- Series
- America's African heritage
- Air Date
- Duration
- 00:30:00
- Episode Description
- Series Description
- Subject(s)
- Creator(s)
- Contributors
- Genre(s)
- Geographic Region(s)
- regions
- Time Period
[00:19 - 00:24]
We are listening to a woman singing is she grand gloomy.
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That wouldn't come.
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The National Association of educational broadcasters braze ons Americas African
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heritage recorded in Africa by Skip Westfall program
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9 1 doctor for 30000 people here
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to skip Westfall a part of the story behind the gathering of the
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clusters of fruit of the palm tree is the danger involved on the part of the
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workers.
[01:03 - 01:08]
I'm speaking now from one of the wards of the Evan Jellicoe Medical Institute. It
[01:08 - 01:13]
can pity in the western part of the Belgian Congo. The director
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of the institute is Dr. Glen Tato of the American Baptist
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Missionary Society. Doctor title by the way comes from a neighboring state of
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mind from Minnesota. It's a pitiful sight to see some of
[01:28 - 01:33]
these patients some of them have broken back others have fractured MEMS
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and there are numerous causes for these injuries. I one of them is the result
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of falls from a palm tree. Acting as my guide on this
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tour of the hospital. Is Miss Sylvia violate. I Where do you come
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from this whiling.
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From England broads Broadstairs inroads it is England's up
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England. Is that near London. It's about 80 miles from London.
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Enjoy your work here much and most interesting it's a wonderful
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wonderful opportunity for services and it certainly is to the Africans and
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if I may do you have many patients being treated here as a result of the fall.
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Cause from the palm tree.
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We've had four during the last three or four weeks
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injured his spine.
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One was concussed. One was a little child to fracture the
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femur and the man who was just going to speak to us.
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He fractured his pelvis.
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Well this isn't actually in the Palm Grove area you.
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Know are there not many plump non-mentation around here than you would you
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call that a high percentage. Yes I quarter it is quite a high in one of the
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antigen Evidently the job of climbing a palm tree is quite risky business isn't it. It
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is it seems to me.
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I understand that the young man here in this bed has suffered from such an
[03:03 - 03:07]
injury. What is his name. What is
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this boy's name.
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Kula who rather wears his father quite serious. Yes.
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What was the injury. He fractured his pelvic bone and it's taken just about
[03:20 - 03:25]
six months for it to heal. Oh yes and I know what he's walking now with a stick. But he didn't.
[03:25 - 03:30]
Well then after six months he hasn't fully recovered from. You can
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walk. He has no pain. But he won't be able to climb boundaries again. But when
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you ask him as far away how the accident happened.
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When he was little by the map
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was written by your map.
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What did he say. How did the accident happen.
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He said he slipped he would slip down the street.
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Oh yes. How hard was he above the ground when he fell.
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Thankee luck on top of you.
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They would you ask him again and.
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We know and I.
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Went to the
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many meters high. It was very high. You can't judge.
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Was he with other workers at the time.
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Yes I understand there were a number of workers and they took him directly to the
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hospital. How far is her home from camp.
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Eighty miles used to travel. You can travel on the train and take a bicycle that he planned to
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return to his work in the road.
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Perhaps we should explain.
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We have a number of the boys of the standing about here listening to
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a bit of a laugh out of your.
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We repeat the question.
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There for a second.
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Yes you must enjoy the work.
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I don't think he enjoys the work I think the question not having any other job.
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What type of work will he do when he gets back and we climb the trees again.
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So you might.
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Be able to climb up into the trees but you can really really I'm going
[06:08 - 06:17]
to start picking them from the ground. Would you ask him if you
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have friends who have been injured in while gathering the fruit.
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While bound to look like a bit of my time toward where the freely
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given to them I'm looking we
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don't look at it like that if he said you know quite a number.
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Some who fall in and who kill themselves and some who can
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see now he have he has a special problem too doesn't his wife is with him isn't you.
[06:59 - 07:04]
Yes he wanted to go out this morning and I said well it was very convenient for him to
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go out because his wife has just come in she's epileptic and she's expecting a
[07:09 - 07:13]
baby in a few days time. And I said well it's not safe in him to travel with his
[07:13 - 07:18]
wife expecting a baby on the way. He stayed and he said well he
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hasn't any money because he hasn't been working for the last six months.
[07:23 - 07:28]
I understand that the patients here are usually accompanied by members of the family.
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Yes we expect everybody to have at least one help. Help us do the cooking for the
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patients. They do all of the cooking in these outdoor kitchens.
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We see here and I know you have duties which are calling in this
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morning so I won't take any more of your time.
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And by the way what language does this boy speak he speaks.
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Oh yes I remember you you said that on the Congo. How would you say to him
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in Congo. I hope you will soon be well.
