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The most striking thing you see in the maternity ward at the Bulape Hospital is not the babies. It is the hanging mosquito nets over each bed.
The nets protect the mother and her newborn baby from malaria. Pregnant and nursing women along with babies are most vulnerable to malaria. Too many times it is fatal.
We, Congo Helping Hands, provide mosquito nets free of charge to this vulnerable group to take home.
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Prenatal Counseling is an effective way to reduce the risk of mother and child deaths.
The Bulape Hospital counsels pregnant women on a number of different subjects which are aimed to reduce both mother and child mortality. Women attend sessions periodically during their pregnancy.
Currently, about 1 out of 5 children in Congo die before their fifth birthday. Also, about 1 out 13 women in Congo die from birth complications. Therefore, this service can save lives.
Also, visit www.WhatsWoodyDoingNow.com
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On the way to a dinner invitation, I was not pay particular attention to where I was walking. I was following and talking to Justin as we made a shortcut from the Bulape Cultural Center. We were headed to the house of the hospital administrator, Mr. Joseph. About halfway to his house, I encountered the biggest hole I have ever seen.
You have to watch your step or watch where you are walking when cutting between the houses in Bulape. Because you could easily fall into a hole. But this hole was like a crater.
It is common practice to use the mud close to the house you are building. So depending on the size of your house and its newest of your house the hole could be quite big.
Obviously, this person had used mud from the hole to build multiple houses. Probably, they were built for family members. It would have been wiser to use several smaller holes. One hole could have been used for the latrine or multiple latrines and the other for trash as usual. However, I think this hole would not be filled by trash before it is time to rebuild their houses.
Thatched roofed and mud walled houses do not last but about 3-5 years depending on the weather.
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Even while riding on the back of the motorbike, I was sweating so much. My Congolese companions were wearing coats. And they were not really sweating. But I had on a long sleeve shirt with a T-shirt to protect my arms from the tree limbs and bush grass.
Even though I was hot and losing plenty of water, I did not want to drink too much water. Because I am not sure my driver would have stopped for me to make an unscheduled pit stop. So I limited my intake of water to a minimum.
Finally, we arrived in village of Bokila, the end of the road for our trip. It was time to rehydrate. We sat down after walking along the edge of the Sankuru River. We asked for some drinking water but they did not have any drinking water. We had to go back up to the main part of the village to get some water.
Even in the main village, they did not bring us an abundant amount of water. They offered us plenty of palm wine and moonshine. At that point, I really missed plenty of drinking water.
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The Bulape Health Zone sells USAID-subsidized insecticide treated mosquito nets. On the plateau around Bulape, the mosquitoes are not so bad.
But in the tropical jungle areas and near the many river basins, mosquito netting is a life saver. I got to see the power of mosquito nets first hand.
First, while we loading the motorbikes in the dugout canoe, one of the guys operating the crossing of at river made his point. He recognized the drivers as health clinic officials. He started remembering them that there was not enough mosquito nets at their health clinics. Without missing a beat, the driver pointed to the doctor. He told the river worker to tell the doctor about their problems with lack of mosquito nets.
Second, upon our arrival at the village of Bokila, the lack of mosquito nets became our personal issue. The village is located on the Sankuru River. The drivers started to warn us that we would have to sleep under nets because the mosquitoes were extremely bad. We were lucky because we staying in the health clinic which had netting for the patient beds.
Throughout the night, everyone heard the sound of mosquitoes buzzing outside the nets over our beds. I do not think I was bitten during the night.
Please visit www.WhatsWoodyDoingNow.com For more about my Congo adventures.
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After breakfast, I was sitting in the rocking chair reading the newspaper and having a second cup of coffee. Not really, but I was reading a book by Seth Godin.
Suddenly, I saw two girls carrying water on their heads walking to the front door. This was the first time that I had seen them bring water to the house. But I was curious as to where they were getting the water. The guest house does not have a cistern, so the water must be coming from a cistern located at another house or the hospital.
I found out it was coming from a relatively short distance. The adjoining Technical High School has a cistern. I followed the girls back to the cistern. Unbelievably, the cistern had piping but no pump. So they have to dip out the water with a coffee can at the end of a long bamboo stick.
