Jen's Safari: Week One in Usolanga

November 11th, 2007

On Tuesday, Andrew brought Sacha and I officially back to our placement village, Usolanga. After two hours of driving, we’ve made it to our little house behind the dispensary. At this point, the house was still under construction and the workers are working in our courtyard where our kitchen, storeroom and bathroom are. After Andrew has returned to town, Sacha and I continued painting our rooms in the house and cleaning. During the summer, the time where no interns were in the village, the house was empty. A horde of bats invaded the clinic as their morning homes. As they were chased away, the only empty house nearby was ours! So for a length of time, our humble abode was home to 100 bats. The workers were successful to build a ceiling board to prevent bats from entering and living on the roof of the house. However, there were still bat remains and some who sneaks in through the cracks. Andrew and myself each killed one live one. The bat feces is considered really good fertilization for gardening which I will soon start.

Sacha and I, then cooked dinner on a charcoal stove (first time for me) and had a wonderful meal in the dark. The nights in Usolanga are most rewarding as on a clear night, the sky is lit up by millions of stars, so brightly shinning that you’d need to be out in the country to see in Canada. It was speechless and with the breeze of night, we prayed together for our 8 months in the village, for our work here that God would prepare our hearts to serve Him. We prayed for the mothers, the children, the men and women we will meet in our days here, for love and for a sensitivity to the needs of the people, to understand and help each other.

The next morning was the first Wednesday of the month which meant it was Clinic Day at the RCH (Reproductive Child Health) building, an extension of the clinic. Every first and third Wednesday of the month, the mothers of the area bring their under-five years old children to be weighed. During that time, we will be able to teach about health and nutrition and help to weigh and produce the child’s growth chart. This procedure is done so mothers can understand if their children are underweight and unhealthy or needs improvement in their diets. Approximately 200 mothers come to Clinic Day once a month which amounts to 400 mothers in total. According to surveys, there are actually 800 mothers in the region. This means that the clinic is only reaching half of the children in the area. The doctor of the clinic, Dr. Muheta is hoping to have outreaches to make our services available to all the mothers, especially those who live in farther areas.

As we were waiting for the sessions to start, Sacha and I sat in the courtyard of the clinic as a large of mothers waited with their toddlers. The mothers and children alike were interested in us and why we were there. Once in awhile, a mother will forcefully drag her child near us and the child would start wailing upon seeing us. They were scared of us, but everyone else just laughed about that event. The poor child is not yet accustomed to our presence and is terrified by mzungus. Fortunately, there were less than 5 of those children. Along with the health officers, Asha and Musa, we weighed the children and recorded their status. We introduced ourselves and about what we will be doing at the clinic. Upon meeting Asha and Musa, they expected us to teach a full lesson the first time. However, we explained that for the first time, we will help and observe. So, 250 cute, crying babies and their mothers was how we filled half our day.

Thursday, Sacha shadowed Dr. Muheta while I followed Stella, the nurse in the morning. The clinic was bustling with on-going patients. We were dispensing medicines (mostly for malaria), giving injections for malaria and family planning (to prevent pregnancies) and doing antenatal checkups for pregnant mothers. Many first time mothers are around 18 years old while women in their early twenties may be a mother of 3 already. There was a Maasai woman who was very lean and one could not tell that she was pregnant unless they were told. She was 30 weeks pregnant and have had 4 children in the past. Another woman who was severely disabled and deaf was brought by a relative to the clinic. She had 4 previous miscarriages and suspects to be pregnant, however as Stella checked her physically, she has edema (swelling caused by excessive internal water) in her abdominal area. She was sent to be take a urine test for pregnancy for further assessment. However, her case is actually more complicated and needs to be referred to a larger hospital. As I was filling in the hospital cards for the new patients, many information were missing. Many patients do not know their age or the age of their spouse, their profession, etc.

After a short rest, we headed to the primary school and set up a time with the headmaster to come and teach at the school. We will be starting an introductory class on November 22^nd and 23^rd and will be observing classes for the next two weeks. Beginning in January, after the Christmas break, we will be teaching about health and nutrition in Kiswahili. We need to plan our modules as previous interns has already taught a lot of different health topics to the students. The school has around 750 students from grades standard 1 to 7 with only 5 full-time teachers, however they seem to be doing well. We’ve been told that they need help and we are glad to be able to teach there. We roamed around the village trying to find the market but ended up at the pastor’s house. The pastor’s wife (Mama mchungaji) offered us a lunch of groundnuts and cowpeas while we conversed. The children were beautiful and we all sat together. Then, Jason, the second child who is 14 years old took us to the market. He later dropped by our house to learn English and had a nice pasta dinner with us.

On Friday, the clinic had few patients and the day was slow. I followed the doctor and we spoke much about everything from understanding the clinic, the villagers’ illnesses to gardening and keeping chickens. Throughout the week, we had many visitors just dropping in our house and sitting awhile to chat with us. Sometimes, we have a great conversation and sometimes, we just sit around each other, enjoying our days in silence and appreciation. One afternoon, the workers and a Masaai man who dropped in our courtyard on their break, we had an hour of conversation in Kiswahili about the language itself which then evolved to Masaai foods and the role and man and woman in the kitchen in Tanzania. Another night, we spoke to Simon, the clinic administrator who was very good in English and from Dar Es Salaam. All in all, it was a productive week for us in village. We pray for God’s guidance in the days ahead.