We have been doing clinics in Ntutti for five years. Our first medical clinics in Ntutti were held in the shade of a big Mango tree. However, there were biting caterpillars that if you were unlucky might fall on you, so as beautiful as the Mango tree was, we needed a different location.
When we had our first combined clinic with Dr. Franklin’s team, we held the clinic in a local church in the small town of Ntutti. The following year, a new Church had been constructed at the Ranch and we held the clinic there. However, it was a very rainy day and most people had to walk several miles to attend the clinic, so we did not see as many patients as we normally do.
Before the clinic started this year, we were not sure how many patients would show up. Although the clinic started out a bit slow, it turned out to be a nice busy clinic and we ended up seeing about 350 patients for the day.
Ntuti is located in a rural area which is not densely populated. This means that we had people coming from many miles away. Due to limited access to transportation, some of our patients walking the whole way and were only just arriving at the clinic in the late afternoon. We had people that spoke dialects that no one at the clinic spoke.
I believe there’s a great need for a not-for-profit hospital in this area. The nearest government hospital is many miles away and has frequent staffing and medication shortages. Caleb has promised land for the hospital if we are able to build one in the future. It would be across from the church at the Ranch. Of course, we first need to get First Community Hospital and the Hospital in Tororo up and running.
We saw many interesting during the clinic including one of the “paralysis teenagers” that had been befalling the local secondary school. For the last three weeks, there has been several cases of sudden onset temporary paralysis that has affected teenage girls. The patient’s paralysis improves over the course of a week or two. Many parents have pulled their children out of school because they’re afraid it may be caused by something contagious or perhaps even a witch doctor. We were able to confirm it was psychogenic and met with the headmaster of the secondary school to brainstorm ideas and how to treat and support students with this psychogenic ailment. We also saw a case of neurosyphilis case with a cranial nerve palsy (If untreated, Syphilis can progress to affect the brain and nerves leading to characteristic symptoms).
Promptness for dinner is one of Maggie’s requirements, so we left Dr. Franklin and the team in a hurry to make sure we continue in Maggie’s good graces and arrived to dinner on time. The food at AHI is also one of the highlights. That evening we had an amazing salad, pepper steak, mashed potatoes and a chocolate lava cake. It was one of the best meal I’ve had in a long time!
The Amahoro Children and Community Team 