6 people are allowed to go with Ba Rogers to the Kalomo Hospital each Thursday. I went for the first time this week, and I had heard stories about how hard it was but I finally got to experience it 1st hand. It is definitely not a place with top notch care where they can give you anything you need. We walked through about 4 different wards which were just single rooms that had anywhere from 3-10 beds with the sick person on the bed along with the family/visitors because they didn’t have room to sit anywhere else. It was really difficult to walk through because we are there to comfort them but we don’t know what to say or how to say it so they’d understand. All we could do is walk around and greet them in tonga and then ask them something in English and if you were lucky they’d understand and then you could start a convo. with them. Most rooms though after greeting them someone prayed over the room and shared an encouraging scripture while Ba Rogers translated. One of the strangest things I saw was a man’s hand who herds cattle. One day he reached down to grab a stick and a thorn punctured his hand so now his hand looks raw and is infected so much that it’s the size of a tennis ball.
After the wards we went out back to a building where pregnant women are waiting till they give birth and where care givers stay. There were no beds anywhere, just small sacks of personal belongings and straw sacks people sat on. The 6 of us sat down with everyone and we all sang in tonga and then one of the guys gave a message and prayed for them.
The experience wasn’t something I didn’t expect, because I was prepared for the poor conditions. It’s the thought that Macha Mission Hospital is 2 hours away and its cleaner with a higher standard of care, but these people don’t have the money or energy to get there so they are stuck physically ill in an unsanitary situation.
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