Salajwe Clinic

I have been assigned to work at the Salajwe Clinic. The nurse that requested a Peace Corps Volunteer no longer works at the clinic so the staff was unsure of what to make of me when I showed up. I don’t think they knew I was coming. The head nurse Rra Thokwane has worked with several PCVs when he was working in Kopong. At first I was excited but then heard through the grapevine that the last PCV was asked to leave because she was “trying to take over the clinic.” Thankfully it was a different clinic but I will have to find out more details when he gets back from leave.

My clinic has three nurses: two are midwives that assist in maternity, one is a general nurse. Our clinic has no doctor but we do delivery babies. If it is the mother’s first pregnancy or after her 5th pregnancy, she is taken to Molepolole to the hospital. There are nurse’s aids that weight babies and work the dispensary (meds). Botswana has a wonderful system for all children: from the moment they are born, every month for 5 years, they are weighed and given nutritional supplements in the form of food. Any and all meds (from aspirin to Vitamin C to penicillin) are all free. All immunizations, tests, TB meds, HIV testing and counseling, everything. There is a P5 charge for consultation but most are waved.

Our clinic doesn’t have an official PMTCT (Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission of HIV) center but there is a lay counselor who is very hard working. She distributes formula to HIV positive mothers and provides HIV tests and counseling. Her name is Mmantlhogo which means Mrs Head.

Lucas and I have been introduced to the kgosi or chief of the village a few times. His wife is a cleaning lady at the clinic. She has a great sense of humor. She says she wants me to teach her English. I told her I need to learn Segkalegadi if I am gonna try and teach her English. Quite a few people tell me that Setswana and Segkalegadi are just a like and I shouldn’t have trouble communicating. I know for a fact that they are not the same and I am having LOTS of trouble communicating ( not that I can understand their Setswana all that great either).

The gardener is called Lesedilame which means My Light (my name is Lesedi which means light. Lame is the possessive pronoun, it’s complicated…). Thankfully she goes by Sedilame. I plan on doing some work with her. The Home Base Care is a group of volunteers that go to the homes of those patients who are too weak to travel to the clinic (a lot are PLWHA [people living with HIV AIDS]) . HBC provides care and nutrition to these people until they recover. There is a plot of land that is designated for the HBC to grow vegetables to take to the patients. But the plot has been neglected and needs attention. I am hoping to team with Sedilame and start a garden using compost and planting seeds of both summer and winter vegetables so that HBC has food to take to patients all year long.

For those of you who are thinking, I didn’t think Africa got cold enough for winter, you are mistaken. Since we got to Salajwe I have been freezing! And our concrete house keeps in the cold really well. I sleep in wool socks, sweat pants, sweatshirt, in my 45F sleeping bag, under the covers. I eat breakfast in sweats and another down jacket on top of my sweatshirt. And I have to wear a skirt to work! I don’t think the winter lasts very long but it’s pretty brutal while its here.
Thus far I have been shadowing staff and started learning simple things like how to clean medical tools, filling vitamin packs, and weighing babies. My Setswana is still so poor, I think it will be a while before I can communicate with patients. But I’m making my way forward. I have started bringing up condom use when Birth Control Pills are distributed. Women are reluctant to use them because their partners don’t like them. Men are defiantly going to be a big focus group for me here. Only I don’t think they will listen to a foreign white girl so I need to find a male counterpart to be my leader.