I went to the clinic at Lalanga with Martha (a nurse) and Daniel (Lohutok's chief). The road was very bad in places. We had to climb a few rock covered banks and dodge ditches with the Land Rover. There were many sick and malnourished children at the clinic. Each child has a card that he / she is to bring to the clinic. It contains a graph which is supposed to indicate whether the child is at or below normal weight. Most were below normal weight, especially those who had measles. They are weighed each month. The weights could be a good source of data about existence of a "hungry season". However, weekly frequency of disease may also be an indicator. Much of the weight loss seems to be the result of disease which in turn may result from malnutrition. By going through the daily records, I could get data for a longer time period and more complete data. The weight data might be a good supplement to this if I could collect it.
Above: Weighing a baby at the clinic in Lalanga.
Below: Martha giving an injection to a child.
As we were returning to Lohutok, we saw a man carrying an automatic, military type rifle. Daniel motioned me to stop. Daniel chewed the man out for having the gun. Daniel said that two Lotuko people had been killed in their gardens by people from another tribe (Taposa, I think). The Lotuko found those who did the killing and killed them. Sickness and death seem to be just a part of daily life here. I guess they do not even sound drums for a child below a certain age who dies. I guess there are too many of them who die.
Daniel apparently has a big responsibility as chief. He has to try many cases. There is a jail up in the village. Once, each of the villages was supposed to build one of the shelters at the school. The people in the village just northeast of us did not do theirs. Daniel put all the men in jail every night for a month. On the morning of the last night, they all gave a big shout when they got out. It could be heard all the way to church where the Sunday service was in progress. That must be over one-quarter mile away.
Today I wrote to Bob Kempf, a friend from Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship at Cornell University.
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