Xango Goodness

Marbang is a small village a few miles from Barekuma. The children there are not as used to Obrunis as the Barekuma and Barekese kids are. The malaria clinic that we ran today did over 125 examinations. I was stationed in the exam classroom (mud walls, rectangular holes that serve as windows, and bright green string to serve as stanchions), again… as the crowd control. Mel doing crowd control: maybe it’s because I’m not easily rattled. Maybe it’s because I love to be around the Ghanaians. Or - maybe it’s because they get a kick out of how terrified the babies are of the redhead that wears another set of dark eyes on top of her head (we call them sunglasses).

The clinic had stages: registration, vitals, exams, lab and finally pharmacy. I spent the bus ride counting out a few thousand pills of folic acid into small ziploc baggies - quantities of 60 each. Then spent 20 minutes creating make-shift measuring tapes on wood posts for the vitals. Then spent 20 minutes observing the process to find holes to fix. Then… 3+ hours with the doctors and residents doing exams. These children had herniated umbilical cords; it looks like someone is pushing their belly buttons out from the inside like a balloon. The malaria rate was over 70% and several children were given additional attention because of various issues. Since our goal was to assess the malaria epidemic, we felt like today was very successful. One thing that touched me today was how many men brought their children. I expected it to be primarily women with their children, but was quite wrong. The men are involved and engaging with their children… and quite sweet. Made me smile.