This is a somewhat lazy Saturday; we gave the cooks the morning off and two of the students made pancakes for everyone (they even made some for me from cassava flour J). They were wonderful. Most of the students ate pancakes and watched Untangled, so they really relaxed before getting back into their class requirements.
Pam, Bud and I went to town to buy fruit to take to Macha for this next week. It’s a very rural area, and doesn’t have grocery stores, etc. They do have a market which we hope to visit while we’re there. We leave Sunday afternoon for Macha and return to Choma Friday afternoon. We will have even more limited access when we get there.
Then the following Tuesday afternoon, half of us go to Zimba Hospital, and the other half to Namwianga to an orphanage. After five days, the two groups will switch sites so all of us go to both places. Mike and Cindy Helvie are overseers at Zimba Hospital while Drs. Dan & Joan Jones are in the U.S., so we look forward to seeing them again.
I had an interesting day yesterday. We were in Macha, and I went with six students to the outreach mother/baby clinic. They did a well-baby clinic where they weighed the babies in a canvas baby seat attached to a scale which hung on a tree branch. Then they took their cards which they carry with them and went to another line where they looked to see which immunizations were needed. From there, they went to the line where all the immunizations are given.
In another area, they checked pregnant Moms regarding the status of their pregnancy as well as for syphilis. Most are also tested for HIV/AIDS; if they are positive for HIV/AIDS, they get their husbands and go to a counseling clinic. In the counseling clinic, they tell them all about signs and symptoms of possible complications to watch for in any pregnancy as well as to start them on medications if they are HIV positive. Yesterday, they tested four young couples who were pregnant and found all of them to be HIV negative!! That was a real praise! These clinics are really amazing. They are held under thatched roof verandas with stones or bricks for seats. The people are so patient and do not get annoyed when they have to wait in the lines. Many of the women are carrying young babies or children, so if the baby gets fussy, they just start nursing them. It’s an instant pacifier!
Yesterday morning, the computer tower broke down, so we have no computer access at all. This will be actually loaded onto the blog site when we arrive someplace with computer access! They seemed to think it was a fairly major problem, so who knows when it will be repaired!
We arrived in Macha last evening and were able to purchase internet coverage today. Have a great day !
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