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Missions in Nigeria
The mission sites in Nigeria are always are unique and challenging. Each place has something to remember. One of our clinics took place in a very poor slum area in Onitsha, called Okpoko. People live in very small wooden huts without windows. The worn away dirt streets are littered with garbage. There is no facility for garbage disposal and therefore plastic containers and papers keep accumulating on the streets. The roads in the main city are little more than dirt tracks with huge craters - even large jeeps have problems getting from one place to another. During the rainy season the roads instantly turn into fast flowing rivers. When our team arrived in Okpoko, a huge number of bare-footed children greeted us. They were quite dirty, dressed in shorts, and happily playing in the streets. They welcomed us with the now familiar words ONYI OTCHA, meaning white men. Many people came along to the clinic, some out of curiosity but the vast majority came in desperate need of medical treatment and glasses. A large number of our patients comprised children of all ages, and we were confronted with a lot of interesting cases. In one instance, a 3-year-old girl attended complaining of persistent pain and reduced hearing in her left ear over the previous few months. After carefully checking her ear with an otoscope, i discovered a deeply embedded rosary bead! The huge smile on her face expressed the relief she felt when i removed it. The most common disease we encountered was malaria, often accompanied with bronchitis or pneumonia, and also typhoid. Our second clinic was carried out in a bush village called Aquleri, located in a very rural area. The only way to get to this village was by crossing a river on a pontoon boat. When we arrived at the village we were awestruck. It was like stepping back in time to the 17th century. There were small mud huts without windows, no electricity, no running water and no communication. There was not even a single well for the entire village of 1000 people. They had to walk almost one mile to the nearest river for water. A lot of people were drinking this water, containing numerous parasites and bacteria, and falling ill. One of our first priorities there was to instruct the people on basic hygiene, thus raising awareness of the dangers of drinking water, which had not been boiled. Schoolteachers were given particular instruction on these points so they could repeat the information to their students. Around 70% of the villagers were pagan. People constantly surrounded the house we were using for our clinic. One afternoon a nervous 40-year-old man brought his 5-year-old daughter Obikaychi to the clinic. The child was shabbily dressed and very dirty. On her back was a 9cm open wound, which was quite deep, reaching the muscles. Thank God we are always equipped for minor surgery. After applying an anesthetic, the wound was stitched up and bandaged, and a course of antibiotics was given to the father with full instructions on when to administer it. The young girl was very brave throughout the surgery, she didn’t cry and was certainly the hero of the day. Her father was very grateful for all help his daughter received from us. Many people there told us “We are so happy and grateful to God that you came from up there (developed countries) down here to meet and help us. It is giving us hope that we are not isolated and forgotten, that we are connected with you...”. On behalf of all the members of the Epiphany Medical Mission team, i extend a great thankyou for your continued support with prayers, finances, medicinesand everything else. May the good Lord reward youfor all for your charity and sacrificies that allow the good work of EMM to continue to change the lives of so many. |
