We just returned from Egbelu and although things didn’t all go quite as planned, our time there was very fruitful. We had 3 days of medical outreach and saw almost 500 patients. We were able to make plans for the completion of the hospital building and hope to move in when we return in June!
Unfortunately, Dr. Michael Sturm, the optometrist who was to join us was unable to get a visa in time for the trip. He will be accompanying us when we return in June. It was hard to once again explain to patients that we could not offer eye care but some things can’t be controlled.
We started our mission in the usual way - counting pills! We were able to give free medication to all 500 patients. We had to make a trip to the drug warehouse every evening to resupply our antimalarial meds. At least those come in dosage packs and don’t have to be counted! It is always a relief to finish the last day of clinic and know that the evening doesn’t need to be spent counting more pills!
Clinic days were much more calm and organized than in the past. People have gotten used to our weekly outreach and understand that they will get the care they need and they are much more patient. We had great help from our former volunteers - Kennedy, Iffy, Celine, Vivian and Chica. We were also joined by Edith, a community health specialist who gave an educational talk each morning and helped with translation in the pharmacy. She talked about preventing disease and demonstrated proper hand washing technique. We had each patient wash their hands as they checked in and it was gratifying to see that they all followed her example.
We saw many people suffering from malaria and typhoid, scabies and fungal skin diseases and catarrh (runny nose, coughing, etc.). The catarrh is most likely the product of the season - harmattan, when the winds blow from the Sahara in the north carrying large amounts of fine dust. The air is so dense with the haze that the sun, if you can see it at all, is a deep red. The weather coupled with the pollution from thousands of automobiles in Owerri that are in need of repair and the burning of trash had us suffering from catarrh after a few days.
Many people we have seen in the past continue in good health thanks to the ongoing care Celine offers on Saturday mornings. Those who understand the importance of staying on their blood pressure and diabetes medications are well controlled. Unfortunately, there are still those who don’t understand that a course of medicine does not cure their disease. They returned with results as bad or worse than when we last saw them. Since the symptoms of those diseases can seem unrelated to the condition - headache, fatigue, etc., it is hard to convince people just how serious it is. For many people the first sign that something is wrong is a stroke from hypertension or a coma from out-of-control diabetes. Education remains a large part of our mission.
After a successful fall of fundraising we were able to make plans to finish the clinic before the rainy season begins again. We were not happy with some of the work that had been done and were fortunate in finding a structural engineer to take over the rest of the project. Nwaturwocha Uba (Chris) has offered to complete the work with no charge for his supervision. We only need to pay his transportation to and from the site. He had is crew busy the day after we met him and we are confident we will be happy with the results. He is a great blessing to us.
With completion of the building so close we have begun the process of getting all the appropriate approvals from the government. The next big task will be hiring the right person to manage the clinic. We are praying that we will find someone who shares our vision and our standards. We want to offer the people of Nguru Umuwaro the best care possible.