day twenty seven

I think the honeymoon period is wearing off and the reality of the fact that I actually have another 11 months living here is setting in...

Earlier this week I got to go do supervision visits at various different health facilities around the Ikolomani sub-county with the Chief Medical Officer, Head of Laboratory, Head of Pharmacy, and the Disease Surveillance officer. I got to see first hand the various levels of infrastructure, capabilities, ridiculousness and sheer wasted opportunities that are the health facilities. I experienced my first real wtf/banging-head-against-wall/disbelief of politics and the laziness and "the church" which everyone had warned me about.

The view from one of the facilities I visited - this is their Pharmacy. The building at the back is actually not-fit-for-use however, as this is a private-public partnership, the owners refuse to fix the building up so that it can be used as an in-patient ward. The government cannot fix it up as it would be deemed a violation of contract. And yes, those are cows.

But I also met some incredibly ingenious people who in the face of scarcity and insufficiency, they have excelled themselves and shown creative ingeniousness. At one facility, this one guy nurse had taken it upon himself to go to the local internet cafe and create bar charts of case data and print them out - incredible! He's no different to any of the others, and yet he took initiative and created something beautiful (well, to me it is).

Look at these beauties!

I've also discovered that my supervisor is rather down-to-earth - yes, he's the head medical officer for the sub-county region, but he's just like any other person... I loved the fact that when the 4WD broke down he was one of them to get out and push. Good leadership!

L-R: Head of Laboratory, Chief Medical Officer, Disease Surveillance Officer...

The other two days of this week have been filled with many, many, more examples of my experiencing this sheer disbelief at what Ps Darren would say as "TIA" and it is with this that I came home this afternoon with a huge pit in my stomach wondering why on earth I thought this was a good idea and how will I ever make a meaningful and sustainable difference? But writing this post has helped me calm down and say pole pole - I've still got eleven more months, so what's the rush?

Yep, a box of condoms nailed to the wall outside the Pharmacy. I thought it was funny.