Last Day of Caravan is in Kirua

Everyone is tired, but determined to make this last day a successful one. The route we took to get the dispensary took us through our most scenic route yet. The winding road up the slopes of Kili gave us some fabulous views of the valleys, towns and agricultural lands.

Arriving at the site, we found only 13 people waiting! We were extremely worried that our day would be a waste of time if only a few people arrived.

We set up in record time and started registering people. Lise sent Mathew out to talk to the elders again to find out what happened. The church had not announced that we were coming and it was unclear as to whether or not the elders had discussed this with the community or not.

Patients waiting in line to be triaged

Although we had a slow start, patients trickled in all day and we were busy pretty much all day. Word of mouth did seem to work! One man, who was a butcher in the community, heard that we were worried about not seeing enough patients, so he went home and spread the work to his friends, family, customers and neighbours. He was one of many patients who helped to spread the word.

Our medical staff hard @ work

As in other caravans, confusion amongst the patients caused us to pull in a translator to explain how the waiting queue was working. Tempers were flairing amongst the people waiting because they felt that we were not letting them go where they were supposed to.

Lunch was a huge bowl of rice and beans. This was the first time that we were offered only one dish for lunch. Usually there was a selection of food. It was tasty and plentiful.

Queues for medical and opthamology

Today there was one patient that stood out in our minds...an older woman (bibi) who came in with the help of her daughter. She had been throwing up for "one month". She was seen by Jeff and he decided to put her on an IV (I think this was only the 2nd time that this was necessary during our caravans). While Jeff was hunting down the proper equipment, the poor woman was waiting in the queue area where she started throwing up. I was impressed by how there was such a lack of drama amongst the waiting patients. They quietly gave her room,  one of the patients helped to move the bibi in order to get the area cleaned up, and one of the resident medical staff quickly moved in to clean up the mess.

Once she was placed on IV (using apparently some pretty old equipment), the Kilema van was called to come and transport her to the hospital.

As mentioned in an earlier post, this was one of the poorest of the dispenseries that we visited. We had discovered some old lab tools and couldn't resist taking some action shots.


BEFORE:  Metal test tubes at rest

AFTER: Centrifuge at work

At the end of every caravan day, we needed to make a decision on what to do with the garbage; do we bring it back to the hospital for disposal OR will the dispensary staff be able to dispose of it properly? (usually that means burning it) On this day, the staff thanked us profusely (with tears in her eyes) for the garbage. Turns out they were going to re-use whatever they could that was in the bags—used latex gloves, urine filled test jars, speculums, empty boxes, etc. This was an extremely humbling moment; knowing how grateful they were for the garbage that we, as Canadians, would turn our noses up at and never dream of re-using.


Team members are forced to walk up part of the
road when their van couldn't make it up the hill

Travelling down rural roads has been extremely dusty and today's route was no exception. The thick layer of fine dust on the road and the steepness of the slopes caused the van in front of ours to stall out. Everyone had to get out and walk up the road for a while until it leveled out.

The Tanzanian earth is a deep rich red, reminiscent of PEI soil in Canada. The dust seems to get everywhere...eyes, nose, hair, shoes. There have been times when we are driving that it  becomes hard to breathe because the dust is so thick. When you are walking on the road and a dala dala passes, it's wise to cover your face.



KING OF SOUP

Back at the hospital, we had decided to pool our money for tips for Alex, our cook, and his staff. Julia decided to make a balloon crown for him, and later that evening Alex was crowned "King of Soups"