Today is Tuesday May 3rd. We were up early again, left the Sheywe Guest House at 7:00 am, and arrived at Badaywe at 8:15 am. The clinic was held in a church known as the French Church or did he say Friend Church. According to a man I spoke with, it was “founded by Mr Ford of the United States of America”. I never did find out if Henry was the founder but only that Mr Ford is no longer associated with the church. It was very similar in size to the clinic at the Friend’s Church, a large room with an altar, pews and tables. The real difference was that the roof didn’t leak when the rains came.
We were greeted by some of the community men and they were eager to assist us in setting up. I found out later there was an old woman (60?ok, but this is Africa), who had gotten up at 6am, travelled the community by foot and alerted the sick about the clinic by blowing a whistle. She must have blown that whistle loud we ran out of most medications by 3p. We treated 675 persons including 95 school children for worms. Some of these children progressed to the main clinic to be treated for other ailments.
It is interesting to notice the names of the people. When I get a registration slip and enter it in the book, I sometimes know by the name what generation is being treated without looking at the person. If your name is Ezrah, Ephrahim, Seth, Jaston, etc, you are a male over 60; if your name is Evaline, Agneda, Flourence or Nelly, you are a female of similar age; and of your name is Nancy, Sharon, Elvis, Collins, Jared or Obama….well ,that is an easy one.
The nurses spoke of the kind community today as we journeyed home in our Toyota van. One of the patients left the clinic and returned with two bunches of small bananas and 4 raw eggs. She had taken them from her chicken house and was insistent that we take them back with us. She gave to us the little that she had to say thank you. Another man wanted to bring back ugali for Erika so she would have something to eat for lunch. Another woman said she could speak good English and could she help (she was given a task; and a man was insistent that he carry our bags to the van (we did keep an eye on him, but he was good to his word).
Sadly, I saw a man walking along the highway ditch today in bare feet. He was limping and his left foot was swollen to twice its size. I wish he had a clinic to go to.
