Ouelessebougou Village

December 6
First day in Africa!

I arrived the night before in the dark. 

Driving with the medical team to the first village, the views were beyond my imagination. Mud huts, thatch roofs, dirt streets, animals roaming, women bent over their work outside...

At the village, the children gathered around us curiously as we got out of our van. One of the doctors started pumping up a soccer ball. We talked with the people (as best we could using mime and a few phrases of Bambara). They graciously showed us around the village. One very friendly woman showed us the giant salamander she just killed that would be for dinner and how she would cook it. 

The kids loved the game Diane the nurse played with them of trying to learn their names (and saying it wrong lots of the time.) All this was fun, but it was also to help everyone be comfortable so the team could treat ailments. 

The children were lined up and each one examined head to toe. They all have wounds, some look very bad. I ask one of the doctors and he says, "They are just kids. When they are playing and they get a scrape, it doesn't get cleaned out. Then it becomes infected." There are lots of scary looking wounds and problems on them. Everything that can be treated is. We have an interpreter with us who helps explain things between the people and doctors. He also hands out suckers to the kids after they are treated. 

The woman in this picture has tiny twins strapped to her front and back. They look days old, but she says they are a month old. She is extremely proud and poses for us.