Yesterday was the highlight of the trip so far. I have already shared our morning ride and coffee break experience now let me tell you what awaited us in Andulo.
Andulo is a provence in Kuito and this entire area was most heavily hit by the civil war which ravaged the surrounds and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing to become displaced persons in the capital, or amputees if they stayed put, or widows and orphans.
We were greeted at the municpal building in Andulo by the director in charge and by dancing singing ladies and a welcome line of officals. The director is regarded as one of the most progressive in the provence and possibly the country. She showed us around her municipal offices and then we met with her team to hear about the progress they have made in the 8 years since peace. When it was time to hit the road and head to see the progress ourselves the ladies once again danced and sang for us - I got some great video and photos of this.
The first project we visited was a clinic for mothers and children which has been improved through Unicef funding among others. The lady in charge showed us around and gave us the tour starting with a new surgery unit, very basic and not yet operational but a big plus for the clinic. We then were shown into the prenatal unit. I should say that when we arrived there was quite literally a sea of pregnant women outside the clinic, some with babies, others expecting. When we were shown inside the inside was overflowing with pregnant women too. We met two babies born that day and we saw up close the vaccinations and HIV testing being done. The babies were literally adorable as you would expect but the sea of faces of mothers looked very young too and many of them had a toddler and a new born or a toddler and were expecting.
We were shown into the maternity ward where the new moms and babies were recovering and others were preparing for birth in the beginings of labor. I asked if drugs were given during childbirth and was happy to hear the response was yes. However, when I asked what was administered I was told paracetamol. Shocking.
We then were moved into a sick kid ward and met some kids with malaria and some malnurished.
During all of this I felt a real sense of unease that here we were staring at them and invading their privacy. Of course Unicef wants donors to see up close and personal but I could not help but think that we were invading. I did my best to hurry us all along and leave these poor ladies and babies alone. The doctor was a Cuban chap. Apparently it is very common to find Cuban doctors here and probably more importantly it is uncommon to find an Angolan doctor, something which will have to change for them to become self sufficient.
After the clinic we were taken to a remote village where outreach nurses were administering their mobile clinic. This was an amazing experience. When we pulled in there were literally hundreds of people and a sea of color on all of the ladies and their kids. The men, including four generals, stood in a line to meet us. Here we saw babies being weighed, getting immunizations and mothers getting prenatal care. We observed one little girl being weighed while we were there and she was clearly malnurished. Her mother was given 24 sachets of food supplement for the kid for a week. All free and at no cost to the Mom. We also visited classrooms at this location and saw happy kids who sung to us in clean newly constructed classrooms.
Some of the best tshirts I saw on Wednesday «
- On a little kid « dont be a fool - carpool
- On an old man - superman t-shirt underneath his suit jacket
- An obama tshirt
- On a little boy who was filthy - Carmel, California - he could not be further away
Throughout the day we saw kids everywhere and mothers too- we got to see upclose how challenged the circumstances are for the average remote Angolan but also the progress being made and the sense of pride in what they have accomplished and what they can do. Also really great to see Unicef materials and money funding so much progress.
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