Monday 16th November 2015

We are Punctual !

The last 24 hours has been a bit of roller coaster. Yesterday we ran our first clinic, and I got my first real taste of what we are doing here. We use the local schools as  temporary clinics , and yesterday we went to Itinyi School, about 20 minutes drive down the red impacted soil road, in our open sided van .  The people at the front of the bus are responsible for shouting " BRANCHES!!!!!!!" When the sharp thorny trees make an attempt to grab anyone next to the window- and we arrived in good spirits, having waved and "Jambo'd" our way to the school. As it was Sunday, we weren't expecting too many people in the morning as mostly people would be at church, but there were already a couple of rows of colourful ladies patiently waiting in the morning sunshine. I, uncharacteristically,  had a chat and told them they were a bit early, to be corrected by one elderly lady - " No ! We are Punctual!".
 After about an hour of clearing out classrooms and setting up, 4 consulting tables to a room, a schoolroom for the dentist, a schoolroom for the pharmacy, one for the eye clinic, and one for the lab, we were ready to go.
I sat on the front desk in the blazing sunshine, handing out worming tablets to everyone over the age of two- no worming tablets, no consultation .

"Tafuna!!".."Chew!!" .......my Kiswahili is fluent......

As the day went on we saw over 250 people with complaints ranging from chest infections, to gynae issues, to ringworm and fungal skin infections, amidst other aches and pains. Our dentists extracted over 20 teeth, and the queue for the eye clinic never seemed to go down. I had a brilliant day, shepherding people around, being bossy - I was completely in my comfort zone .

As we packed up the trucks at the end of the day ,the weather started to look a bit ominous, so we cracked on, waving at the folk on the road we'd treated that day who were starting the long walk home. On reaching the camp the heavens opened, and raindrops the size of small zebras began to fall. And it rained. And rained. And rained . Our tents and Bandas had small rivers running through them ( luckily everything off the floor stayed dry) so we all sat in the bar, slightly soggy but in true Dunkirk spirit laughing and swapping waterproofs to run to the loo in.
By supper time we began to realise how serious the downpour really was. We were told that the road that connects us, to the main road, had completely washed away, and it was becoming clear that we were going nowhere tomorrow. After a few more Tuskers we went to bed, still raining, although not quite so heavily.

This morning we woke to the news that several of our neighbour's houses had been washed way overnight. The dam had burst, sweeping away a pregnant woman that we had seen in clinic the day before, she had sadly drowned, leaving behind a small child. The village is in mourning. So here we sit, the rain finally stopped, waiting to find out what we can do to help- trying to work out if we can just run the clinic from the nearest school instead of moving around ( as we can't actually get anywhere now). There is a drainage ditch that needs to be dug to save one of our neighbours houses, and the men are inspecting that to see if we can help. In the meantime we sit here, drinking tea, feeling a bit helpless. Still, as our lovely project manager Peter keeps reminding us, it is not a problem, it's a challenge. With a camp full of medical professionals who are used to improvising, we will find a way to be useful, and a way to carry on with the clinics, probably after a lot more cups of tea........