My first home visit

Monday of week two. I was scheduled for teaching at the nursery and then a couple of home visits. I had talked to my mom the night before about my near mauling from the tembo and a little about my placement at the nursery. She could hear the frustration in my voice, I knew.

I was still put off because I was not more prepared for teaching. My mom was a preschool teacher for six years or something and I hadn't had an opportunity to get advice from her about teaching. I have no experience with children and was really frustrated because I was not given an opportunity to ask my best resource for tips or ideas for teaching. Talking to my mom on the phone proved to be one of my better ideas for the trip. She gave me a lot of ideas of games to teach the kids and on how to help them better at writing their letters and numbers. I put her advice into play immediately the next day!

Nursery school was finally starting to get routine. My kids were starting to welcome me more regularly, taking my hand as I walked through the office to the "classroom", and I had found my niche in the daily routines of teaching. I took responsibility for checking the kids papers. In both of my schools, checkmarks are very big deals. The students must have checkmarks for all the correct marks. They love to get them!! I started using dotted letters for the kids that couldn't copy very well. I had a lot of a lot of difficulty getting the children to understand what they were supposed to do with the dotted letters. A few of the kids picked it up really quickly. It was really rewarding to see that the kids could understand what I was teaching them. Those that could trace the letters became very eager for more!! One of my girls, Esta (pronounced AY-sta) was incredibly eager. Daily she came to me looking to trace more and more words. She was in the younger class and was writing beyond the homework given to the older kids!

I spent my first hour with the children and Mother Mary came to pick me up. We headed off with the two Finnish girls that were working with Uwawayaki also. Off we headed to Majenga -- the district of town where our patient was. Our walk to Clementine's house took us through a couple of fields and winding around pathways behind other homes. One field looked as if it was once used for planting crops, but the land then was arid and unplowed. At one end of the field that we passed through was a very large tree that stood somewhat ominously with what appeared to be large black leaves. Upon closer inspection, they were not, in fact, black leaves but large bats. The tree was filled with bats! I thought that I would pass by the tree again, so I decided not to get a picture...and, as it turned out, i didn't end up passing by again.

After a short 10 minute walk, we arrived at Clementine's. Clementine was a 50-something woman who had recently had her left leg amputated because of complications of diabetes. Her right foot had taken a turn for the worse. Our purpose for the visit was to help her daughter, a 30-something HIV positive mother of three, redress her wounds. I look at Clementine's chart which was a makeshift medical history written out on a piece of paper. It included things like her age, her next of kin, her religion, and how her last visit was. It appeared as if this was a new system being used by Uwawayaki since it only included her most recent last visit.

Clementine had to be carried in to the living area space of the house by her daughter and Mother Mary. She stays in the single room off the living room. We spent some time asking how she felt and how she had been in the past few days. All of this exchange took place in Swahili, so I only understood parts of it before Mother Mary translated. After about 15 minutes we began undressing her foot.

Her foot was swollen and was excreting fluids. I won't go into the extremely gory details, but it was quite infected. Her foot was numb except when a lot of pressure was placed on it.

We left Clementine's house advising her to go to the hospital. She had an appointment scheduled, but it wasn't until March...her foot wouldn't wait that long. I found out on my last day that her right foot had been amputated that week.

Our second home visit was to a woman who was HIV positive. She, like Clementine, lived with her daughter and her daughter's children. Her home was a bit bigger than the last -- a living room and two rooms connected. I read her medical sheet as I had done for Clementine. She did not have any visible problems. She had a cough that wasn't going away and was out of cough medicine. Mother Mary offered to try to get more medicine for her.

As Mother Mary explained to me how she was feeling, I acknowledged her by saying "sawa" which, in Swahili, is just saying "okay". The patient asked if I spoke Swahili (which I understood), the shock that registered on her face as I responded to her question with "kidogo" (a little). Both she and Mother Mary got a good laugh at my attempt to learn Swahili, but I was trying!!

After we wrapped up at the second home, it was time for me to head back to the school for my morning pick-up. Mother Mary guided me back to the school through alleyways, backyards, and side streets. I was able to really see the town and see off the beaten path.

The home visits were really powerful and a small idea of life without access to proper healthcare.