Just wanted to give a quick update about what has been happening at clinic in the recent weeks! I feel like we are constantly searching for ways to connect with the kids we are working with. Many have never seen or interacted with a white person. We have heard that some families even tell their children that if they misbehave, the “zungus” or white people will come to get them. Doesn’t help our cause much, eh? We are often met with screams and kicks instead of smiles, but we can’t take it personally! The babies and moms are attached at the hip. Someone (us) breaking that attachment and putting them on a cold height board while holding their knees down to get a proper measurement is not the happiest of memories for the babies. Regardless, the few moments we are able to get a smile or hold and dance with the babies make up for the blood-curdling screams 🙂 Recently, at a clinic called Chikonde, we were surrounded by young school age children who were curious about what we were doing. As we were leaving, I offered a high five to one of the kids, who ran away like I was trying to hit them 🙄 I demonstrated with my other hand what a high five looked like, and then slowly the kids took steps forward to slap my hand back. Pretty soon I was swarmed with giggling children giving me hundreds of high fives! Such a fun moment. I also demonstrated a fist bump, which was even more popular! Next time I’ll introduce the “shaka” to give Africa some California flair 🙌🏼 The kids were still fist bumping as we were about to drive away, shown in the video above! Often times we are unable to properly communicate with words, but gestures and smiles can connect us just as well! At the same clinic, we were able to try sugar cane! And we also learned that Africans have WAY stronger teeth than we do, as ripping off the outside of the sugar cane stalk and biting off sections proved to be very energy draining and difficult. Once you rip off the outside (think of something along the lines of bamboo) you chew chunks of the “soft” (not that soft) fibrous middle. Chewing it gets all of the sugary sweet juice out! Then you spit out the fibrous part….so glamorous. Sugar cane is cheap so I often see people eating it as a snack along the roads.
Second overnight: I witnessed the smallest babies I have seen so far, each having a 7-something MUAC measurement. To be considered healthy, a 12.5 MUAC is needed in most cases. A 7-something means the biceps area of their arm was smaller than the circumference of a quarter. We were able to enroll both in our study, yay! I was able to hold a sweetheart named Mina for awhile at Chamba, and Paul at Mlomba, making it a very good day for baby-holding ❤️ I assisted with 7 blood draws over the course of our 4 clinic run, and am now confident in my blood draw assisting abilities (quite a big deal for me hating anything having to do with needles and veins 😷)! Making my parents proud one blood draw at a time 😂 We transported one child and mother to the hospital after measuring fairly severe edema in the child. The nurse pointed out that the edema was probably due to anemia, as the child had pale palms, conjunctiva, skin, and tongue. After treatment for anemia, he will be able to be screened again for malnutrition, and hopefully register as healthy. It was interesting to see an edema case due to something other than malnutrition! We also saw a supposedly 16 year old child with apparent stunted growth due to undiagnosed HIV. Unfortunately we are unable to feed him due to our age requirements, but he was able to be referred to the Supplemental Feeding Program that almost all clinics are able to provide through the government.
Some dark observations: We see several children each clinic day that have Cerebral Palsy, some worse than others. In a poor environment, they are often not able to have the proper care they need. In some villages, they are seen as “cursed”. In Ghana in particular, some children with this condition are buried alive because of this taboo. It happened to one of the children in our Ghana study, done by the child’s own father. Again, this is the harsh reality of parts of these cultures. We also often see grandmothers bringing children to clinic because the moms have passed away. Be thankful that our maternal death rates are low. A lot of babies here are malnourished because they never had the chance to breastfeed, and the grandmothers and other village mothers do all they can. I am thankful that we are able to intervene as soon as the baby reaches 6 months, and hopefully set them up for success!
Thanks for following along! 🤘🏼
Project Postgrad 