Vaccinations in the Village

At the end of Marc's first week here, he accompanied a group of the long term physicians and nurses on a trip out to some nearby villages to vaccinate children and check in on some other little ones who had recently been discharged from the hospital.

This is what a typical house in these villages looks like. They are made of mud and/or stones.

The round building on legs is used for storage (food and farming supplies). The houses are quite small so some people put extra things in a storage building.

The vaccines they took with them were tetanus, oral polio, and a TB vaccine. The people checked in at the table and then waited to receive their vaccine.

While the nurses were handling the vaccinations, Marc went with Dr. Z and Dr. L to several nearby villages to check up on some other children that had been treated recently in the hospital. Marc said it was very difficult to actually locate the children they were trying to find. The medical record lists their village name, but there are no street addresses. Many children also have very similar names. They drove to several villages and had to keep asking for people who knew the family they were looking for. After driving to 4 or 5 villages, they were finally able to locate both children.

The boy on the right in this picture has a big belly so he probably is infected with worms.

 The boy in the red sweatshirt below was one of the kids they were looking for. He had recently been treated for malaria and anemia at the hospital.

He was looking good. They brought along some iron supplements and vitamins for him. 

This was another little boy they were checking in on who also had malaria and anemia.

This woman below (who was probably her grandmother) approached the group asking how to feed this newborn baby since the baby's mom had recently died. They encouraged her to find another woman in the village who had recently delivered who could also feed the baby. There is no access to formula here so breastfeeding is the only means for a baby's survival. The hospital would certainly love to have a lactationist available here to educate moms on how to take care of themselves and their milk supply. Malnourishment is a very common problem here in the first few years of life. Malnourished babies are more susceptible to disease as well so the odds are really stacked against them for their survival.

The kids always seem to know when a camera is around!

These kids don't mind putting on a show for the camera either. :) Eli is showing off the carrots brought to our door fresh from the field. Carrots will only be around for a month or so until the heat comes. I blanched and froze most of these for later on.

They love dancing on the couch!