Tole Tea Consults and The Race of Hope

 

I almost forgot to mention…when I got back from the mountain I was in serious need of a shower, and to my surprise as I was drying off a cockroach fell out of my towel! How disgusting is that! There were definitely some shrieks!

Tole Tea Farms

Two Fridays this month we went out to the Tole Tea Village about 30 minutes away from Buea. We taxied out there with Yanin one of the Reach Out volunteers. When we got there we went to the Chiefs house and we set up for consulting some of the children in the village. They basically all has some sort of rash.

We finally got a system set up that went along pretty well. The others that worked at Reach Out took their names and we looked out their rashes and took pictures of them. After looking at close to 45 kids it was time to call it a night. We had seen so many rashes, but so many adorable little kids. It was awesome and it went really well.

We left earlier than planned, but we all wanted to go to the US Embassy meeting in Limbe at the Wildlife Center so we left around 2:45 or so. Mary and I rode on a moto and Sarah and Tabby rode on the other moto. It is a pretty sketchy ride to Limbe, but we all made it safe and sound. On the way down from Tole the roads are all gravel and broken pavement, so its kind of a rough ride and poor Mary had to be on the metal…ashia (sorry). I wish I could have taken a video of the stop light intersection in Limbe, it’s quite the experience. A car on the way to Limbe clipped Tabby and Sarah, but luckily nothing happen to them and they are still safe!

The US embassy meeting was fun and super interesting; we met some neat people and had a great time. We ate supper at Arne’s Café and enjoyed visiting with the people who worked at the Embassy in Yaounde

The next Friday we went back out to Tole to give out the medications and do more consults at the school in Tole. Most of the kids had the same rash due to hygiene and how easily the rash spread to others. We gave out the medications to those who we saw the week before and then we did more consults on the children at the school. We gave everyone a bar of soap in order to help with the hygiene because that is the main reason all of these people have rashes. We gave the ones with more severe rashes some antibiotic ointment and anti itch cream.

Whatever we had leftover from the medications and bars of soap we “diagnosed” the children at the school and gave them soap and medications. We wrote down all of the instructions on a piece of paper for them to take home! When we finished we packed up and headed home around 5…on motos…again. I think we saw over 40 patients today!

By the time I got back home, I felt so itchy because of all the rashes I took a shower then felt a little less itchy. Why is it that after being around kids with rashes all day I have the itching sensation? It was an amazing experience and so much fun to help the people out at the Tole Tea village.

Side note: on the way out to Tole we saw some guy butt naked bathing in the river.

 Sarah and I examining the little ones!

 One of the women that works at Reach Out with Yanin

 Our health talk at the school for all of the children to hear about hygiene!

 Handing out the medications/soap and HANDWRITTEN directions on how to use them, I dont know what we were thinking!

 Another one of the women that works at Reach Out with Yanin

 Yanin and baby Favor who we is no longer at Tole but at the Cancer Center in Yaounde 5 hours away due to the positive biopsy that she had! She is now being treated for Lymphoma!

One of my favorites! This little girl is just so adorable!

Race of Hope

Today was an early morning, the only Sabbath I will ever wake up before 8 am. Sarah and I woke up early because we wanted to see the Race of Hope. The Race of Hope is a race that starts at Checkpoint in Buea and you run to the summit of Mt. Cameroon and back down to Checkpoint. The race “started” at 7 am, so we were up early so we made sure not to miss the runners pass the clinic. I enjoyed some coffee and then when we heard all the noise from the street we ran out to watch.

We were waiting for our new friend Kate who is volunteering here in Cameroon, because she paid to run the race, but it sounded like she wasn’t going to be able to run it, however when we saw her run by with a number we were all super happy for her! I have so much respect for anyone who runs this race, it’s a beast of a mountain! About 30 minutes after the race started the rains started coming down; I could see how this would present a huge challenge while running up and down the mountain!

Sarah and I got ready to go and headed down to the Stadium (the beginning of the race) where we helped Reach Out and Peace Corp with HIV awareness. They also did condom demonstrations both male and female, it was an interesting morning! 

Around 10:30 since Bill was speaking up at church we decided to head up and listen to him speak. He was supposed to speak last week, but the pastor wanted to because it was National Youth Day so they moved Bill to the next weekend. On the way up to the church the first guy was coming down the mountain just 4 hours after he left the stadium! 11000 ft elevation gain and 14 miles roundtrip he was coming down the street. As we were standing there watching him pass us there were cars surrounding him and I was out in the street too far and got hit by the mirror of one of the cars! I was kind of pissed that they hit me, but it was kind of partly my fault! We then went up to the church and listened to Bill speak. Throughout the whole service we heard a chopper outside, but we never saw it.

Kate was back when we got back from church, come to find out she got so cold because of the rain that she couldn’t go any further. Luckily some of the people at intermediate hut offered her their jacket so she could take off her cold wet clothes! He new friend even walked back with her, some people are just so nice!

Come to find out the chopper was going to go rescue someone from the mountain because they were so cold they couldn’t move, but they said it was too expensive so they didn’t. I’m not sure what happen to that person, but hopefully they survived. This race is amazing and I have so much respect for anyone who even attempts to run up that mountain! Good work to all of those who attempted to run the race!

 Kate showing off her number! So glad she got to run it!

 The mountain and her beauty!

 One of the blind people running the race up to Hut 1

 There they go!

 The first guy down! He looks a little beat up, but not bad at all for 4 hours!