Excerpt from draft of "Apostle to the Pygmies – The Doctor Jerry Galloway Story”
Map of villages surrounding Pendjua.
This hand drawn map is the only one that shows all the villages.
In the area of Pendjua, there were fifty-one villages, and only thirteen had government-run dispensaries for medicines. Of these, only five had medical personnel, so the other eight were not operating. The chief nurse for these dispensaries came to meet and inform me that he had not received any medications from the government in the last ten months. This was absurd! A pharmacy depot needed to be set up immediately to supply these dispensaries so I could co-manage them with the chief nurse.
Before this could happen, I would have to write proposals to receive funds from Missionhurst and other organizations. Even if the project was funded, it would take another six months to get the medicines to Pendjua. I took some deep breaths and remained patient, accepting that I was powerless to make rapid changes.
I visited six of the Batwa villages on the edge of Pendjua. At first, the people were afraid, but after a few smiles and handshakes and the greeting “Mbote Bandeko” (meaning, “hello, my brothers and sisters”), all fear evaporated and everyone began talking at once. They talked about their favorite activities, which were hunting and fishing. They showed me a small pig-raising project and a few small fields cut out of the forest.
These projects had never been done before by the Batwa. They had begun a project to raise chickens, but most of the chickens were wiped out in a month by a viral disease. Two of the pigs had already died of sleeping sickness. Vaccines were being sent to the mission, and I planned to help inject the remaining pigs when the vaccines arrived.
Комментарии