After picking up the vaccines at Green Leaf we proceeded directly to today's site - Kaunga Zone - based at the Kaunga Primary School. By road it is 20 km from the health centre but usually the staff take a shorter route by bicycle along narrow paths so the distance by cycle is only (only !) 13 km !
We had an interesting encounter as we drove out. Driving along a narrow dirt track, rounded a corner and there comes a half-grown chicken running down the middle of the road with a mongoose (like a ferret) in hot pursuit. I jammed on brakes to watch and just then the mongoose caught the chicken and was about to kill it. I moved forward and the mongoose took off leaving the chicken to head in the other direction. Lucky for the chicken that we came along when we did !
During our session we were visited by officials from USAID - the huge American government agency that provides aid funding to developing countries and who are the main sponsor, if you will, of the Child Health Week. They had stopped in at the health centre for a visit and having heard about SPF and the support we are giving the program locally, decided to stop in at our location too. That was pleasing especially given that we were way off the main highway down a rough dirt track and good to be recognized by them.
Today we recorded 126 children which was apparently a low turn-out for this area. As we left the school a teacher asked for a ride back to her house. I was yet again astounded - and humbled - by how dedicated some of the people are to what they do when I found that her home is 5km from the school and she walks to and from work every day - rain, sun, .... whatever.
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