Tarra's Loch Ness Monster

I thought I had learned a lot from my experience in Lesotho regarding patience but today illustrated that the impatient Tarra still lurks beneath the surface waiting for the opportunity to appear like the Loch Ness monster. I'm in Cape Town working on my dissertation and trying not to remember the million-and-one things that I need to be doing at Maluti, but one situation has me really riled up and I think I have the right to be pissed about it! We have a serious problem with the increasing numbers of orphans in our health service area and we have 4 orphans that have been abandoned at the hospital for a variety of reasons, which I won't get into here. The hospital and our social welfare office are already overwhelmed because the government of Lesotho and the Social Welfare Office of Berea and Leribe districts don't do jack (yet the government officials and royal family drive around in gorgeous newly minted Mercedes Benzes....hmmm). Three of the orphans are still in the pediatrics ward waiting placement in an orphanage/foster home/adoptive home while another one has been temporarily fostered out; do to the attention and support of one American doctor.

We have an OVC (orphans and vulnerable children) committee here which is supposed to oversee the children that have been placed in our care, as well as deal with any other OVC related concerns. The 4 orphans in our care need to get out of the pediatrics ward because they are not being properly cared for (I found two of them running around with soiled pants, snotty noses, and coal in their hands the other day!!) and they are exposed to infections (e.g. one has pneumonia right now) constantly. I drafted a rather direct and to the point memo to the committee before I left that we needed to deal with the welfare of these orphans before we go off on some fantasy island trip about other OVC related projects. If we can't handle/coordinate efforts towards 4 orphans in our care how can we deal with the rest? Well, I hear my memo lit some fire under the committee's collective butts and that they are working together (which is LOVELY) but the kids are still in the ward and the one that is being temporarily fostered out is coming back to the pediatrics ward because of the district fostering process/paperwork mill!!!! What gives???!!! The glacial pace of the social welfare offices in two districts plus the politics of our own hospital trumps the welfare of 4 kids; 3 of whom have been sitting in the pediatrics ward for months? I text messaged two colleagues about this from here and the one responded that I should calm down and that things would take their time and that we are making progress. Hello!!! I have been here 10 months and it's still the same old song and dance!!!! These are young human beings with needs that are not being met over long stretches of time, despite the best efforts of the pediatricians who come here for 4-week stretches, which is absolutely disgraceful (and if anyone gives me the tired "This is Africa" argument I will have to kick them in the kidney!). These kids can't speak for themselves (like so many other kids and elderly caregivers that I've met in this health service) area. Somebody has to get mad, get some cojones, and get rolling because nothing ever changes here!!! So to quote an old Madonna song: "EXPRESS YOURSELF!" and embrace the inner Loch Ness monster ;-)