a bit more of a logistical nightmare for the Camps staff, as our tables and chairs are stuck back in the school, unable to get across the newly flooded road since today's rain.
Still, there are desks and chairs at tomorrow's school, if tiny little ones, so we'll manage, although we may have to spend the day gazing up at our patients, rather than face to face.....
Just as an aside, Mama Mercy was telling us that the commotion we heard the other night was the Cheetahs/Leopards hunting the Baboons on the other side of the ridge. Well that's a relief.
As usual I got many a giggle for my name, "Ali" being a man's name here, but I'm used to that now, and it meant they remembered me.
At about 1530 it started to rain, and we packed up like lighting, threw ourselves in the truck, negotiated the road home, trooped up the hill to the camp, and again, arrived back just as the heavens opened- the weather gods are definitely keeping an eye on us.
We gave ourselves several rounds of applause- one of our nurses won " largest family group consultation of the day" - 10 family members in one go - and another won best diagnosis- a clinical diagnosis, with no fever, but a "flat" baby who wasn't" quite right" - one of our two positive Malaria tests of the day.
At lunch break some of the nurses had led about 50 kids in the " Hokey Kokey" , which was great fun to watch, and even more fun for the kids, we laughed a lot, got a bit sunburnt when the sun was out, and back in the camp, swapped stories and screeched as the bugs dive bombed us( they have all gone a bit mad since the rain).
So we are back on track, and on for another clinic tomorrow, a bit further away, and a bit more of a logistical nightmare for the Camps staff, as our tables and chairs are stuck back in the school, unable to get across the newly flooded road since today's rain.
Still, there are desks and chairs at tomorrow's school, if tiny little ones, so we'll manage, although we may have to spend the day gazing up at our patients, rather than face to face.....
Just as an aside, Mama Mercy was telling us that the commotion we heard the other night was the Cheetahs/Leopards hunting the Baboons on the other side of the ridge. Well that's a relief.
( The other side of the ridge is really quite far).
Our days so far have been full of challenges and laughter, good food and Tusker, and the practical, no nonsense approach to outreach healthcare that inspired me to do the Tropical Diseases Diploma in the first place.
I say it a hundred times a day, but I really am having a lovely time.
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