Day Four

Up a bit later and to the office for an 8:45am departure to the field. We went out with a few goals in terms of getting footage to show people more of what the CHWs are doing to provide health care on foot to thousands of people! We again stopped at a crazy supermarket to get more water and digestive fiber cookies (YUM!!). We went straight to the main health clinic in Ruhiira, took a quick tour, used the pit latrines they had in the back of the clinic and went out for a few more home visits. The first one was a mother caring for six children... one of them, Francisco, who must have been between 2 and 3, was a little charmer. We got attached to each other immediately and he held my hand and sat on my lap as the CHW spoke with the mother of the family about family planning. They showed her the various options and she opted to take three months of birth control pills... it was pretty cool to see the same old pill packets being distributed to women in rural Uganda... and it seems she needed the pill with six young kids running around!

The next family was a grandmother and mother with her six kids... and we went around the back of the house to observe the CHWs give the women a lesson in proper sanitation for the kids. It was really interesting how they referred to pictographs in the manual to show what they have identified as the key actions for sanitation: hand-washing, clipping finger nails, covering mouth when coughing, and regularly bathing. Seems simple, but for these people its a lot more difficult to access the clean water you need to keep clean.

The last home visit was with a mother and her four young kids. The baby was sick and the CHWs was following up on the baby's progress. Clearly, the baby was still sick and the health worker suggested a malaria test. As we were under the overhang of the solid brick house, there was a light drizzle that was seeming to get progressively less light... and it made me think that with all the rain and standing water around us: should we be getting the malaria test too??? Luckily, we had been taking the prophylactic Malarone, which prevents malaria but makes you have intense dreams... especially when you wake up to the bed net gently resting on your face.

After about 15 minutes of anticipation by us, the baby's mother and siblings and a few neighbors who had come by to watch our spectacle, we learned that the results were negative. Great news that the baby does not have malaria, but the health workers and mother are left still concerned as to why she is so sick. At least the CHWs are aware of the sick baby and can come back for check-ups!

After the visit was finished, we used the unbelievable setting of the house and yard on the hillside to get some footage of us talking about the bags and the program we are supporting. This would have been the perfect spot for filming had the light drizzle not slowly turned into a downpour. One of the highlights of the blooper real will be Lauren standing in the increasingly heavy rain trying to maintain her composure while discussing the wonders of the FEED Health backpack!!