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Need to remember I want me
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to our friend.
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I mean that's what they want to talk to.
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Nations and words seem to be quite happy in spite of the fact that some are
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here. Never mind.
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Let's see if you can recognize it.
[09:00 - 09:05]
I think I gave my life for the White
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House given me.
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Dr Cottle and his associates have achieved something here in this hospital with AIDS which is
[09:31 - 09:36]
little short of miraculous. From 1950 to 1955 one hundred
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fifteen buildings have been constructed here. Their total value is approximately
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$500000. The government of the Congo recognizing the value of
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Dr Tuttle's work appropriated three hundred fifty thousand dollars of this amount.
[09:51 - 09:57]
There are now 70 nurses in training here. The nurses man and
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16 girls who are taking the three year training course for midwives. The
[10:01 - 10:06]
great need for a medical training school is indicated by the fact that there is only one
[10:06 - 10:11]
nurse for 10000 people in this country. And only one doctor for every
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30000. Compare this figure of one doctor for 30000 with
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America where there is an average of one doctor for 600 people.
[10:21 - 10:26]
Before interviewing the man who had broken his pelvis in a fall from a palm tree. I
[10:26 - 10:31]
visited the Children's Ward. It was sad to see those little fellows most of them
[10:31 - 10:36]
5 to 10 years of age stretched out in casserole with the weights pulling on
[10:36 - 10:40]
their legs. One boy of six years of age and lain in a cast on
[10:40 - 10:45]
his stomach for ten months. He had come to the hospital paralyzed from the waist
[10:45 - 10:50]
down due to tuberculosis of the spine. He was treated with
[10:50 - 10:55]
streptomycin injections and given various tablets to clear up the infection
[10:55 - 11:00]
and placed in the cast. According to the nurse attending him in another two
[11:00 - 11:05]
months the boy will start to walk again. One of my
[11:05 - 11:09]
interesting experiences while visiting the hospital here was the opportunity to witness an
[11:09 - 11:14]
eye operation by Dr. Olson formally of Omaha Nebraska. Dr.
[11:14 - 11:20]
Olson was confident that the man who had been blind would soon be able to see.
[11:20 - 11:25]
It has been an inspiration to see these devoted doctors from Minnesota and Nebraska
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out here in the heart of Africa giving their lives to enable the lame to
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walk and the blind to see just a few moments ago
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I had the interesting experience of seeing a baby 10 minutes old the
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nurse who was with me at the time was Mr. Varney who acted as my interpreter. A few
[11:44 - 11:49]
moments ago. Mrs. Romney said to the mother how do you feel.
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The mother looked up at her and with the sweetest smile replied
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softly in key combo. I have great happiness.
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Let's move on down the ward now. You can step outside for a moment.
[12:05 - 12:10]
Just on the other side of the hill beyond the nurses quarters. We see smoke rising
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from a grass fire. I was told that the fire had been set to drive the
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pythons out of the tall grass. They had been getting too numerous around the hospital
[12:19 - 12:24]
for comfort. More power to the boys and smoking out those snakes.
[12:24 - 12:29]
The farther raise they away the better I like it. We're now standing
[12:29 - 12:34]
near one of the cook houses where some of the women are busily preparing meals for the
[12:34 - 12:39]
patients. There is no central kitchen here. The wives or other relatives
[12:39 - 12:44]
of the patients come with them to the hospital and prepare their meals for them.
[12:44 - 12:49]
At night. The members of the family often including children sleep on
[12:49 - 12:52]
mats on the floor or under the bed near the patient.
[12:52 - 13:01]
Nearby we see one of the women grinding meal by something a heavy stick into a
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kind of wooden bucket.
[13:03 - 13:08]
The song is about the problems of a new bride. It tells how
[13:08 - 13:13]
she wants to cook her husband good food she cooks him chicken but he doesn't like the chicken.
[13:13 - 13:18]
She cooks pumpkin seeds. He doesn't like when she cooks peanuts for
[13:18 - 13:23]
him. He doesn't write. He just doesn't like anything she cooks.
[13:23 - 13:28]
And finally the wife what I'm wanting to do about it. At
[13:28 - 13:35]
last in desperation he says to her husband. So I cook your problem.
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I suppose that's what we would do if you were
[13:39 - 14:00]
it appears that African Why is there a problem where there has.
[14:00 - 14:05]
This has been program nine of America's African heritage. These
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programs feature recordings made by world traveler skip Westfall on a recent trip to
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Africa. The series is made possible by a grant and a dual radio station w
[14:14 - 14:19]
o i Iowa State College from the Educational Television and Radio Center
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production is under the direction of Norman B Clary. This is Reg speaking for the National
[14:24 - 14:27]
Association of educational broadcasters.
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