ANNE

Work:

More questionnaires and statistics over the last week or two but Easter holidays begin today. Children started to drift away a couple of weeks ago as they always seem to do and many will take an extra couple of weeks to come back too. At least this year the teachers have all stayed in their posts (more or less) right until the end of term, instead of disappearing back to their home villages. If we want to see the head teacher of one of the schools, we know we can always find him at the market bar during school hours. It is so much easier when we know where he is! After school, one of the precious few qualified teachers sells the local bil-bil (wine) at her home to teachers from the other schools. When Godam asked her how she had time to cook it when she teaches full time, she replied that she leaves school after the first interval to get the fire going and then pops home from time to time to stir her witches’ brew. I’m glad she’s not missing her interval! Meanwhile 80 beginners are left on their own. GRRRR!

On a lighter note, a gift of money has enabled us to buy football strips for all four schools and we are in the process of planning an inter-class then inter-school tournament for boys and girls with a cup for each winning team. Pupils have been given the strips for one team and have been set tasks to earn their second strips. Teachers seem a little puzzled that the pupils should be expected to do something to gain the second strips. Tough.

The second girls’ class in Boudoum is doing well with their volunteer teacher. I heard this week that one young girl who has no use of her feet, crawls 5kms each way to be at the class twice a week. Yesterday the heat beat her and she was unable to come. Also yesterday, a child from the beginners’ class at Boudoum died after falling from a tree. He was trying to get a mango. I was in the village when he was brought back and people thought he was going to be alright because he had not been kept in hospital. In fact, there was nothing the hospital could do for him and unnecessary treatment would simply have cost parents money they could ill afford. Difficult decisions helped by the knowledge that people prefer their loved ones to die in their home villages.

Photos show girls at Mofou-sud using a skipping rope made from rags tied together. It didn’t seem to spoil the fun.

Play:

We are heading for the lake at Maga this weekend for possibly our last visit there before coming home. This time we don’t plan to go and see the hippos though – we have had enough excitement doing that! We plan to laze by the pool (if there is any water in it) and read books. Thoughts of work are banned!

Photo attached of local transport system en route for Maga!

Hamish

Seems like the staff in the hospital are getting used to the new shorn look – I’m no longer getting double takes from them when I appear for work!  Most of them have been too polite to pass comment, but some have said it makes me look younger!  In case I felt flattered, my sister says the new look reminds her of our grandfather!

Another catastrophic head injury this week.  This time a five year old boy who’d climbed a tree to pick some mangoes.  He fell from a considerable height landing on his head.  When he arrived at the hospital he was deeply unconscious and barely breathing.  He had a major fracture of his skull on the right side and a mixture of blood and cerebro-spinal fluid from his nose suggested a second fracture at the base of the skull.  I felt there was no chance for survival and said so to the father.  All we could offer would be intravenous fluids, antibiotics and observation.  The father chose to take him home to die and I had to agree this was the right decision.  Later, I learned from Anne that the boy was a pupil at Boudoum, one of the schools she’s working with.  She was there when the boy was brought back, but the first reaction of the villagers had been that he must be OK since he’d been sent home by the hospital.  He did die shortly after.  A very depressing event, but I think it unlikely that a child with this severity of head injury would have survived even with all the sophistication of medicine in the developed world.

We have two final year medical students from Holland who’ve arrived to spend an “elective” with us in Zidim.  Takes me back to the days in the practice; it’s always refreshing to have young students who are keen to learn.  The down side is I’m not sure I can adequately respond to all their challenging questions!

This week I have received a major boost to morale; the Rotary Club of St Andrews has given me a huge donation.  £800 of this goes to our pastor to fund a scheme he has been involved in to teach village women to produce impregnated mosquito nets.  The use of these nets is the one thing which has been shown to reduce the death rate from malaria in young children – by up to 50%.  The rest of the money gives a big kick start to my project to raise money to buy a full blood analyser for the hospital.  That is also the reason for the new hair style – done in the hope that some folk will take pity on me and offer sponsorship!

On that topic, the sun here is really strong and I was slightly worried that exposing my scalp to the solar rays might have dire effects.  I was right – see the last attached photo.