Karimboni Clinic, Day 2

September 13, 2012

Today was the second and final clinic day at Karimboni. This makes the fourth village total that I have been at for medical clinics (three in 2010), and each village has been fairly distinct in the trend of complaints.  At Kaembeni, we saw many coughs and body aches.  In Na'andu, we had many people who complained of fainting due to lack of water and lots of ringworm.  At Karimboni, a common complaint from the men is swollen testicles and lumps under the skin around the waist and groin.  Dr. Amy's theory is that this is due to parasites carried by mosquitoes that call elephantiasis.  Karimboni is on the Galena River, so this must be a localized problem. Once the swelling gets established, it requires surgery to correct, and we don't have the medicine to kill the parasite, so there isn't much we can do for these men.

Yesterday we had two old women carried to the clinic by a group of other women.  Four or five women carried another women in a large blanket and set her down on the ground.  We had a lot of elderly men and women at this clinic, especially on the first day.   

 

 

Old woman carried in to see the doctor

As always, Diane likes to hand out candy and little toys to the children.  We have a lot of little "helicopter" toys that you spin with your hands and it flies.  Today was windy, so two of them ended up on the roof of the building.  One man put a boy on his shoulders who used a big stick to drag the toy within reach.  When you have no toys other than a big stick, it's worth the extra effort to salvage a 10 cent Oriental Trading goody.

 

Retrieving a toy helicopter that flew on the roof

 We were planning to only do clinic time and not teach today, however after discovering that there were hundreds of people who we would not be able to see in the clinic, we decided in the afternoon to do another Health Kit class.  Since everyone was busy in the clinic, I taught this class with Henry translating.  I had been a little nervous since my knowledge of the medical details doesn't go very deep, but we are mostly teaching basic concepts so it was pretty fun.  The people were very engaged in what we were saying, especially with diarrhea issues.

 

Phil teaching a health class

Amy examines a child

 

Cindy examines a man

Some of Diane's patients: