All seems quiet in the clinic courtyard...beyond the solar panels for the vaccine fridge in the foreground, two rain harvesting tanks stand below the overhanging eaves.
Over the past six months areas of rotting fascia boards on the eaves have provided access points for several hundred bats to take up residency in the roof space.
In one sense these small carnivorous bats are helpful in keeping the mosquito population at bay, but the by-product is a thick, and ever deepening sheet of bat guano that covers the ceiling tiles.
Within the droppings more insect life abounds and small worms and maggots have been dropping from some cracks between the asbestos ( sadly yes, asbestos) ceiling tiles.
Having employed two cleaners in March to improve the hygiene of the clinic this has come as an unwelcome development and this weekend three workers climbed into the roof space to lay nets to catch the bats as they flew out in the evenings to feed. The roof space was swept and the next step is to forensically plug every gap around the building, probably an impossible task.
The guano is offensive and copious, and the movements of the bats a constant disturbance at night when both staff and patients try to sleep.
Bats above , and termites below its a constant battle to maintain standards, but until we are in a financial position to consider the building in more detail, Dettol, elbow grease and a zero critter tolerance seem the only option....
