Mirerani health dispensary

When we were discussing with Mama Lynn what all we could do with our donation, the idea of a health dispensary in Mirerani was brought up and we immediately loved the idea. As you’ve read, the town is a literal pain in the butt to trek through (I’ve got bruises to prove it) and without a bank you can imagine a hospital is out of the question. What the town does have however is a health dispensary (heavily supported by LIA).

As ignored as the actual town is, you can only imagine what the surrounding area is like – right? Now imagine something worse…that area is where LIA does their heath dispensaries. These people are living about an hour away (via Land Cruiser) from the “town”, and have very limited access to any resources – medical/food or otherwise necessities. So, Abby and I (with donor money) paid for one doctor, two nurses, a Land Cruiser to get us all to the very remote Maasai village, as well as all the medicine previously requested by the doctor (yes, in Tanzania – you just walk into a pharmacy with money and walk out with whatever you want).

The doctor with us at the Maasai heath dispensary is one of the doctors at the dispensary in Mirerani and it was a great pleasure getting to know him. He has one of the most genuine smiles and frequent laughing episodes of anyone I know, and seeing this hope/joy in someone who has seen such terrible things was very appreciative. We were able to sit with him in the makeshift clinic as he very efficiently diagnosed his 150ish patients. Most of the people (who had heard via word of mouth about the clinic and many traveled from other villages) had waited outside in the heat and sun for hours to be seen by this man, and many were able to diagnose themselves. They knew they had lung problems (bronchitis) from all the dust, they knew they had worms (don’t actually want to know how), malaria (due to the increase in information circulated), etc.

Many of the kids who showed up (most without parents) had a skin fungus growing on their head, which left untreated, turned into giant puss filled blisters. Abby and I were able to help out with that area, as neither of us have any medical knowledge that goes further than Gray’s Anatomy. We took turns putting an often time very scared child on our laps, and dipped them back over a bucket of water while the other scrubbed their head with antibacterial soap. After we instructed them to stand in the sun while their head dried, we applied a layer of ointment over their scalp, and sent them off with the rest of the medicine tube and instructions on application by a LIA staff member.

Cost breakdown for the day…

570,000 shillings for medicine

80,000 shillings for the Land Cruiser and driver

30,000 shillings for the doctor

30,000 shillings for two nurses

Total Cost – 710,000 shillings (which is around $470)

That equals to about a $3 a person cost for this incredible experience, that unfortunately due to the high cost around here, will not be able to happen again until May or June – when the official "volunteer" season begins.