Makubwe

After 7 hours, five of them on a very bumpy dirt road, we arrived in the village of Makubwe, where we would sleep for the night.  I had never seen so many stars in my life – no need to worry about light pollution here, because the only lights were those of burning candles and my headlamp – a genius invention for this type of situation.  We were shown our room for the night – one of the clinic treatment rooms with a few mattresses on the floor.  Most of the ceiling was missing because it was bat-infested and an obvious health hazard for a clinic.  It still smelled so strongly of bats, that I slept with my blanket over my head each night and reminded myself that bats are better than mosquitoes.  I also slept in every piece of clothing I had brought because it was so cold.  This health center was our home-base as we traveled each day to a different village and health center.  Every two days, we would be given a bucket of hot water in which to bathe and every night we return in the dark to a meal of ishima (traditional staple food) and cabbage.  By the end of the week, we trained 4 Safe Motherhood Action Groups about the uses and importance of misoprostol, so they could do outreach within their communities.