Child Health Week - Day 6 - the final

Today, the final day of a very busy week and to Chilando Zone - the furthest health post in the area being 16 km each way; 40 minutes by vehicle due to the rough track in parts and usually 2.5 to 3 hours for the clinic staff on bicycles. They - two of them, usually including Nurse Ednah who is no spring chicken - do it once every month come rain, sun, cold or hot - it blows me away what they do in the line of duty to their community. (After being with them this week they surely deserve the highest recognition and some way to help them with this situation in the future.)



When we reached the Chilando health post we found it being used for a church service so had to wait for that to end - fortunately the pastor decided to cut everything short so we didn't have to wait for too long ! Probably being a Saturday the pace was slow to start and steady throughout the day. We only dealt with 110 children so it was less intense than the previous days. The health committee is also very well organised and keen so they were a great help in keeping things flowing smoothly.


At one point in the day there was a string of unusual names (of the children) - "Confidentiality", "Confidence" and "Shamestone". This highly amused Nurse Ednah and she really teased the mothers about their choice of names. It was all harmless and everyone, including the mothers, enjoyed the joking. She then proceeded to have us all in fits of laugher with a story about when she worked at a large hospital some years ago and there were some similar goofy names such as "Children", "Whoever" and "Whatever". She really is such a character and totally loved by everyone.

It has been such a great experience to move further afield in this area during the week, seeing places off the usual beaten track and interacting with a huge number of people in the community. I am sure that it has brought further exposure to the Foundation and understanding of the work we are doing here for the community. And it has been so humbling for me to see the dedication and determination of so many people to do what they can, with what little they have, to make life better for themselves.

I have often wished that I had the GPS I have been meaning to buy for a long time now and to have been able to record all the routes we have taken to get places. I have thought how amusing it would be to contact the original Japanese owner of the vehicle we now have and show him just where his old vehicle has ventured this week. The bush of Africa is a far cry from the highways of Japan !