A Trip to Tougan

It’s fun to feel home away from home. I returned Sunday from Tougan, a small city north of Ouaga (a 5 hour bus ride away) where I was visiting and helping at a clinic there. What a different world it was, not only getting there, but once in the town. During the five hours of being jostled and bounced in a bus with too many passengers, I saw “the bush” of Burkina: miles of no man’s land filled with short trees and cracked clay ground. Every so often we would pass a small village that to me looked like a mix between what I picture in my head of Bible-times houses and medieval style houses, depending on if the structure included a hut-like dwelling made from brick or clay. These were rudimentary structures that were often in disrepair. The rest of the land was being cultivated by mostly women and children that I saw, bending tirelessly at the waist and digging into the soil with picks. Donkeys are prevalent and slowly pulled meager bits of farm equipment along as children as young as five whipped them into obedience. Under the shade of many trees I could see farmers resting with their bikes, goats, or babies. Tougan was so much quieter than Ouaga, probably because it was so small, and very green! There were virtually no cars on the dirt roads, and hardly any motor bikes. We experienced rush hour there: herds of animals coming in from the fields down the main road followed by women with bundles of sticks on their heads, men on bikes with dead pigs tied behind, and children riding on donkeys.

The clinic at Tougan was another eye-opening experience as I got to give IVs using a rubber glove for a tourniquet, and a normal needle and syringe (rather than an IV cannula) to enter the vein. There was no doctor, no lab, and no refrigeration. This means that the nurses prescribe and treat patients based off of the symptoms they see and are told, and the medication they have to offer is very limited. The three-room clinic (a consultation room, pharmacy, and patient room with 3 beds) makes a big difference though in this quiet town because patients would tell us that they traveled hours to get there- sometimes as many as 30 km!! I’m getting better and better at breaking the ampoules of quinine, the malaria med prescribed to everyone, and have comfort knowing that even if patients might not have malaria and take it, they won’t be harmed. (Since this clinic can’t do a blood test to confirm malaria, they just give it to pts. with fever, headache, abdominal pain, etc.) I really enjoyed the time we spent each morning before we started seeing patients where we read a passage from the Bible in three languages: French, English, and Jula, the language spoken by the people in Tougan. It was beautiful to hear, and I picked up on a few words, including “toobabu,” meaning “white person,” which was yelled by all the children who would see us, and “barka,” meaning “thank you.”

So after several days away of seeing lots of skin infections and feverish children, it was a good feeling to come back to Ouaga and feel comfortable on my stomping grounds. The girls and I took a long walk (they seemed very happy I was back) and saw the sky flooded with bats. We detoured some territorial dogs and even chased a frog into the water. This is what I’m getting used to, rather than the many cockroaches, termites, snails, and bright red bugs I saw in Tougan!

Prayer requests continue to be strength in knowing how to relate to people when language is limited. I’m thankful God has given me good relationships with many of the hospital workers in Ouaga, and I’m praying that spiritual conversations with them can occur. I am praising God for letting me spend the time in Tougan with some other American women (studying to be doctors)- it was refreshing to share experiences with people who understand my culture. I would also like to ask God for extra endurance and patience for Felix and Nema as the huge malaria season is hitting and lots of people are coming in very sick. Thanks so much!!