A six-stop trip: Kikwit, Kanzombi, Mukedi, Kajiji, Nyanga, and Vanga (June 21-July 9)

Posted in Uncategorized by clarkefast on July 15, 2010

What a trip!

It started on June 21st, when we traveled to Kikwit. We stayed there together until the 28^th, for a busy week that included our quarterly meetings with the coordinating doctors, and several visits to Kanzombi hospital. Both doctors were also busy preparing their July medication orders, and we spent some extra time at Zenufa, the pharmaceutical depot, observing the preparation of bills and packing slips.

A few days into our stay we started hearing rumours that travel would be restricted around the 30^th of June, DRC’s grandiose 50^th anniversary independence celebration. Since we had a flight booked for the 29^th, we were a little nervous. In the end, the flight had to be moved to the 28^that the last minute, though even the flight provider wasn’t given official notice of the closure until just a few days before.

On the 28^th, John and I separated for a week; I accompanied Dr. Gaspard to Nyanga (300 km away), via Mukedi (200 km), with the medication delivery flight. Meanwhile, John stayed in Kikwit and worked with Gogol, Dr. Benza’s assistant, on reporting and computer training, and did some more work at Kanzombi hospital. At the end of the week he flew to Kajiji (1000 km away) with the medication delivery, and stayed overnight to help set up a cell phone signal enhancer antenna – unfortunately without success. The next day, accompanied by Kajiji’s medical director, he flew to Nyanga where Dr. Gaspard and I embarked and we all ended up in Vanga, a Baptist mission with a large hospital where the ultrasound training would be held. Two other doctors joined us there after traveling by road from Kikwit (about 100 km).

We stayed in Vanga three days, just to be present for the first few days of the two-week training and to make sure that everything was progressing smoothly. John and I were graciously hosted by three brothers in a Protestant order (one of whom is a doctor and is teaching the four Mennonite doctors how to use their new ultrasounds). We enjoyed some German- and Swiss-style meals and a beautiful evening Communion service with these men. Our trip ended on July 9^th with an uneventful flight back to Kinshasa.

I find myself feeling very tired and unable to face our regular responsibilities. Fortunately we have a few days off to rest and process the events of the last three weeks. As I look back, I see a higher-than-usual quota of stressful and unexpected events, along with a good dose of intensely thought-provoking conversations and discoveries, punctuated with a few delightful moments.

Unexpected and stressful

Dr. Gaspard hurt his foot (little toe bent backwards after hitting a root while on motorcycle; entire foot swollen) so he arrived in Kikwit a day later than expected after a gruelling and painful day of motorcycle travel.

Dr. Benza and his young daughter both got sick during our time in Kikwit, and had to leave earlier than expected to Kinshasa because of June 30^th closures; we lost a lot of the time with Dr. Benza that we had been counting on.

The cell phone signal enhancer antennas that we tried to set up in Kajiji and Mukedi haven’t worked yet; in both places our arrival to help set up the antennas was unexpected and our stay was too short (1 hour for me and Dr. Gaspard in Mukedi, about 20 hours for John in Kajiji) to be able to really test the devices. For example, in Mukedi, a pole was hastily put together, with the antenna at the top; Dr. Gaspard oversaw a frantic testing session while I reminded him that the pilot was waiting for us at the airstrip and that we were already overdue for departure…

The price to pay for a delicious snack of BBQ pork eaten in a local bar with Dr. Gaspard on the evening before our trip to Nyanga was a bout of food poisoning with fever, diarrhea, nausea and fatigue that overshadowed my first several days in Nyanga. Dr. Gaspard got sick too, though less acutely, but John, who barely touched the pork, was luckily unscathed.

The ultrasound training, tentatively scheduled for the end of July, ended up needing to happen about two weeks earlier; this required us to move very quickly to get manuals printed in Kinshasa, despite looming independence closures, to approve the budget more hurriedly than we would have liked, to deal with a sudden need for cash that we hadn’t planned for, to make lots of convoluted plans to circumvent our cash flow problems, and to make last-minute changes to travel plans to ensure that doctors could all make it on time. Fortunately, it all came together, and the training has gotten off to a great start.

And, saving the worst for last: on the evening of our arrival in Vanga, we realized that we had left several thousand dollars in our guesthouse room in Kikwit two days earlier. The room had already been cleaned and was being occupied by another guest… Fortunately, after some frantic phone calls, the money was retrieved, but not before we had had a really good scare! And even though the money was secure in Kikwit, we still had to deal with the fact that we didn’t have that money in Vanga where it was needed. It all gets very complicated when one lives in a cash-based society where large and small payments are all made with wads of 100-dollar bills or bricks of Congolese francs.

Ahhh… I am relieved that we made it through each of these frustrations, but realize that their cumulative effect has been to wear me out more than usual!

Delightful

During my visit to Nyanga, Ida (Dr. Gaspard’s wife) made delicious donuts that included lemon zest, eggs, sugar, oil, flour, yeast and baking powder. We sat and cut them out together on a low wooden table outside as the sun set, and fried them in palm oil.

The Ghana match was such a disappointment. But sitting and watching World Cup soccer with a dozen of Ida’s and Dr. Gaspard’s friends and colleagues, palm wine in hand, was delightful, and watching the Netherlands beat Brazil was especially so!

I really enjoyed talking with the pharmacy manager at Nyanga hospital. He is exceptionally detail-oriented and is doing several checks on his own initiative to follow the medications more closely. For example, every day he checks the theoretical revenue from medication sales with the money in the cash box (kept by a different person), even though MCC has never asked him to do so. He also does a mini-inventory several times a week of medications kept in the night nurses’ office for midnight emergencies, and keeps track of any discrepancies that would indicate that medications had left the cabinet without being paid for.

In Kikongo, where our return flight made a brief stop, we saw a kitten playing with a clawless river otter cub (an endangered species)! Both animals (along with an antelope and a few alligators) are being raised by a missionary couple. See this article for more details.

Thought-provoking

I’m still thinking… see the next post for some more in-depth reflection about some of the things we experienced on our trip.