Waterfalls everywhere
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Wed 6 May 2015 22:42
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Yesterday it kept raining, well its more like an
evil force with a fire hose and the wind came up as predicted to over 40
knots.
We are fairly protected here so no complaints.
Yesterday, wednesday, Ellinor was not feeling to
well so I jumped ship to LilExplorer and we went again to the village Lavis, our
third attempt,
the rain was a big issue so we decided to just go
up and see if anybody would show up. That was left to Courage, Cassidy and
myself.
Shannon dropped us off at a coral table where the
waves did not break (some attempts could have been quite a thrill). From there
we had to walk/climb to the trail along the water, then we started upwards to
the plateu where the village is situated. The trail we walked has been built for
turists and was solid. The one we had tried a couple of days ago must have
turned into a waterfall. We had waterfalls everywere, some quite
big.
We had water everywhere, the firehose from above,
the walls pouring, the feet in deep mud. Once on the plateu the so called road
was a river.
Mary, another Mary than the aidpost Mary, came out
from the bushes and made sure we would find the way. And, as inticipated there
were no patients waiting for us. We met Mary, the aid post woman and we asked if
we could take a pair of crouches to help a young woman, Yaoo in the
settlement of UNVN. Mary was reluctant to give them away so we decided to borrow
them.
We left the village and promised to come back next
day if the rain diminished.
Back on board we took off, back to our
anchorage.
After lunch the doctors decided to go to UNVN, the
reason was to see Yaoo. Yaoo is a young woman that stepped on a broken bottle 2
years ago. Most people here walk bare foot and they can handle it as long as
there is only nature to deal with. This bottle cut far up in the foot and into
the bone. Was not treated right as it was to far for her to walk to Leneka.
Got infected and when she finally called for help the doctors in Leneka decided
to cut off the whole foot. The family refused and said that in that case they
would take her back and let the Clever treat her. (If you are new to this, the
Clever is a medicine man in the villages). The doctors then decided to cut half
the foot which they did lengthwise.
We found her the other day just sitting under some
tarps and the toe was infected. She got treatment and Shannon looked at the
foot. It was a crude amputation that left two toes but she should be able
to walk. What they had given her was a wheel chair, and that is like giving
somebody a car in a djungle without roads. So she had not walked since the
accident, nor moved on her own. The crutches would now be a test to see if she
was motivated to move on her own and Ellinor brought some sandals from our boat
including these uggly plastic shoes that everybody at home wears, the good thing
about them is that you can cut them to fit the foot. The settlement was all
smiles as they approached and Yaoo, got up and took a few steps with the
crouches. The rest of the family started to chase a poor hen to give as a gift,
but no, we did not want that, thank you, so they gave some spinach instead. Im
starting to think we have to accept something for their pride at least. They do
NOT want to be begging for anything, they are proud and self
sufficient.
The crouches have to be returned to Mary and we
hope Dr Moise can supply us with a pair before we leave. If not we need to find
a solution. We do not want to buy the crouches from Mary as we strongly suspect
that they are goverment material and we do not want to make anything
wrong.
Today, thursday, the rain is more like a normal
rain, and the wind has eased a lot. We decided to wait till the afternoon
to make a fourth attempt to run a clinic. But as I write this Ellinor has left
on an emergency mission, a baby child has been burned on face, hands and body by
boiling water. A couple of youngsters came here in outrigger canoes and begged
for help.
I'm on board running school with the kids
and trying to fix the generator. As we are at the outlet of a river that by now
has got mad with fresh water and debris I should have thought it could generate
(haha) a problem. I started the generator last night and after 10 minutes it
showed no cooling and shut off. So now I have to find the problem which most
likely is about debris that got in past the filter. For a while I thought it
would be the impeller but that is now checked.
As you can see there are questions high and low,
and that is what it is all about, in one end people with basic needs to be
looked after and on the other end our own comfort and safety.In one end about
accidents and infections and on the other to teach our kids to read and
count.
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