The two girls made numerous trips to fill three 55-gallon drums next to the kitchen. Getting water is such a challenge.
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The visit by Pastor Jack and Father David got us off schedule early this morning. We had not expected them to show up from Mweka which is only 20 miles away. However the trip probably took an hour or more on their motorbike.
We had to make a quick stop to the hospital's cybercafe to start recharging Justin's computer. We left it at the hospital and started the walk across to the other side of the village to Bulape 2 Elementary School.
As I walked out of the hospital, I noticed the cows were grazing along our way to the village. I have never been some close to the cows of Bulape. (The cows are a mystery that I can not get a logical answer to my question.)
We arrived at Bulape 2 around 12 noon. School lets out at the same time. OK, I was not going to make any hits keeping them longer. But I tried to make up for our tardiness with plenty of pictures and video.
Bulape 2 is one of the two schools in Bulape that needs to be rebuilt into more permanent structures. The buildings are the traditional mud walled and thatched roofed construction. While the other schools in Bulape are block construction and builted by the former missionaries. We are trying to bring the two village elementary schools closer to old mission station schools.
I think we made a hit with the video especially after the headmaster told one of the students that we were filming for TV. I am not sure alll the children understood the TV reference but I think most of them have seen or heard about TV.
We were almost stampeded by the children when the headmaster finally blew the whistle. As we walked along the road back into the village, I just have to take another picture of some students. I was really pressing my lucky. But they were just too cute!!
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Going to get a pale of water takes hours in Bulape. I saw lots of little Congolese Jacks and Jills, today. They were all going down the hill through the woods to get some water.
Most of the children passed us going down the hill. They were racing and playing on the way to the water source. A few women were going to get water, too. The path through the woods were heavily traveled. You could not get lost because you only had to follow or keep up with the children with the empty water buckets, pales, and jugs in their hands.
Just before you got to the water source, you had to go down a very steep hill on the side of a field next to the woods. It is about a 60 degree slope.
Then you went through some more woods until you came to one of three capped springs in the area. They were all done in 2008. Two capped springs were done by the Bulape Health Zone and one by a Canadian sponsor.
Once they filled their water jugs, buckets, or pales, it was time to make the long uphill trip back to the village. They were no playing or racing back to the village by the children. It was all serious and hard work!
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The women were a little upset with the hospital's water czar. He was being a little hard-nosed while trying to conserve water for the hospital.
The women were visiting sick relatives in the different wards. The hospital is unlike the traditional American hospital. The family of the patient is responsible feeding and caring for their family member. So that caring would include washing patients, their clothes and bedding, and providing food and water.
The hospital have four working cisterns to catch rain water from roofs. The water czar was rationing water from each cistern. Unfortunately, he did not just go from one cistern to another to balance the water levels.
He quit just as the word spread to the wards that he had unlocked the cistern. After about 10 women had gone water, he left and went back to his office. Some of the women knew the routine and immediately went to the another cistern.
After about 15 minutes he appeared again going to another cistern. The women had picked the wrong cistern or he just chose a different cistern to aggravate them. Then the water ritual started all over again. Women demanding water while he visually and verbally reprimanding them.
Luckily, it is not the dry season yet!
Please visit www.WhatsWoodyDoingNow.com For my other bloggings about Congo.
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We were standing on the side of one of the main road to the hospital. We were watching and waiting for the guy to transfer credit to a prepaid phone. Suddenly, I heard a commotion moving along the road.
I looked up to see about four young guys running with a log on their shoulders. The two front guys had the pole on opposite shoulders and the same for the rear two guys. The log was a freshly cut small tree slightly smaller than a bread plate. They looked like Roman soldiers carrying their leader.
To my surprise and shocked, they had something wrapped in a green cloth tied under the pole. As they passed, you could make out it was body securely wrapped in a piece of the cloth.
I just stood there in shock. But everyone else did not look up at the commotion. I guess its like major city dwellers don't really pay attention the sound of constant sirens.
The rural bush ambulance had passed before I recognized it. It is followed by another 4-6 guys who could serve as fresh carriers.
Later as we went home, we met the doctor walking to the hospital.
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