The local hospital

Hello! It has been a little while since the last update, hope all is well with you.

This update is about the hospital here in the town which is state run but has support from some overseas agencies. Sometimes we need to visit this hospital in the town here for a reasons; to collect medicines, check on the toilets and pump Medair has built or visit someone we know. This particular time I with the communications officer and she was interviewing some patients and keeping them informed about Medair`s work with the hospital. We had a look around the outside and then went into the maternity ward.

So this is in the main courtyard. The hospital was built during Belgian colonisation before independence in the 1960s, no doubt by the local people. Quite alot of public buildings were built during this period. It has given some infrastructure, although alot of it is crumbling.

Checking on the new well in the courtyard which, in theory, gives a water supply to the hospital. However for some reason it had no water in it; lots of hand on hip action whilst figuring out the problem!

Water for washing hands is collected from rainwater, the water runs down into this drum.

 Some people waiting to see the doctor......

......and the doctor analysing a sample. He was holding up to the the sunlight to help establish the problem.

Sisters! Traditional Congolese hair style which has probably been around for a long, long time (I like to be vague!). Livingstone noted this particular `do` when he explored Congo in the late 1800s. 

Toilets built by Medair with the hospital, the signs on the doors have been painted on by a local artist. We asked for a woman`s sign and a disabled sign....

 I have seen quite a few disabled people here but they are all in home made wheel chairs, I have not seen anyone like this - but perhaps this is the reality in their own home.

 Into the maternity ward...this is the midwife and she was very nice.

The ward for mothers and new-born babies.

 New sister!!

This lady had received a c-section and was recovering - she was preparing to go back home.

The hospital kitchen which is actually patients cooking for other patients. They use the local method which is a low charcoal stove on which they cook rice and pondu - a sort of spinich. It is obviously difficult conditions in which to prepare food for patients but they manage to do it.

Thanks for reading.