The life of a rural GP continues

Transport to those further from the hospital

Gatayo with his new clothes

In the past few weeks I have been continuing my visits to the vulnerable elderly around Kibogora with the social care team Console and Etienne. There have been some donations recently through the Kibogora Initiative fund and also from some visiting members of a church in Lancaster that fund raise to keep this elderly programme going. These donations meant that we were able to take gifts of clothes and food. One man received a warm jacket, jumper, t-shirt, socks, and even a smart shirt and tie so he could wear them to church on Sunday. He was so pleased to be receiving these, smiling and thanking us, it made me feel so humble…how many of us have more than one jumper and jacket at home? More than one pair of socks? Yes, me too. I have so much, even here where I thought I had seriously packed light. These visits constantly give me a new perspective and a view into a life I think I finally understand. No one can really imagine these lives. Where you have dirt floors, mud brick houses with gaps in the walls, corrugated iron roofs, maybe you have a toilet maybe you don’t and by toilet I mean hole in the ground with a fence around it. Maybe today you have food, maybe you don’t. 

A new water storage facility

Even in these conditions their smiles are bright, they are so amazed that I am there and asking them how are today. Most tell me they have hip, knee and generalised all over body pain and I’m thinking of course you do! – you sleep on a mattress of woven reeds, you cultivate during the day, you walk up and down these steep hills, you still work and most of you are over 85! Sometimes I diagnose a case of asthma, a chest infection and can help them with antibiotics, analgesia and a salbutamol inhaler (and the steroid inhalers just became available yes!). But most of the time the fact we are actually visiting them and trying to improve the state of their houses, giving them warm clothes and food when we can is the best intervention we can do. 

Building a toilet

The social team can also help with replacing roofs, building toilets and helping with access to water. Currently they are working on re-housing a man and his wife who live close to the lake by a little river whose house floods every time it rains and the river rises. It is currently the short dry season here and it has rained most days including some heavy storms so I can’t imagine what it’s like for them in the wet season.

Singing and praising God

Drinking porridge

Another of the ways the social care programme for the vulnerable elderly helps is by holding an event one morning a month (when they can afford it). Here there is a time of singing and dancing before the pastor reads from the bible and prays. Then cups of porridge (an interesting mix of maize flour, soya, sorghum and sugar) are handed out with a bread roll. This is followed by the social team doing some teaching, this month it was on hygiene – the importance of keeping clothes clean and washing themselves etc. Then a bit more dancing and singing before everyone goes home with a bag containing a kilo of rice, beans, salt and some soap. There were maybe 80 people there, it costs £200 to put on one of these events. £200 to feed all of them while they are there and give them some food to go home with.

Soap, beans, rice, flour

For me it was great to see so many of those that I had seen in their homes and see them looking well. It was a privilege to help serve them and hand out the food and I really hope the programme continues more regularly as they rely more on donations through the Kibogora Initiative. Working with this team has been one of the most eye-opening experiences I have had. It provides me with a good balance from the internal medicine ward work as sometimes you forget the conditions people have come from and the different things going on in their lives which has culminated in their hospital admission.