25th August 2019
I apologise for the infrequency of my communications- much has happened since I last posted.
We did a medical outreach to the rural community of Bobii- a beautiful, forested spot away from the river about an hour drive from Tonj along muddied tracks- the surrounding bush lush with fresh growth from new rain. The community welcomed us with a parade of local school children singing a song with the sweet lyrics “welcome, welcome, welcome to you, welcome to you // We are very happy to see you today” replete with drums and a man on a ‘trumpet’ made from an incredible ringed antelope horn.
The people of Bobii are part of the smaller Luo tribe rather than the Dinka of Tonj, they are a bit different in appearance and have their own language. I love their greeting system: if greeting a woman you whisper the word ‘mathee, mathee’ (meaning ‘I greet you’) about five times while gently brushing your palms together in a circular motion, when greeting between men they shake hands vigorously with a tight grip and say the same words loudly. The women are also known for their fantastically intricate braids which I was in awe of. So beautiful.
We set up in the outdoor school under the trees. We have four stations: 1. the triage desk where temperatures, weights and symptoms are recorded, 2. the assessment tent where I and Dr Jono reviewed the patients, 3.the pharmacy tent where patients have finger-prick tests for malaria and are given medications and 4. a pastor station where our local pastors pray with and witnesses to patients. We reviewed a crazy 350 patients that day and many people came to the Lord (around 30 according to our awesome pastor Santino).
The medical aspect of the outreach is very simple, only very basic illnesses can be treated on the ground and a very few people with more complicated illnesses are asked to come with us back to Tonj. The most prevalent illness we treat is the malaria which is rampant this time of year. So many people had malaria that we ran out of medications, so a community leader came back to Tonj with us to collect medication for the rest of the people. One of the issues faced by organizations like In Deed And Truth is that the companies who make the Rapid malaria Diagnostic Tests (known as RDTs) and the malaria medications mark up the price of the tests; the RDT can cost triple the treatment cost so during the time of year when malaria is endemic it is easier and cheaper to just treat people who have a fever and report the symptoms of malaria than to do an RDT to confirm it first.
What is harder is seeing people with complex conditions which we know we don’t have the capacity to treat in Tonj… or even in Juba. The healthcare capacity of this nation is so limited all the way to the top. IDAT has assisted some patients to go to Kenya or Uganda for surgeries but this is a challenging and expensive process. Often there is nothing we can do and it is heartbreaking to stand in front of someone knowing that in another place they might be fine. Knowing that there is another option out of reach is so hard, that if they had been born into another country- your passport country- they would have a chance.
This time of year is called the ‘green hunger’, people have panted the last reserves of their food (predominantly sorghum and peanuts) and now hope for the rains to grow this year’s crop. It is a hard time, the land looks lush and abundant but families wait, watching their crops grow, with little to eat until they are ready for harvest. A painful patience which leaves many starving for several months.
It was with this in my mind that I was humbled by the generosity of the Bobii community when they killed a goat for us. We ate goat stomach stew, roasted goat meat, thin sorghum pancakes called kisera and were gifted wild honey they had found in the bush. It was an incredible gesture of love.
The day finished with singing, dancing- which I attempted with little success- and a speech from the chief of Bobii.
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