It's off to the clinic we go!

Yesterday, we went to visit a few clinics to evaluate what they have been doing and to see if they need any support from the regional office. Our first stop was the Orumana clinic, which was about 30 km south away from Opuwo. And about 15 km away from Opuwo, we began the bumpity ride on the gravel road to the clinic. The clinic itself looked pretty organized—more so than even the Okahandja hospital! 

Elizabeth at the Orumana clinic

As of September 2007, there were 1,632 people in Orumana. From what the enrolled nurse at the clinic told us, the common ailments that affect the people of Orumana include diarrhea, respiratory problems, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Surprising to me, the village doesn’t have any issues with malaria, which IS a common disease in Opuwo.  In the clinic itself, there was a room for intake and counseling, an HIV testing room, and a room for emergencies. And in the room that we were in, there was an entire case full of condoms. I was so happy to see that the clinic wasn’t relying on abstinence as the only method of prevention. Not seeing any female condoms, I asked about the use of femidoms/female condoms in the clinic. My counterpart, Sr. Shiningwa, said that the Ministry of Gender used to lead that project to make sure femidoms were available, but they have since phased out that project. She didn’t know which ministry was in charge of it now though. I think that it’d be a great project to get going again—a way to empower women.

After finishing our visit at the first clinic, we drove back to Opuwo to drop someone off at the Opuwo district hospital and to grab some lunch. While at the grocery store, I saw this massive fat cake for sale at the prepared food area. For anyone that does not know, a fat cake is like a giant ball of fried dough. And this fat cake was gigantic! Inside of it I was told was ground beef, onions and sweet peppers. For only N$12, it sounded delicious! Halfway through eating it though, I had to stop and pace myself. It was just too big to eat in one sitting. 

Me with my massive ground beef filled fat cake

Elizabeth with her huge fat cake

With my belly full of fat cake and Oshikandela, we set out to see the second clinic which was in Ohandungu about 50 km north from Opuwo. When we arrived, we had just gotten there about 5 minutes before everyone’s lunch break, so it was just barely enough time to introduce ourselves to the nurse before he set out for lunch. While he had his lunch break, we wandered around the clinic, looking at the various posters they had hanging up and seeing what medications had expired or were soon to be expiring. The nurse at this clinic didn’t seem to speak much English and so it was hard for me to ask questions about the clinic and the population of Ohandungu itself. While wandering around the clinic though, I did see that it was much newer than the Orumana clinic, with this clinic being constructed in 2003. 

After driving back on the bumpity, gravel road, we made our way back to Opuwo, just enough time for me to have about an hour left of work before the day was done. With all this traveling and outreach at the clinics, I was exhausted! It was definitely nice just to have a quiet night before another day at the office.