Efridah & Naomi

Hello again –

Dave and I were talking about some of our most memorable encounters since we’ve been here and decided that we should catalogue a few stories to look back on once this experience is over. So – that said, here’s one from 2 weeks ago…

I had the opportunity to visit western province, 7 hours from Lusaka, and sit with a nurse in clinic as she saw her patients. At St. Francis Mission Hospital as a solution to the lack of providers and the overwhelming number of patients, we have trained the nurses to function as prescribers for the HIV clinic. I want to share one of our patients - the story of Efridah and Naomi.

Efridah is an older woman that came in with an infant (Naomi) wrapped on her back and quietly sat down in front of us. In Nyanja, the local language, she explained that her daughter had just been buried that morning, and now there would be no milk to feed her orphaned granddaughter. Naomi was just 3 months old. The nurse calmly wrote an order for 4 tins of formula and informed the grandmother that St Francis would provide the replacement milk until the child turned 5 months, and then they could not continue. Efridah was grateful and rushed to retrieve the formula with the instruction that she should return with the tins. She was back in a few minutes and proceeded to feed Naomi from a dirty green cup, which Naomi slurped down as fast as she could.

We learned that Efridah stayed in a village that was more than 50 kms from the hospital and had no money for transport back home. By this time, it was late afternoon, so Efridah was asked to lodge in the ward with Naomi overnight and return in the morning to discuss transport. Since a colleague and I had finished our chart reviews, we planned to venture out to one of the satellite clinics in the same direction as Efridah’s village; so we offered to drive her home. Without saying much, the offer was accepted and we started off early this morning. After 2 hours of driving, over boulders and ditches, past mud huts with straw roofs, through the hills of Katete and Msoro, we arrived at her home. She had been holding the baby tight on her lap the entire way. She was greeted by her 2 daughters and 1 son (siblings to the deceased) who were wailing, just realizing the fate of their sister. Efridah began crying and retreated inside her hut with her family as we unloaded her belongings. We needed to be sure the family was clear how the formula should be prepared since it is very rare that a child is not breastfed. It is really important that the water is boiled and the cup is clean to protect Naomi from diarrheal illnesses that could be fatal. We were set to leave when Efridah came out of the hut. She kneeled down in the dirt and looked up at us, uttering through tears her first words in English since we had met. She said, “Thank you very much.” And I decided, that today, that experience felt like enough of a reason to be here.

There are many times I wonder why we came and if we should just come home to the comforts and the company of our family and friends… and then there are days like that day… that I feel like we are where we need to be.

We love you all and hope to connect soon on email or skype. We’ve finally put some (random) pictures on smugmug.com. http://dave-n-kim.smugmug.com We'll keep adding... and hope to also attach our wedding picture link soon too.

Love,

Kim & Dave

PS - Dave assures me he is going to add his comments soon!