…Then later that same afternoon a 12 year old girl fell out of a mango tree. She hit her chin hard on a rock and pierced her upper lip with her front tooth. The colour of the water tthey wanted to clean the wound with reminded me of how urgently we need a borehole. I provided some basic first aid and Faustin followed it up with daily treatment over the following days. OK, but I really don’t want to get a reputation for being a medical centre. An eventful day.
On the same day I was just about to sit down to lunch when a group from the Lomé Paragliding Association turned up, complete with military escort from the parachute regiment. Two guys flew from my place down to the outskirts of Kara. Spectacular! They said it’s an ideal site, so I expect they’ll be back. Would like to try it myself sometime.
Last Friday, very early in the morning, the primary school teacher came to my house asking if I could help. One of his pupils had been bitten by a snake two days earlier. The family did not have anything like enough to pay for hospital treatment, so they had tried to treat her with traditional remedies. This didn’t work, and the venom was rapidly advancing up her leg. Thanks to donors in England, I was able to pay for her treatment, including an anti-venom serum and a three day stay in hospital. She would probably have died without this. Now she is fine and back at school.
Spent Friday evening at the Palais des Congrès, where the local lycée students were putting on the final show at the end of their Cultural Week. Three hours of breakdancing, fashion parades and karaoke. Yet another Africa.
When I first discussed the need for a borehole with the village authorities, I asked them to contribute £135 to the cost, as a sign of local community involvement. I had no idea whether they would be able to raise this amount, since most of my neighbours live on less than £1 a day. So I was pleased when Tchefalo the neighbourhood chief came with a delegation to visit me this morning. He handed me £37 pounds as the first installment of their contribution. Without any prompting from me, they have also set up a borehole maintenance committee. The idea is that each household will pay a small monthly sum, so that a fund exists for future repair and maintenance work.
Today I met a representative from the borehole company, and I took him up the mountain to look at the site for the first time. He’s going to do a geological survey tomorrow. On the basis of that, we should have a better idea where to drill. He’s concerned about difficult road access for several heavy trucks with equipment.
