entry could contain graphic imagery that is not for the faint of
heart!!**
The week started off so normal! I went to placement in Monday morning
as usual and was thrilled that all of my girls were back. For the past
week due to the extended Easter holiday and lots of rain and mud, my
class was down to just 2 or 3. So it was fun to have everyone back.
Even if it meant that some if the girls were super giggly and out of
the leaning routine. Oh well we'll get back there.
I also have a new student in my class. She is 14 years old and her
name is Witness. She seems terrified of me. I have two theories on
this: 1) her English is so bad that he doesn't understand a word I am
saying or 2) she has never seen a mzungu (white person) before and is
totally freaked out. Honestly, I think the odds are about 50/50.
Anyway, she is going to make class more challenging. Until now, even
if they didn't understand EVERYTHING I said they could figure it out
through my wild gesture, elaborate illustrations and dynamic teaching
style. Well see how this goes.
Anyway, Monday also brought the approval from the local hospital to
begin the bed numbering project we have wanted to put in place. There
is another volunteer in my group - Nicole - who is a doctor. She has
been shocked at the blantant negligence and disorganization at the
hospital here. One basic thing she suggested is numbering the beds in
the wards. As of now, patients are routinely mixed up - and this is
fairly common I. Tanzania. A couple of years ago there as a story out
of Dar (the capital) where two surgical patients were mixed up and
they amputated the wrong man's leg.
So, we decided that numbering the beds is something we could do. We've
taken it a step further and are making chart holders that will not
only have numbers, but also keep the patient's chart where it can be
found. It's a huge project and we will be sewing for days. Right now
we've got 50 ready, but it's a 300 bed hospital, so there is more work
to be dine. It looks like a sweatshop in our common room with
mountains if fabric and dozens of peoe sitting around with needle ad
thread. But it's for a worthy cause!! Amazing that such a small thing
can actually save a life.
Nicole actually took me and a couple other girls with her to the
hospital on Monday to see what we are working with and let me tell
you, it's shocking. The hospital is a maze of buildings connected
outside with covered sidewalks. The hospital doesn't provide food or
laundry so the familes if patients are constantly there - in the beds
with the sick, napping under a tree in the courtyard, sitting and
waiting on the sidewalk, doing laundry and hanging it to dry in the
middle of the hospital. Honestly, I expected chickens and cattle to
wander through.
The wards themselves are over crowded - sometimes 2 to a bed. They
stink of urine and other bodily fluids and nothing seems quite clean.
There is no sanitation system here, so all the waste is burned in a
heap not 15 yards from the buildings - everything in together from
used gloves to placenta. It's horrifying.
When I think about my little school and the sad shape it's in and then
transfer that to a hospital it seems right on par and yet 1000 times
more horrifying bc at a hospital we are talking life and death. I
really hope that our small project will be able to help in some small
way.
Now. About my sickness. First, let me assure you that if I were to
need serious medical attention I would NOT be going to the hospital I
described above. But besides that I am certainly not at that point. It
has however been a rough day and a half.
Yesterday at placement I wiped my left eye and discovered that it was
starting to pus. Gross- I know. Before long it was red, swollen, sore
and dripping pus. Field diagnosed as an eye infection, we stopped at
the pharmacy in the way home from placement. It was a zoo. That's the
other thing about hospitals here - there are lots of meds, if
prescribed, that have to be picked up and administered by the
patient's family. So the pharmacy was a zoo with people fulling
perscriptions. I showed them my eye and they gave me some antibiotic
drops. But I was hesitant to put any shady African drugs in my we
before Dr Nicole took a look. Once age pronounced my eye infected and
okayed the drops I took to the bed to rest. But when I woke up from my
nap I was anythin but rested
My stomach was in major knots and I proceeded to be in intestinal
distress for the rest of the night. I didn't feel awesome this morning
either so I didn't go to placemnt. Plus my eye was glued shut and I
couldn't see! By lunch my stomach had returned to normal and my eye
was lookin MUCH better, but as luck would have it, by 4pm this
afternoon my other eye started to pus! So now I have two eyed infected
with African Eye Rot. But at least my stomach is ok!!
I am off I bed now, so I'll let you know how I am in the morning, but
please say a prayer for my yucky eyeballs. I need it!!
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