Our third village clinic was in the village of Tempela, a remote location only 35 road miles (23 “crow miles”) away from the hospital, but the roads were so bad-to-nonexistent that it took 80 minutes to get there. The first 25 miles were on a narrow highway and took about 35 minutes. The last 10 miles took 45 minutes—averaging about 13 MPH—switching, swaying and bumping down a dry and dusty dirt road that turned into dry riverbeds leading to the village. The village was like every other one we had seen, made of mud bricks without straw, straight out of the Old Testament.
To get some idea of the remoteness of the place and what the village looks like, check out the Google map below. Zoom in as close as possible (just left and below the marker). Zoom too close and the satellite image gets blurry. You’ll notice the absence of roads. The name of the village doesn’t appear on the map but Koutiala, where the hospital is located, can be seen at about the 2 o’clock position from the village if you zoom out. Click here to see Google Earth Satellite images of where we were located on the third village clinic – Tempela.
Click HERE to see the video of our ride on the creekbeds.
We all met at the hospital at 7:30 a.m. and loaded the tables, privacy screens, supplies, medications into six SUVs and vans, along with hospital staff and our own team and headed for Tempela. This was our third and last visit to a village clinic during our trip to Mali.
This day we saw over 500 patients. Joyce, Nancy, Ali, and Chelsea were processing all of the adults and children, along with the medical assistants from the hospital staff. They triaged any significant illnesses and took any high-risk cases straight to the providers for immediate attention. The adult complaints that Vaughan saw were varied, with a few significant issues diagnosed, but the majority were much the same: musculoskeletal. Low back pain and chest wall pain, the result of the extremely hard life they live, scratching the parched soil for the sparse crops they grow. We had the chance to see them weeding and irrigating a crop of scallions (see the photos).
Dr. Brett McClean and his wife Sherry, a peds nurse practitioner, along with Dr. Jason Foster and the peds nurses from the hospital, held their clinic in the shade of a large tree behind the small building that served as a medical clinic and saw over 250 children that day. At one point I looked out the louvered window of the exam room I was using and saw two little ones plugged into IVs that were hanging from a limb of the tree. What an amazing sight. Scores of mothers and children watching as they stood in a half dozen lines around that large tree, waiting their turn to be seen, while many more were being processed, or were in the pharmacy line to get vitamins or worm meds.
Dr. Nesselroade and Dr. Shringkia (Belgian) managed all the women. Vaughan and Daniel (a Malian medical provider who used to be a village provider, but is now working as the director of personnel at the hospital) saw all the men.
When we finished the village clinic we met some of the regional leaders and were invited to partake in a traditional Mali meal of rice topped with a few cooked veggies and the meat of the day—usually goat or a little bit of chicken. (This was quite the event, filled with tradition and ritual, and is covered as its own topic with photos.) Just after darkness fell (very quickly) each night a different movie depicting the evil of idol worship and animistic gods (which is a very real part of their world) versus belief in the one true God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One person the first night and two people the second night professed their belief in Jesus as the Son of God and his sacrifice for our salvation, a very difficult step to take in public in a Muslim-dominated country.
Click here for the photo album of Clinic Day 3.
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