Mkata Experience: Drums and Doctors Visits

Oh the bazillions of stories i have to tell! stories of sleeping on concrete floors, hospital visits for a child in a coma due to malaria, the generosity and hospitality of the people who have so little, witchcraft and islamic chants all night long, un-organization and the ocean, etc.

this is my warning should you choose to continue to read this post: it's going to be brutally honest and includes my perspective of the adventure to Mkata. it may be a tainted perspective due to my experiences, so please don't take this as absolute truth. i'm going to write is general for this post. i want to get my frustrations and joys down on paper.

from the first day i was there it became evident it was going to be a challenge. we got off the bus, exchanged greetings and conversed for quite some time, then unpacked the entire bus into a huge heap of belongings. after we had finished unpacking the heavens opened their floodgates! it was one of those rains that simply drenches everything; nothing was hidden from it's moisture! the mad scramble to get everything back on the bus or in the storage room took about 3 minutes. it's amazing how swiftly people can move when they are getting wet. because the rains soaked the ground, we were allowed to sleep in the newly built school. as we settled into the school i began to hear the rhythym of drums in the distance. we were told about the drums before we arrived so i was expecting them. the drums are played by people practicing witchcraft. the drums continue all thru the night, every night. i never realized how much of a light sleeper i am until this beautiful adventure. from people getting late night phone calls to the drums - the noises bothered me each night. for 3 weeks i never really had 1 good night of sleep. (so last night, our first night back at the base, was so amazing, even though the dogs woke me up 2 times.)

after 5 nights in the school we were kicked out and began our adventure of living in tents. our first night in the tents had another challenge. about 3.30 in the morning the dog began to bark and run around our tents. then i heard him yelp, as if he had been struck, but i wasn't about to go outside the tent and check it out, since i really didn't want to see what he was barking at. if it was a wild bore or people practicing witchcraft, i didn't want to come face to face with whatever 'it' was. guess i was scared and fearful. but i also figured that our fearless leaders would check out the situation. the barking lasted about 10 minutes then the dog ran off and didn't bark any more.

in the morning we all woke to discover that a thief had come in the night and stole all our shoes and belongings which were outside the tents. my washcloth and flip flops were taken - my comfy, repaired flip flops. (i just had them repaired at the shoe repair shop for nine cents - the toe strap broke. it's african style to fix flip flops instead of buy new ones, so i was doing what the locals do!) so people had all their shoes taken, some had their dress shoes, some their flip flops. i only had my flip flops stole, since the other 2 pairs of my shoes were still packed. so after that we called the land 'holy ground' since God didn't want us to wear our shoes around the base. it turned out that only 1 or 2 other people heard the dog barking and neither of them thought anything of it. - so much for the fearless leaders coming to our rescue! africans can sleep thru anything. it's an amazing ability they have. they sleep thru all the drums, islamic chants being screamed over the loudspeakers, goats mating in their pens 50 yards from our tents, birds chirping before sunrise, etc. i, on the other hand, didn't have that ability and had the special pleasure of listening to those sounds all night long. makes for some great times to pray, since there are no lights and the batteries in the mp3 player or flashlight only last so long.

changing subjects, i just got back from the hospital from visiting a fellow student who has been diagnosed with thyphoid and malaria. she's been sick for 2 days now, and today she just couldn't take it any more. her parasite count is very, very high. it's quite amazing that she's still able to communicate. most people with a parasite count as high as hers would be in a coma. like the little boy whom i visited in mkata.

prosper, the son of one of my fellow students who happens to live in mkata, became ill about a week after we arrived in mkata. i had met him 2 days before became ill when he was a bouncing and playful 3 year old. then firimina, his mom and my fellow classmate, told me that he had become ill, and they were planning on taking him to the hospital. so the next day i walked with a group of students to visit little Prosper in the hospital. on the way to the hospital we had to cross thru this small stream of slowly moving water. i told one of the other students, 'this is where malaria thrives, in puddles like this.' and my only thought was, 'no wonder every one who goes to the hospital has malaria - they acquire it on the way there.' as we took off our shoes to cross the stream, i prayed that we'd be spared of the illness. upon arrival to the hospital room, little Prosper was in a coma. he was unresponsive to everything. he was on a iv drip of pure glucose, along with taking one dose of a certain pill each day. he was wrapped in 2 blankets and all his clothes. when i looked at him, i could tell that he was burning up. i touched his head and it was soaked with sweat, along with his entire body. i would guess his temp had been over 105. it seems to be an african thing to cover your children in many layers, no matter the outside temperture. we all prayed for Prosper and some of the other sick people in that room which housed 7 beds, then left. but before i left, i recommended to the father that he remove the blankets and fan the little boy so that his temperature could be lowered. it hurt me so much to see that little body laying on the bed with an iv of sugar water, nearly lifeless except for a faint breath, and no nurse or doctor there to do anything for him. that instance i wanted to go back to school to get some training in order to work in an african hospital, where babies in comas are being brought with malaria everyday.

the next day we went back to the hospital to check on Prosper and family, to discover that his fever had broken in the night, and he had requested to drink some water. he was still very week, and not able to sit on his own, but firimina insisted that prosper was better and it was time to take him home. (in an american hospital there would be no way that kid would've been released, but this is africa!) so firimina picked up prosper, gathered the few belongings which she had brought, strapped the kid on her back and walked out. there wasn't any paperwork or need to tell any one that she was taking prosper home. so much different than what i am used to. again, crossing the stream in order to take the little kid home to rest.

that's just a brief view of what it was like. that's all i'm gonna write about now - just wanted to get something updated. i've run out of time today to get more updates and stories, but i hope this piques your interests.