week twenty three - base/clinic

this past week was spent primarily on base. the community profile project was due so i was on my computer for majority of the first two days working on completing it. we still needed more information so on wednesday the three of us that were leading it went to a different hospital to interview the matron (head of department) there. the hospital was so different compared to where we work. they had not near as many women as we see in a day. thier death rates were much lower and the supplies they had were incredible. it was neat to see all these boxes labeled “U.S. Aid” and the matron shared with me that much of what they use is given to them by other countries. we also saw water bins labeled “Germany” on them. we were able to get all our questions answered including about cost to patients. which if you are a pregnant women everything is free. you do not need to bring your own supplies and anything you need is covered by the government. not sure why the hospital in which we work at is so vastly different. must be some sort of different level of government help. with that information we were able to finish the community profile project on wednesday. it was a really neat day. we were also able to see the finishing of a cesarian, they just said ‘karibu’ (welcome) and they gave us scrubs and we walked in! you’d never find that at home. it also poured rain and thundered like crazy so we found a little hut that served tea and chapati’s (a fried tortilla thing) and had a snack while the rain died down.

i also spent a few mornings at the clinic but there was not much to do. one day was independence day and its funny cuz apparently there are no sick people on that day! the clinic was empty and there were more staff than sick people. with only two pregnant women coming for antenatal care i found myself doing one antenatal check, drawing blood on a women to test for her HB levels and then we left. so not too much happened. the only plus side was i got to practice doing IV’s again, and it went in great! and i drew blood for the first time, also a good experience. i realized i can handle drawing other peoples blood just not a fan of when people do it to me!

friday one of the girls who was supposed to be in labour room was sick so i got to take her place and was able to go and spend the day in the hospital! it was fun, i love being there. not too crazy of a day, i helped my partner with the baby she delivered and checked on the women and babies. it was a good day.

saturday i was supposed to go on a small plane to a village to provide antenatal care for the women there who would other wise not receive care but my staff that i was to go with was very sick so we could not. so instead because it was our day off i joined two girls and we ventured off to a different shopping place we had heard of. we found our way there by taxi as the dala dala’s were quite frustrating and confusing. but once we got there it was amazing! they had a real coffee shop! i was able to order my first mocha in three months... so nice! they also had a book shop with english books and a really big supermarket with recognizable brands. of course things were really expensive, for example Fructise shampoo... is like what $5 at home? well at one shop here it is 9000 shillings (which is like $6-$7). at the supermarket there it was 27 000 shillings (almost $20) just crazy!!! but we had a nice day and even got Subway for lunch!
sunday was our first day of our debrief/holiday week. so we had team things in the morning. debriefing questions and things. i also started a lovely cold that day! no fun....

the rest of the week we’ll be doing team things and then some of us girls have booked a hotel for a few nights downtown and then are going on a one night safari for our break! i’m really excited, i think it will be just what we need to revitalize!

till next time....