First, my written English might not be the best, but last blog might have been a little worse than normal, at least I think so my self. That was because the internet was so slow, and I didn’t have time to read through and correct writing errors, but I found them after it was published. Sorry!
These two first weeks me and Liliane are going to be in an HIV-clinic. The different days have different focus and age-groups. On our first day, we met a group of kids in all ages. One had kind of a rash all over his body. It was the same boy that we passed the day before going to town…He was sitting by the road, trying to sell something. When I see these kids, sitting there looking up at me, white mzungu, it seems so unfair.. And at the same time it feels even more meeningful to be here.
The kids comes every 2nd month to control their weight, hight and the lenght around the upper arm. If the numbers are under a certain level it means that the child is undernourished or malnourished, and it gets a “food-pack” to bring home that conatains the right nourishment for the next two months. And the child get a 2 month dose of the HIV-medicin. If the child is sick it gets another consultation and medicin, if not it goes home. Most of the kids comes together with a guardian. The HIV-medicin they get for free.
A boy comes in to the waiting area. He’s entering with a dance-move and smiles to me, jumping around. Probably he doesn’t know how bad his disease is.
But getting HIV doesn’t mean that life is over. Not if you get treatment, eat the right food and keeping healthy. Just sleeping under a mosquito net at night will help.
A mother is at the clinic with her two children, they are, I will guess, 10 and 3 years old. They’ve got the medicin, but staying behind to see a clinician because the oldest child has a fever and stomach-pains. The clinician says she suffers from malaria, and the mother gets worried because she’ s afraid she can’t pay for the medicin. Her husband is dead. But the malaria-medicin she will get free of charge too, and I could see the relief in her eyes when the clinician told her that.
Next wednesday other children will come to the clinic. In a small book they carry the nurse write down vital datas, the potion of medicin the patient shall take and next appointment.
Thursday started off with sitting down and waiting. Liliane went with two nurses out to the village to do visits to sick people. I stayed at the clinic. Thursdays are testing-day for people that for one reason or another think they can be infected.
A young woman, with her little baby on her back, came in to the office. After getting married and pregnant she got to know that her husband was infected. Is she sick? The answer is one strip of blood and 15 minutes away. I can’t imagine how those minutes could have been for her.. While we waited for the answer I sat closest to the testing-slip, while the woman and the clinician was talking. She was standing, moving back and forth, trying to get her baby to sleep, while she glanced over at the table to see if the result was ready. One line, negative, two lines, positive. She was nervous. 15 minutes. The result could change her life forever. “Is the result ready?” She asked me. I looked at the testing-slip. I could see one line. The clinician looked at it and confirmed. Negative, she’s not sick.
After lunch the nurse had a consultation for patients with recently discovered HIV. It is an offer to patients, and they can get to know about the disease, how it works in the body and ways to keep it at a minimum and importance of keeping healthy and try not to get sick.
Today has been a lot more busy. Fridays adults comes in for weighing and to get more medication. The waiting area was packed with people, all from business-people in suit or dress, farmers, home-less, students etc.
Today a mother and her child came to get the child tested..
The result was negative:)
The peoples photographed have agreed to be in the picture and on my blog.
