Baramba (rural clinic)

                                

  

Koutiala Hospital supports 6 rural health clinics that are in surrounding areas.  As much as Koutiala looks "rural" in my pictures, these dispensaire's are in the mild of nowhere and are very quiet.  The clinics do all of the deliveries in the area and take care of the basic pediatric care as well.  One of the goals of this trip is to equip 3 out of the 6 clinics with the tools to do sickle cell screening.  Baramba was a perfect place to start.

The Baramba team with Brett and Joseph (pediatric nurse from Koutiala in the front)

Showing the team the blood spot cards and the equipment to draw samples from all of the newborns (they have around 600 deliveries per year).

All meetings are held out in the shade to stay away from the heat.  You can see the water tower for the clinic in the background.

Talking to the first mother about screening her 3 day old baby.  This is the "post-partum" area.

Joseph teaching the maternity nurses about the process of collecting blood from the cord.

Collecting the samples on the cards (donated by Perkin-Elmer in Greenville).  They will collect 50-60 samples in a batch and then deliver to Koutiala for the testing.

The nurses in Baramba learned quickly and are ready to collect the samples on their own.

Random pics from the delivery room.

This used, but relatively fancy delivery bed, was donated to the center but was in the corner in a side room and had never been used before.  We helped the team discover how much better this bed would be for their deliveries and then assisted moving into the delivery room.  

After collecting the samples, we had a small lecture on sickle cell complications with the team using my computer.

The separation between life and death is very narrow in this part of Africa.  The morgue is only about 50 feet from the entrance to the clinic.

Our "gift" for traveling to Baramba.... 2 chickens to take back to Koutiala!

On the road to Baramba...

The hot season is the time to mend your mud house and fences.  You can see the mud bricks stacked in the background.

The amazing Baobab tree...

Give a kick

"Give a Kick" is a non-profit organization started by a student currently at Princeton to distribute donated soccer balls as part of structured programs in developing countries.  We were able to get 25 brand new soccer balls for this trip and started the process of giving them out today.  Koutiala Hospital has a soccer outreach program for local teenagers and we donated 5 balls to their team this afternoon during their practice.  You can see photos of the team and their new soccer balls below.  Tomorrow we will deliver soccer balls to several other youth programs in Koutiala.

 It is currently the hot/dry season in Mali....not sure why it is also the season that everyone plays soccer!  Lots of dust everywhere.

 These were the only balls that the team had to play with and were definitely worn down.

 Patrick playing with some patients from the hospital while we were watching the action.

Local kids playing soccer near Brett's house.

The final leg of our trip is now complete! We arrived in Koutiala this afternoon and Brett took us out for a ride and to give Patrick a tour of the hospital.  Here are a few pictures to give you a sense of the day....  

The road leading from Brett's house to Koutiala Hospital.  The large tree on the left is a Baobab, which looks like it has been turned upside down with its roots sticking into the air.

 Koutiala Hospital is in the process of building a tennis court and the foundation is in place at this point.  Patrick will be helping with the process of laying the concrete towards the end of the week.  This will serve as a place for the children to play and also as an area of recreation for the missionaries.

 The children who are being treated at the hospital for a long period of time are always ready to play.  The little girl on the right has Hodgkin lymphoma of the neck and is receiving chemotherapy.  The boy wearing a bandage on his head had a scalding burn as a young child and then developed a rare skin cancer at the site of the burn.  He required complicated surgery and skin grafts and is recovering at the hospital.

Jara always ready with a smile!

 Future tennis court....

This little man (Chake) came to Koutiala with a severe infection which ultimately led to the loss of both of his legs and the majority of his fingers (likely severe DIC for those medical folks).  He responded to medical therapy and finally started walking with his prosthetic legs!  He was happy to walk over to get a piece of candy.  His mom is walking behind him with the baby brother strapped to her back.

 Getting some encouragement from the other kids at the hospital.

The MacLean kids playing in a sand pile with the patients from the hospital.

This boy came to the hospital with draining wounds from both of his legs.  He was diagnosed with bone infection at multiple locations.  His mother says that he has a history of bone pains as a younger child and Brett is suspecting sickle cell disease.  They will be able to test him for sickle cell in the comings months.  His wounds are slowly healing with the appropriate antibiotics.

This one is for all of the Strums or Flemings checking out this blog... didn't take long for Patrick to end up on the roof with the kids!

 Leg wounds from above.... getting better, but hard to believe that they ever heal with all of that dirt all over his legs.

 Various animals at Brett and Sheri MacLean's house.

View of the airport in Bamako from the start of our trip this morning.

 The MacLeans desert turtle.

 Quiet Sunday afternoon in Koutiala.

 Koutiala Hospital soccer outreach.  Thanks to "Give a Kick" for donating 25 new soccer balls for the program!

Guest house in Bamako where we stayed last night.

Safe in Bamako

Patrick and I arrived safely in Bamako tonight around 8:30pm local time (east coast of US is 5 hours earlier). The flight from Paris to Bamako was smooth and the local mission director was there to meet us at the airport. It is a balmy 75 here tonight.

The bags mostly arrived unscathed, except for my big medicine box that I thought was invincible but it definitely was beaten up on the way over! About 3/4 of the medicines were recovered. All of the sickle screening equipment was just fine.

We will have breakfast at the guest house in the morning and then start our 7 hour car trip to Koutiala. We will be heading south, which will take us directly away from the recent turmoil here in Mali.

The pics below show Patrick with all of our bags at the airport and my destroyed medicine box.

Sickle Cell Screening

This will give you an overview of the sickle cell screening program.....