Victor is 76 years old and lives in a village that is about a 5 hours walk for him one way. He comes to the clinic once a month to receive a food box and receive medications. His complaints are normal things that most could go out to CVS and get medications easily. But there is no CVS stores here or near his home or really a place that he can buy medications. He says he trusts that we will give him the correct medications. His biggest issues are pain, heartburn and not being able to sleep well. We count it a joy to be able to see him each month and help him with these small request.

Victor wanted to share with you a bit about his life. He does not consider that his life has been hard. He sees the joy in what God has given him. His mom and dad had 9 children. There were just 3 that lived to be adults and had children of their own, the other 2 have died (both in old age) and he is the only one still living. All the other children died when they were babies or young kids. He remembers some of them that died from fever and malnutrition. He and his wife had 10 children. Of those 10 only 3 lived to have children of their own. The other 7 died of fever, kwashiorkor and other things he said he could not remember. His wife died several years ago. Over the year they were able to build a 4 room home for themselves. When she died his three remaining sons all moved back into the house with him. They each have a wife and there are a total of 8 grand children. It brings him a lot of joy to have them all in the house with him.

His family has a large piece of ground that they grow crops on. This is all that he has done his whole life for an income. This is all his sons have done. All the work is done by hand. None of them were able to attend school. He is happy now there is a school that his grand children can attend. He wants them all to be able to read and write. This is how each year of his life has been since he was a small boy. They plant black beans and corn in April. In May they plant pigeon peas. Their big harvest month is in October. With all the beans and corn they can be sold at different times. When they are first harvested they can sell them. They also dry them and sell them throughout the other months to maintain an income for the family. Their garden also has a place where they plant bananas trees. These take about 7 months to grow and produce a full stock of bananas. They stagger the planting so that they can harvest them and have an income through the year. He is unable to go out and work now so he stays home with the grand kids. His sons leave at 4am to go out to the gardens to begin working. The wives stay home and cook lunch. Everyone comes together around noon and eats their only big meal of the day. They then wait for the sun to begin to go down and head back out around 4 to work until dark. During the harvest time the ladies walk with their donkeys to a large market to sell each week. They sell three days a week and walk 1 to 5 hours to arrive at the local markets.

Victor makes sure everyone goes to church on Sunday and no one works that day. He also goes to week day services on Tuesday and Thursday. His church is near his home and he has gone their since he was a young boy. He is thankful that when he comes to clinic he is able to receive a food box and medications. I asked him if there was one thing he could do that he has not done yet in life what would it be. He said if he could see that a vehicle made it near his home that would make him happy. There are no road near him only foot paths.