Malawi Blog 4

Today our trip took us way out to a remote village that took us a long time to get to.  The pink bus performed admirable on roads that even a four wheel drive vehicle would struggle with.

At the village we went to there was not the accommodations that we had the day before at the Methodist Church so we had to set up the pharmacy in the pink bus and dispense medicines through the bus door.

The induction table and the nurses station were outside and the clinicians worked out of a small empty building.

At first there were only 20 to 30 people in line.  We were so remote that a small line did not surprise us but shortly after we opened the line began too get longer and longer.  By the end of the day we treated 313 patients.  Many of the children below the age of five had malaria.  We were fortunate enough to have had malaria test kits to test them.

Malaria is a life threatening disease spread to humans by some types of mosquitoes.  It is preventable and curable but these people had not seen a mobile medical clinic in their area for over a year.

At the end of the day we had exhausted many of our supplies and had to bring the clinic to a close.  There were still 20 to 30 people that arrived late that we were not able to treat.

The ride back to the hotel was a reminder of how life in Malawi is, especially in remote areas.   When we left we felt that we had made a difference but wished we could have done more.

Tomorrow are going to a different area and we are going to bring more Malaria test kits now that we know how extensive this outbreak really is in these remote villages.