Today was fieldwork. I was going out with Ozuoma and John Jeremiah. We did not have a bike to use so we had to walk or ‘trek’ as they call it. The people that I’m with over here are not use to walking very much. I did not mind trekking as it gave me space to walk about and really enjoy seeing the village in which we were walking. First we visited a young girl who they were teaching home skills to. Since being with Project Comfort she has learned to bath, feed and dress herself well with no help. We were welcomed into the house by taking chalk and then bitter Kola and garden egg (another very bitter tasting plan often used as Kola). It was a traditional mud house with a thatched roof. It was neat and comfortable inside but I did have to bow my head to enter which I found strange because I am only 5”2 so rarely have to bend my head. Today we were teaching sweeping exercises to strengthen her wrists and teach her to sweep the house to help out her family. She is progressing well so that shows that her parents are supporting her and encouraging her to practise and helping her. We can deduce this from the fact she is getting stronger and improving from the last visit. Sometimes the parents forget about the exercise that they are told to repeat with their child which then causes the progress to become very slow.
We then went to visit a small girl who suffered fits when she was young and has restricted movement of her left hand and reduced movement of the left-hand side of her body. We were given groundnut and bitter Kola as we entered the house and were given floral smelling talc to put on our skin because of the heat which was causing us to sweat quite a bit so I enjoyed the talc. I have two very nice talcs at home I bought in Lush one is ginger and the other is sweet orange & patuili. I am quite annoyed at myself for not bringing them now I realise how freshening talc can be! Ozuoma looked at her hand and did stretches with the girl to make her recover better use of her left side of her body. The girl is doing fine and was glad for us to visit. She got dressed-up making a special effort when she found we had arrived in her house.
We then met a boy who was having trouble writing clearly in school. His mother and grandmother were there and a lot of children gathered outside the porch where we were working to see the white person. The mother and grandmother had not been practising the techniques used to improve writing so Ozuoma wanted to get though to them and try to get them to help the boy.
Uzuoma and Project Comfort child
Next we saw a girl who had a disability that means her hips are not correct and she has trouble walking. She was a bright and co-operative child. I found her situation quite hard because her disability looked so painful. She said it does hurt her but she is moving about fine and enjoying making friends with all the other children in her village. (in the picture she is wearing the black dress)
Lastly we saw a small child. The child was very young and its legs were very thin and weak looking. At first I thought the child’s problem was that its legs were too thin but then I realised there were several big wounds on the child. They have put her on antibiotics but when one wound goes another will come. Project Comforts only choice is to take the girl to the hospital and do tests on her blood and the wounds.
I enjoyed today very much it was good to see the villages and to walk through the forests and see where people lived. We were welcomed into every home with talc and/ or Kola, which is very giving when they have so little money.
It was very sunny today which is the first time I have really taken sun. It came as a surprise to me because usually it is very cloudy but warm. I got caught out and got a little sun burnt. Everyone found it very interesting what my skin did and felt great concern. Before I came to dining I covered myself with sun cream because my skin was feeling sore and dry and everyone was saying wow you are so shiny you are sweating so much! Why are you red? Why are you oily? Chi (chi is said when they hear something that is sad, it means sorry) When I told them what had happened I got a lot of ‘chi’ and ‘sorry-o’
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