Village outreach day. Kopetatum was the destination. A lab tec, a few nurses and an educator. We headed out to give immunizations and check weights of babies, give tetanus shots to pregnant women and do HIV counseling and testing. We set up shop under a big shade tree, unpacked our meds and supplies then waited for the women and children to come. We didn’t wait long. A steady morning. I saw several more malnourished kids than previously the day before in the clinic. Several women came to the clinic, then left to get water and came back. All of these women with water on their heads were coming from the river for tetanus shots- all were pregnant.
We witnessed a man coming up to the collection of women waiting for their HIV test results and just pounding on one of the woman, beating her then throwing her to the ground while yelling. Later I got the story that the woman had been told to get water and bring it home before coming to the clinic so she was being punished. Violence against women and abuse is acceptable here. No one in our group really stepped in (a few yelled) but we were all women ourselves. It is hard to watch and do nothing. 
Several (more than 50%?) of the infants for vaccinations are brought by their little sisters, most who are barely old enough to go to school- they don’t seem like they should be responsible for a baby.
We were clearly entertainment for the boys and other kids who were happy to take a break in the shade and watch what was going on. A few of these kids had immunization cards.
Leah did some education about HIV then told anyone who was interested that we would test. Several took the chance at free tests.
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