This week has been an exciting one. In addition to the
regular things that we do every week (i.e. advocating for funding and support
for our programs, etc.), we used the fine weather and Dr. Imani’s availability in
order to do a video interview of him explaining his vision of bringing free
medical help to the most vulnerable groups in Kavumu and his vision for the DRC
in general. He did really well during the interview, even though all the tiny cameras in his face must have been nerve-wracking.
Dr. Imani also explained to us about how he was behind the
start of the V-Men group – he had wanted to start an organization of men who
were concerned about sexual violence in the DRC and actively involved in advocating
for the dignity and safety of women, so he started a group, which is now called
V-Men.
Yesterday we had our first active field visit since I've been here. Dominique and I spent the night before packing up donated clean birth
kits, re-usable sanitary pads, Neosporin, elastic bandages, and baby clothes to
distribute to the patients to be seen by MSD’s mobile clinic.
Our destination -- Kabamba which is a ways past Kavumu. Its
about a 2 hour drive from our house. We were there with Dr. Imani, three other
doctors from his team, his administrator, and the staff at Kabamba.
When we got there we were greeted with singing -- Dr. Imani
eventually got himself a shaker and joined right in with the ladies.
We were taken into the Church in order to have introductory
speeches about who we were and what we were going to be doing in the area.
We were then brought to this little clinic where the consultations
would take place. Each doctor had a room where they were either consulting or
else dispensing medications. Dominique and I also had a room with our supplies.
When one of the doctors saw a patient who might need one of the things that we
brought, he would refer him or her to us. We did several dramatic
demonstrations of how to use the sanitary pads and clean birth kits (I got to
demonstrate giving birth at home several times on the floor…;).
During a lull in the program we also had a chance to play a
video in Swahili about breast feeding techniques. Unfortunately we did not have
a projector available this time, but it was a popular feature anyways, even the
kids enjoyed it.
The clinic lasted all day, after which the community
expressed its gratitude by adding these passengers to our trip home for Dr.
Imani and his team.
The chickens were a little less impressed about the gift though,
and complained about it from time to time verbally on the way home.
We had a little hitch in the plan when we got back to the
van at the end of the clinic day when we found out that the battery in the van
had died… but Dominique had fun entertaining the kids with some back and forth
basic English conversations while we waited for them to find someone in the community
to give us a boost.
After we got the van running again we headed back home. Dr.
Imani had seen some of tragic cases during the clinic which affected him
deeply, but all in all he seemed encouraged by the turnout and results of the
day.
P.S.
The above post was written on Thursday June 6 but the week had a damper end to it. On Friday I got myself a bad bout of food poisoning which put me out for the rest of the weekend, but more importantly the worst part of the week was on our way home from work on Friday afternoon when we passed a small girl (between 4 and 6 years old) who had just been hit in the road by a van. The scene was awful and it was impossible to tell whether she had survived the impact. She was gathered up unceremoniously by a man in the street, slung over his shoulder and removed from the scene -- hopefully to the nearby medical clinic. Please pray for her and her family, as well as the woman who hit her with the van.
P.P.S.
Just had to share this. As you know, I live in the town of Bukavu in Eastern DRC on the Rwandan border. Right on this huge lake. If you go up the lake quite a ways, one gets to the next large town which is called Goma. I have not had a chance to get up there myself, but I'm told its a good place to visit. Like Bukavu, it seems a lot of expats are based out of Goma. They've got an active volcano up there and I hear the violence-situation is a little tenser up there than here. All that to say, Dominique shared this video with me this morning and I had to add it to this post. Hands-down the most inspirational thing I've seen in a long time -- not because its *yet another* remake of this fantastic but fad song, but because its a video made by people from Goma, in the town of Goma, starring the spirit of the Eastern DRC, i.e. showcasing the spirit of joy, recreation, resilience and artistic expression that exudes constantly from the pores of this community. The picture painted by the violent goings on in the DRC are grim and gloomy at best (Goma even more so than Bukavu), but as the old saying goes, you clearly can't keep a good man (or woman!) down. I hope you enjoy it as I did:
P.S.
The above post was written on Thursday June 6 but the week had a damper end to it. On Friday I got myself a bad bout of food poisoning which put me out for the rest of the weekend, but more importantly the worst part of the week was on our way home from work on Friday afternoon when we passed a small girl (between 4 and 6 years old) who had just been hit in the road by a van. The scene was awful and it was impossible to tell whether she had survived the impact. She was gathered up unceremoniously by a man in the street, slung over his shoulder and removed from the scene -- hopefully to the nearby medical clinic. Please pray for her and her family, as well as the woman who hit her with the van.
P.P.S.
Just had to share this. As you know, I live in the town of Bukavu in Eastern DRC on the Rwandan border. Right on this huge lake. If you go up the lake quite a ways, one gets to the next large town which is called Goma. I have not had a chance to get up there myself, but I'm told its a good place to visit. Like Bukavu, it seems a lot of expats are based out of Goma. They've got an active volcano up there and I hear the violence-situation is a little tenser up there than here. All that to say, Dominique shared this video with me this morning and I had to add it to this post. Hands-down the most inspirational thing I've seen in a long time -- not because its *yet another* remake of this fantastic but fad song, but because its a video made by people from Goma, in the town of Goma, starring the spirit of the Eastern DRC, i.e. showcasing the spirit of joy, recreation, resilience and artistic expression that exudes constantly from the pores of this community. The picture painted by the violent goings on in the DRC are grim and gloomy at best (Goma even more so than Bukavu), but as the old saying goes, you clearly can't keep a good man (or woman!) down. I hope you enjoy it as I did:
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