The next few days we continued to visit the village hospitals and provide education and help out. By now we were getting very used to the bumpy ambulance rides and the holes in the ground for toilets! However we were still all having nightmares about using the public holes in the ground (see below). These were worse than the ones in our accommodation. Not only that but the holes were a lot smaller and I have no idea how women are supposed to aim in them. For this reason we were very careful what we drank through the day, in the hope we didn’t need the toilet! The bumpy ride home was not good for our full bladders by the end of the day. We kept joking about someone getting a bout of gastro and having to use it, that would not be a pretty sight, lol.
At the hospitals there were lots of sick kids and adults, lots of malaria and road traffic accidents (RTA). The roads are terrible here and I am not surprised that RTA’s (after malaria and HIV) is the next biggest killer here. I met so many people who had lost family members to a RTA. Yet no one drives carefully, the rules of the road do not seem to apply here. For example I have been in many a scary situation when our driver over took on a bend, I just closed my eyes and hope and prayed for the best (sorry mum!). Thankfully there are not many bends on the roads in the city (and I am back safe & sound as I write this!). The average life expectancy is 53 for women and 56 for men over here, which is incredibly young. Due to this the kids end up bringing up the kids.
We also visited the local people. They lived in mud huts which were amazingly built and very cool in the summer I’m sure. The women looked immaculately dressed with what seemed like ironed clothes, make-up and their hair looking perfect - with no running water or electricity I have no idea how they managed it. There was me with no make-up on, hair a mess and sweat patches everywhere, I felt rather embarrassed for the state of myself! The school children were the same, they had these little school uniforms which were very clean and also looked perfectly ironed. They have this metal iron thing which they put on the fire and iron their clothes on a piece of wood! Only the families with a little money (living in the better mud huts!) could afford to send their children to school so there were always heaps of kids around everywhere we went.
On the way back from one village hospital we were waving to the kids from the ambulance and they all started chasing the ambulance it was so sweet. They are also loving Ruth (the kangaroo), this is Fredie holding her.
Miss you all xx
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