Today I went to Ilomba which is a health clinic for a village near its location, as well as a professional school for young women. The village was probably an hour or so from Abidjan and basically in the jungle. There are no real roads to get there, rather scary driving this way. I may have hit my head on the side of the car a few times from the bumps. No one was at the clinic since it is now Holidays, but I got to see the facilities. This year they have given over 400 tetanus and typhoid shots to villagers. The doctors at Ilomba are also very focused on child malnutrition and maternal health. I saw pictures of all of the adorable healthy babies that have Ilomba to thank.
After a tour of the clinic I went to see the nearest village. People here are living in shacks made out of tin scraps and wood/sticks. It’s so hard to see people living this way. I saw lots of women and young girls preparing atchike – something women sell in the market place. It takes a long time to prepare and earns them very little money. I saw the local school which was unimpressive, to say the least. Many times the teachers of this school will take the children from the school hours and make them work on their plantations instead of teaching them. How do people get away with this stuff?
After the village I had lunch back in Abidjan with some students. They explained to me how difficult studying and living in Abidjan was. Many didn’t even have a place to live and had to stay with distant relatives. This situation sounds ideal but really isn’t because many times they must do housework to earn their keep and don’t have time to study. These relatives many times do not live that close to the University.
After lunch we visited a public hospital – also appalling. The women I was with basically told me that you don’t go to the public hospital with an illness and get better after being there. Pregnant women were lying around outside waiting to be treated or to fit in the hospital. They were camped outside of the hospital. There are mice running around and the buildings are completely deteriorated. It’s hot and smelly inside of the hospital too. Maybe it was my exhaustion, dehydration, or the things I was looking at but I got sick at the hospital. Funny part of this is that I was taken back to my hotel and not treated at the hospital! I think that sums everything up that’s going on there (shudder).
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