Posts Tagged Zambia

An Earlier Epidemic

An Earlier Epidemic

Liz and I were two years into a three year contract and thoroughly enjoying the experience in this rural, boarding school. Our first child, Caoimhe, had been born six months earlier and we were deeply conscious of the risks to her. Local medical facilities were fairly basic, as the picture of Liz at the clinic shows. For long periods there was no doctor in residence and there were only two trained staff. We had travelled forty miles through the bush to an American Baptist missionary hospital for Caoimhe’s birth because it had a doctor and nurses on site.

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Death of a Pupil

Death of a Pupil

Another pupil had died from the meningitis outbreak. I watched Mr Shawa, the school caretaker, cleaning the white, pine boards and placing  them carefully  against the library building. He was making another coffin, the fourth in as many weeks. His task was carried out with quiet patience,

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