It Takes a Village - UPDATE - Outreach to Djati

I received some very good news today. Juan and Raquel (the nurses who accompanied us to Djati) have a new medical outreach project called, Hope and Health for Guine Bissua. The team goes into villages to perform much needed medical services.

The first village they visited was Djati.

It takes about 3 hrs to drive the 30 bumpy miles to Djati once you leave the main road. The pictures below tell the story. During the rainy season this road is impassable and turns into a river.  Any villagers requiring medical attention must be taken out via canoe.

 

Here's an update from my on the on-ground-reporter, Maritza!

The health brigade was an absolute success! We got up at 5:00 a.m  had breakfast at Raquel's and after loading everything we were able to leave around 8.

 When we arrived it appeared as if the whole village was waiting for us.

 We used the first classroom, the one you and Randii and Willie were in. We used the benches and tables (thanks you Randii) and proceeded to divide the room. One area was used for Raquel and Juan (nursing) and the second area was for Dr. Mafalda (dental), Jeremias N'batna ran back and forth helping as translator whenever a patient didn't speak Krioul or Portuguese, he was a great help and me (photographer and gofer,etc)

There were over 50 people seen from 10:30 am to 9:00 pm with the inconvenience of using flashlights and rechargeable lights until the light ran out.

 Classroom number two was used for our kitchen. 

The two rooms designated for the teachers were used as our sleeping quarters. Thanks to It takes a Village we were able to have an area where Juan, Raquel and Dr. Mafalda worked and gave hope to many.

 At 10:00pm we had dinner. The team was exhausted. We had been on our feet twelve hours but the satisfaction of having made a difference blessed our hearts.

We even had real bathrooms :) WOW first class five star hotel! The only thing is that we didn't showers. Antonio, the school principal brought enough water for us to shower but one of our friends didn't know the water was for all of us and showered until there was no more water. What a shock! Now we will be ready for the next brigade.  We will all bring our own 5 liter jug in preparation for a shower.

While the nurse and doctor attended patients, there was a tremendous football game outside in the field, and many villagers came out to watch the game. It was a happy atmosphere.  I will send you guys all the pictures later, right now the internet is slow. I am sure all of you will feel so proud of having made such a difference in that village.

We all send our love and lots of hugs,

 Maritza