More News from Zidim
Algol
Hamish Tait, Robin Hastie & Jim Hepburn
Fri 15 Feb 2008 15:59
Still no adaptor for the laptop! One parcel posted a week before it, arrived 2 weeks ago, so maybe there's still hope!
Anne's news
Work. I have reached a critical stage with the school development plans i.e. I have identified their priorities and I now have to sit down and write the five year plans. Easy, except I've never written a development plan in my life in English, never mind four of them in French! Another little challenge made bigger by the lack of computer.
A Royal Experience. Monday 11th February was International Youth Day - a huge event here and a national holiday. All the schools have been practising routines for weeks for up to 4 hours a day outside in the heat. I think it would be called child abuse in Europe but here the kids love it and are never hapier than when singing and marching to drums.
11 schools from our Canton arrived in Zidim for the big procession, with children as young as 6 leaving home at 6 am to walk up to 15 Km to get here. It was quite a sight as they marched through a thick cloud of dust into the village to the beat of their drums and dressed in their white "tenues" or uniforms. On arrival, many of them would not have passed the Persil test!
Hamish & I were invited to join all the head teachers, local notables and the Lamido (resplendent in gleaming white Lawrence of Arabi robes and sunglasses) under a canopy of woven grasses. Think of the Braemar Gathering without the rain and the travelling rugs! The children put on a great show and the day finished with a meal for staff and ourselves at the local school.
Hamish's news
The range of medical challenges remains amazing but can be depressing in terms of the outcomes. Last week, I had to assist in theatre for a ruptured womb. The baby and afterbirth were both lying in the abdomen outside the womb, so of course the baby was already dead. We have another infant in the ward with extensive burns after falling into a fire. Even in the UK this case would be a big challenge for a specialised burns unit. We don't expect the child will survive. Work with AIDS patients is really complicated. Many of them travel huge distances to reach us (some from Nigeria). We have to send blood to Maroua for testing but the lab there will only accept samples from us on a Tuesday or Thursday and only before 10am. Supplies of essentials such as the medications and the reagents for testing are unreliable (they come via the Cameroonian Health Ministry). Records are held by patients but they don't always turn up with them when they come for follow up. Because of the difficulties the default rate is high. But we keep trying!
Enough depressing stuff. On Tuesday, Anne & I took a walk to the local market - only my third visit since we arrived. Africans don't generally do things as couples and certainly don't show any public displays of affection, so were amazed to see a couple walking towards us from the direction of the market holding hands. It was only when we got level with them that we realised they had been enjoying the local "wine" (bilbil) and were trying to support each other on their way home! We think they were also arguing with each other!
Anne's news
Work. I have reached a critical stage with the school development plans i.e. I have identified their priorities and I now have to sit down and write the five year plans. Easy, except I've never written a development plan in my life in English, never mind four of them in French! Another little challenge made bigger by the lack of computer.
A Royal Experience. Monday 11th February was International Youth Day - a huge event here and a national holiday. All the schools have been practising routines for weeks for up to 4 hours a day outside in the heat. I think it would be called child abuse in Europe but here the kids love it and are never hapier than when singing and marching to drums.
11 schools from our Canton arrived in Zidim for the big procession, with children as young as 6 leaving home at 6 am to walk up to 15 Km to get here. It was quite a sight as they marched through a thick cloud of dust into the village to the beat of their drums and dressed in their white "tenues" or uniforms. On arrival, many of them would not have passed the Persil test!
Hamish & I were invited to join all the head teachers, local notables and the Lamido (resplendent in gleaming white Lawrence of Arabi robes and sunglasses) under a canopy of woven grasses. Think of the Braemar Gathering without the rain and the travelling rugs! The children put on a great show and the day finished with a meal for staff and ourselves at the local school.
Hamish's news
The range of medical challenges remains amazing but can be depressing in terms of the outcomes. Last week, I had to assist in theatre for a ruptured womb. The baby and afterbirth were both lying in the abdomen outside the womb, so of course the baby was already dead. We have another infant in the ward with extensive burns after falling into a fire. Even in the UK this case would be a big challenge for a specialised burns unit. We don't expect the child will survive. Work with AIDS patients is really complicated. Many of them travel huge distances to reach us (some from Nigeria). We have to send blood to Maroua for testing but the lab there will only accept samples from us on a Tuesday or Thursday and only before 10am. Supplies of essentials such as the medications and the reagents for testing are unreliable (they come via the Cameroonian Health Ministry). Records are held by patients but they don't always turn up with them when they come for follow up. Because of the difficulties the default rate is high. But we keep trying!
Enough depressing stuff. On Tuesday, Anne & I took a walk to the local market - only my third visit since we arrived. Africans don't generally do things as couples and certainly don't show any public displays of affection, so were amazed to see a couple walking towards us from the direction of the market holding hands. It was only when we got level with them that we realised they had been enjoying the local "wine" (bilbil) and were trying to support each other on their way home! We think they were also arguing with each other!