There were about 45 or so people in clinic which is actually a little lower than usual. However the numbers don't mean quite as much when whole families come in under one number. Also, you can have only 45 people but they can all be really sick as opposed to 75 who are mostly here for prenatal visits or aches and pains.
At the end of clinic a young man, Juan, came in asking for milk for his baby. Leslie does not give out milk without seeing the mother and baby so she asked where they were. Juan started to tell Leslie his wife's story. She had a baby six weeks ago. After the baby was born, her stomach was still big so her midwife told her to put a large rock on it while sleeping on another rock. This was supposed to make it go down. (I was wondering if that would work on hips!) She got worse and they took her to a hospital. She had an infection but the couple did not have the money to buy the antibiotics. Now she was in her bed because she could not walk and she didn't have any milk to feed her baby. We really had no idea what this all meant. Leslie agreed to a housecall and said that we would be coming at about 3:30 pm.
After lunch, all who were going (Leslie, Grace, Katie, Cali, Don and myself) climbed into Don's truck. We would be able to drive for a while but then we would have to walk on a trail to their house. When we arrived at the school, which was the point where we could no longer drive, Juan was waiting for us. In this picture, we are starting on the trail. Juan is in front then Leslie and Grace, Cali (she is the Peace Corps worker in Canilla), me and Katie. Don is taking the picture from where we parked the truck.
I am not sure how long we walked but it was straight uphill at first. I was thinking that walking this everyday might work better than the rocks on my hips! Once we went quite a ways up the mountain, we had to descend a little to get to their house. Here we are arriving at their home. Notice the smoke in the background - more on that in a little bit.
The mother and baby were laying in the bed inside the home. We all went in to see her. Their adobe homes are very dark because there are no windows and no electricity. It took us a minute for our eyes to adjust. Leslie began examining the mom and looked at the baby as well. The baby was little but looked healthy. Her name was Katarina (Kati for short). We found out that this was their third. The dad, Juan, was only nineteen so they were very young parents. Leslie's examination found that the mom did have breastmilk but also did have an infection. It turns out that the doctors had told her that something had died inside of her and she had a proceedure to clean her uterus (retained placenta ?). Leslie gave her the antibiotics she was not able to purchase as well as vitamins. She encouraged her to feed her baby every two hours to increase her milk. She also encouraged her to get out of bed because this would help her heal and start to feel better.
While this was all going on, I was outside with Grace trying to talk to the other children. There were lots of children running around plus the parents of the young couple. Here is the abuela (grandmother) with the couple's two sons.
Here are some of the other children. I asked if I could take their pictures and then would show them the picture on the camera. They really enjoyed seeing themselves and would ask me to take another. Notice the fire behind the kids on the right side.
Here is a better picture of the fire. It was very close to their two houses.
We have been seeing alot of smoke up in the mountains lately. The people are burning their fields to clear them for the next planting season. The issue is that it is very dry here. Leslie told me that towards the end of the dry season in April, the fires get even more dangerous. Her boys have been called upon to go and help put them out on several occasions in the past. I asked the grandfather if the fire was too close (which to me seemed obvious but they are used to this). He said that it was ok because it was below their house. However, as we were watching it, it was travelling up the mountain straight toward the grandparents home. I asked if they had water and they said no. This is a picture as we were making our way back to the truck. This smoke is right next to the homes. The whole time we heard the popping and cracking of the fire. Ash was flying up in the air (Grace thought it was birds flying). At one point, the smoke was so much that it burned my eyes.
This family has been on my mind since we left. I have been praying for safety from the fire as well as health for the mom and baby. This type of a housecall gives us a glimpse of the hardships experienced by the people who live up in these mountains. It is such a different world from the city, where we were just a few days before. We will include more of the pictures in our March newsletter! Thanks for reading.
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