Chimala Hospital---Part 3----Families Take Care of Patients

Families must cook meals for patients in the hospital. Cooking is done on charcoal or wood fires inside the pavilion shown in the following picture.



The actual cooking area is seen in the next photo.



When the meals are being prepared, there is lots of smoke in the area!

This building is behind the hospital and is used for hanging hospital laundry out to dry.

Families must do the laundry for their family members. The washing is done outside in buckets. In this area on the mission, there is running water from an outside faucet that can be used for washing.

In the next photo people are gathering for the devotional one morning. In the picture are baskets, tubs, suitcases, etc. that belong to family members of patients. They must keep their cooking, extra clothes, and laundry with them.

Visiting hours at the hospital begin at 6:00 a.m., and visitors are not allowed during the night. The only exceptions would be for family members who must stay with small children. There is a small guest house for family members who live too far away to go home at night. A family can rent a very tiny room for about 30 cents per night. There are no bathrooms inside the guest house and no running water.

The following is a photo of the morgue. This is where the bodies are brought after death. The family waits outside until they can get some kind of vehicle to take the body. While waiting, the family mourns with loud wailing. Because death is so common at the hospital, the wailing can be heard most days, and sometimes several times in a day.

Usually the dead are buried at their homes the same day or the next day. Sometimes there are coffins, but usually there is no money for them, and the bodies are just put in holes and covered with thin mattresses. Most graves have no markers. There are very few cemeteries.


Play the following video to hear the mourners just outside the morgue.