Another Day's Adventure

November 25th was definitely the most emotionally difficult day I've experienced so far. The morning started well...I headed to the village of Kimakouwa with my friend Joseph Mara along to act as translator...we were scheduled to meet with 4 households who are currently testing solar lights that TEMBO has installed in their boma huts. The meeting went quite well (I could write pages about the protocol around African meetings, as I'm coming to understand it) but as we neared the end there was a flurry of cellphone activity going on. Joseph let me know that we'd been asked if we could assist with transporting someone to the clinic in Longido, as there is no medical care available in Kimokouwa village. Of course, I agreed that we'd use the land rover and help in any way we could.

Kimokouwa is a very spread-out village, and the various bomas are spread out with very few connecting 'roads' between them. Of course, all the rain we've been expeiencing lately has left the ground very muddy and unstable in places. So....as it turned out we were sent to one of the more distant bomas. The rover was loaded with most of the men who'd been at our meeting, as well as a woman who'd run in to ask us to please come quickly. As we attempted to make our way to the patient's home we managed to get stuck to the top of our wheels in mud. Lots of cooperative efforts got us back on the 'road' quite quickly. Eventually we reached a gathered crowd...the patient was brought out to the road in a wheelbarrow. She was a young Maasai woman and as best I could understand the story, had given birth that morning to a stillborn child. The mother was in a great deal of pain and distress and the midwife knew that the situation was beyond her training. It was an amazing stroke of luck that we'd brought a vehicle to the village that day.

The midwife and a group of women managed to get the patient settled into the back seat of the Rover and we headed off for Longido. Of course, nothing ever seems to be simple here, and as luck would have it, we ended up stuck, not just once more, but twice, in the fields of mud. While the Maasai women stayed in the back of the Rover with the patient, I got out and tried my best to help out with the work of extracting the jeep. Men were running off in all directions to cut branches to put under the wheels for traction. A small boy was sent running off to find a hoe we needed for some strategic digging under one of the tires. People flowed in from all directions to help with pushing, or, in the case of the women and children, to simply watch the proceedings. I'm learning that the Maasai aren't often quick to show negative feelings. But, as time passed and we continued to be frustrated by our slow progress through the mud toward the highway, I saw a tremendous amount of anguish on the faces of many of the onlookers. Eventually, we reached solid ground, great cheers went up from everyone, and we piled back into the Rover to make our way to the clinic as quickly as the Rover would let us.

I have not yet been able to determine whether the woman was treated in Longido or moved to the hospital in Arusha, nor even whether she's come through okay. I'll continue to try and inquire when I return to the village in a few days.

May I never again complain about the quality of medical care, wait times and such, once I return to Canada.