Off to the Countryside!

Last week we both had the opportunity to join the Tansen Community Health team on a village school visit for the day. It was only 45km away, but the journey took 3hrs by jeep on a precarious single carriage and bumpy road. We reached the end of the line, and then hiked down into a beautiful valley where the village and school was situated. From a distance we could see the thatched roofs of the mud huts and their fields filled with the yellow flowers of the mustard plant.

We were involved in doing health checks: Matt listened to hearts, lungs and palpated tiny tummies, while Cat got to look in 130 kids mouths for various types of dental disease. Even though we were able to write a few referrals for the children we're unsure of whether they will go so far to get medical or dental treatment. Especially regarding dental decay, most families don't care too much about baby teeth as they are aware they will eventually fall out. Although the decay was bad in some children, there were no signs of swelling or abcesses. Matt picked up a few heart murmurs, which are likely to be a result of acute rheumatic fever at some point earlier in their lives. A couple of weeks ago, he saw a 29 year old woman with a heart valve replacement who was taking 10 different medications for heart failure, as a result of the acute rheumatic fever many years ago. He hopes that these children can now receive adequate followup care so that they don't end up in the same situation.

Please give thanks with us for the opportunity to visit these children and for the increasing ability for these isolated communities to access some sort of health care. Praise God that we've also been able to make a full recovery from the tummy bug we had. Please pray that we make full use of the time we have left, as we realise that it's getting closer for us to leave Tansen.