There are no doctors – just nurses. There are no pharmacies – just white Styrofoam coolers with ice packs and little vaccine vials strewn across the bottom. There are no hospitals – just a clinic outpost powered by solar panels which only function at day. There are no clinics – just wall-less huts made of trees and dried grass. There are no computerized health records – just scraps of paper with a baby’s name, parent’s names, birthdate, sex, and vaccines already received. There are no co-pays or insurance or deductibles – just a note saying “To pay after harvest.” There are no ambulances – just an off-road truck that visits each village monthly. There is no doctor’s lounge or lunchbreak – just a homecooked meal of nshima and the freshest chicken you’ve ever tasted after all of the work is done.
The “health clinic” where we distributed vaccines on Day 1
Nyawa, Zambia, is a place that doesn’t exist to most of the world – Google said “we could not find nyawa, Zambia.” We found it. It took a 4 hour ride in the back of a truck you’d expect to find in The Middle of Nowhere, Africa. Dirt roads, dry river beds, endless expanse of dry wild lands. Every so often we passed a small coterie of huts or a man pushing a load of charcoal on his antiquated bicycle or a herd of cattle lazily perusing the limited food choices on the ground.
Off-road vehicles: required
We arrived at the Nyawa Health Post shortly before dusk Sunday. After dinner on an open fire we retreated into our tents to rest for the work ahead of us. Monday awakened me with a slow and steady sunrise to the cacophony of overzealous roosters (we would get out revenge on the roosters that night at dinner). After breakfast we squeezed into the back of Joe’s offroad truck with nurses from the post and coolers of vaccines. Natalie and I got out at the first stop with Ruth, a nurse new to the field.
“Do you jab?” Ruth asked us.
Natalie and I exchanged looks – this health mission was going to be a lot more hands-on than we expected. Soon enough we had a small crowd of moms and infants. The process was simple: weigh the baby, turn in your Under 5 Health Card (a primitive, DIY form of health records), check if the baby was gaining weight, check what vaccines the child needed by counting backwards from their birthdate, give the child the vaccine, repeat. Polio, measles, rubella, mumps, hepatitis B, rotavirus, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis – we were on the frontlines of the war against preventable diseases.
Giving vaccines
After much jabbing and many crying babies, we looked around: we’d taken care of the physical health of a lot of people; what about spiritual health? We shared the Gospel, people came up for prayer, Jesus healed some of them, and we went home. Not a bad day.
I realized what a blessing good healthcare is. I learned that I can make a difference just by “jabbing” a needle into babies. I concluded that the skills of a doctor are desperately needed but hard to find.
That night my teammate Jenna butchered her first chicken – hopefully the roosters will take note next morning.
Tight squeeze in the back of the truck driving out to the bush
My bedroom
Water
Sunset and the night sky were incredible with no light pollution
