"Time Management is the Enemy of Africa"

The title of this post is a direct quote from the public health officer we are working with...in reference to our day. Today we were supposed to meet with 21 community health workers at 9am, observe their meeting until 10 and then work with them til 11ish. At 1030...only 2 had arrived. Ultimately only 10 made it and it took us a couple hours to run through a 6 page survey. We are learning! some things go well, others not so much. But they are a wonderful and enthusiastic VOLUNTEER team who are the back bone of the healthcare system here because they are in the community meeting people every day. The government should really take advantage of the resource they provide and pay them...at least something...and certify them so that they are recogonized. would go a long way I think!

So we are getting in the full swing of working on our project! Best part about that is that we get to go out into the countryside and visit with mums, their kiddos and the community health workers. We visited a local community. chatted with some very open moms (they told us all about putting lizard poop on the umbilical cord because it was tradition...awesome thing was that no one knew why lizard and not another animal. They thought it was funny they'd never thought to ask that...). They were a lovely group. We then got to wander around a bit through the lush fields. Saw passion fruit, giant avocados and even got sent home with a bunch of sweet bananas (and by bunch I don't mean a bunch of six like at the store...I mean that they chopped off the whole bunch from the tree and gave it to me...because who doesn't need 50 bananas) lovely, welcoming people!!

I've added to the slide show....