Sunday afternoon was spent in Jeremy and Camilla's
garden filming Camilla telling all the news of the project. I went
along as roadie. It was an interesting afternoon's work; trying to
encapsulate what HHA is all about and it got me thinking.
One of the things that Camilla spoke about was our
trips to the Maasai. It seems like a big palaver getting there;
gathering all the boxes of remedies and the alcohol and water to make
up the remedy for each patient and the labels, the record books and
pink cards one for each patient and repertories and materia medica for
when the computers run out of battery and the computer itself and the
extra battery and the bags of empty bottles – one fore each
patient. All of this is loaded into the cars and the homoeopaths and
the translators all pile in and then the long drive up dusty, impossible roads, wallowing and grinding along in low gear.
BUT when we arrive that's it. We are a dusty miracle
in a jeep. We have everything we need and although it costs a lot to
get this far this is the end of the expense. We do not need all the
things our patients could not afford and are too far away to avail of
anyway; tests, hospital stays, x-rays, scans, we don't have to send
them on the long walk to town to fill a prescription which they
wouldn't anyway have the money for. It's just us and our remedies.,
each patient gets a remedy on the day and that's it.
I have been here a month and I haven't seen the
results of my own work yet but I have seen the results of the work of
the people who came before me (that is you Marina and Naomi and
Lorraine!). I have worked in clinics with long queues of people
outside and person after person comes in and tells the same story
“better since the remedy”, “doing good”, “pain gone”,
“numbness gone”, “bad dreams gone”, “appetite better”,
“weakness gone”, “able to work again”. Many of these people
have long term illnesses, may have little food and must work hard so
they can relapse in the weeks or months after the remedy runs out and
they need a repeat prescription but their lives are incredibly
improved.
The contrast is in the new patients who are really
suffering, sometimes with appalling illnesses and no access to
conventional medicine; men and women and children who are in pain.
For me this is the moment that all of you are raising
the money for, when all the rigmarole and palaver of getting there is
over, we settle into our spot in someone's front room or their shed
or under a tree and the first patient steps in. It is expensive to
get that far, especially to the Maasai; that kind of driving uses a
lot of petrol and invariably there is some sort of damage to the
cars. But once we are there and working everything makes sense.
A deeply heart felt thank you, every one of you, for
continuing to get us there week after week.
Asante sana.
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