week 11

Monday morning I wasn’t feeling the greatest but had the opportunity to go with marieke and klaasje (the dutch girls I’m living with) as they were going out to a village to deliver a chair they had made for a little boy with cystic fibrosis who couldn’t sit on his own. It wasn’t very far down the road to the dirt road turnoff and about 5 minutes more. The little boy was having his bath and then he got to try the new chair. It has a foot rest to help stretch his feet muscles to put them flat, it has a desk area in front so that things can sit within reach and guard for his head to hold it upright. His shoulders are scrunched up so we actually had to take the chair back with us to adjust the head guard so his shoulders would fit under it. He seemed very happy.
My Chichewa is going forward slowly. But I’m starting to push a little more as I know that I’m headed to my intensive course soon and don’t want it to all be new…at least if I’ve seen it once before maybe it will stick a little better.
Tuesday the hospital goes on family planning outreach. They go to a different clinic each week and the women come from the area with their small children. At the outreach under 5s are given vaccinations, sicknesses are assessed and pain meds and malaria medication are given out, women are given contraceptive shots, mothers and children are weighed and recorded in their health passports. When we arrived the women were under the trees listening to the Health Service Assistant giving a health lesson (don’t know on what)—when he finished the women rushed for the one room shelter we were in…all of a sudden there were so many people and we had been given no instructions as to where to be or how to help. Klaasje got started right away with the mothers’ weights which meant recording them in the books but also taking the children they have on their backs so you get the correct weight and the children come in all states (clean, dirty, wet, dry)and some of them really don’t like being held by an azungu! I almost started helping with vaccinations but decided that wasn’t really good since I have no training or background…and that is where all of the children were screaming after getting their shots…I didn’t want to stick around there. So I went out to where they were weighing the children…they are hung from a scale in the chitenje…very innovative and I got the job of trying to record the weights on this very confusing chart…klaasje and marieke got the chance to carry babies on their backs—they had twins and it was really cute with the matching knit hats sticking out of the chitenje.
Went up the mountain again (this is getting to be a habit—but I like it) as guide for marieke and klaasje and another dutch girl wende. It was a beautiful day. Made it to the top for some nice views…I can already see the change—things are turning gold instead of green since we haven’t had any rain.
Training on Choosing Freedom (2011 youth theme). After a group gathering they divide into age groups—primary school, secondary school and out of school. I went with Ethel and the secondary school students. The discussion was on drug and alcohol abuse—how it is fruitless and leads nowhere. That God wants and can give you better…even if it causes you to feel better for a while, God can give you everlasting joy.