Numerous people have asked if I was going to start blogging again now that I am back in Africa. I had not planned on it, but for whatever reason I was inspired today to share this story. I am not promising I will keep up the blogging during my time here, but I do hope to share a story from time-to-time.
I have been in South Sudan just under 5-months and I now find it a little difficult to put things into words. Life is what it is here. It can seem difficult for me at times, but let's remember that I have luxuries beyond the imagination compared to the community I live within here in Ganyliel, Unity State.
I returned to Ganyliel via helicopter early this week, after having been away for coverage at my other post (Rumbek) and for a little R&R. It is amazing how quickly the landscape changes here. When I was first introduced to Ganyliel 5-months ago it was dry, dusty, hot, and barren. Now it is lush, green, still hot (but cool at night), and seems full of life. Now granted, a good portion of that "life" seems to be found within the budding mosquito population right now (my ankles and wrists can attest to that), but I was told that would be the case at this time of year. I have a mosquito net to sleep under, I have meds to take on a daily basis to help prevent me from getting malaria, I have drugs to take if/when I catch malaria again... what happens when those things are not offered to you? My scenario, while it might seem tough for many, would be considered the lap of luxury for others.
Lack of resources out here is due to how remote we are. The humanitarian organization I work for here provides primary health care (along with numerous other services) and our health services are scattered throughout the region, but if you do not live near one of those locations where our clinics are or near our health center, then you are faced with the obstacle of access. It could simply be a 22km walk to the nearest health center and when you've had a fever of 105'F for two days, cannot keep anything in your system, might have started convulsing, and it's at least in the mid-90's, that is a fairly long walk.
We had a "call" like that this evening (not really a call as we do not have mobile reception out here, but one of our Community Health Workers (CHWs) walked the distance to inform us of the sick patient). Because it is rainy season, we normally do not allow our vehicles on the roads (more like sloppy, dirt paths). But we had not had any rain in 4-5 days, I doubled-checked with some of the staff who had walked said "road" recently, and gave the green light to go retrieve this patient. Twenty minutes after our driver and CHW left to retrieve the patient, the rains came down in sheets. After 90-minutes, they all made it back safely and the patient was able to start treatment for the next few days here at our health center in Ganyliel. When I asked our driver how the trip was, he simply smiled and said "we got the patient."
In a place where there are very few roads, rampant malaria rates and disease, where the rains cut you off from the rest of the world, and life is just plain difficult a good portion of the time... a few of our team members were able to help save a life today and our driver's smile said it all.
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