out and about



I have seen a lot of this! So many of the children I've seen have been on their own.  Luckily this little girl's mother was nearby.  This was on our way to Chikankata at a market on the side of the road.





I thought this was beautiful.  These women are both were chitenges, and have their babies wrapped up on their backs.  They have to be strong women!




Just finished painting this girl's nails.  She loved it.  A bottle of purple sparkles goes a long way!




This is one of the homes in Malala, where we visited the HIV patients, orphans, and vulnerable children.



In the past several days, our group has traveled quite a bit, and we have officially started classes and clinicals.  We took a long ride from Lusaka to Chikankata, which was very fun!  It was the first time we were all able to see the rural areas of Africa, and it is beautiful.  Our ride was extremely bumpy to say the least.  About half of our 4 hour trip was on paved roads, with the other half being on dirt roads.  I was unbelievably dusty…when I washed my hands and face after the ride, the water was brown.  However, I think we all enjoyed it.  There is nothing like 2 buses full of white Americans to get the attention of the Africans.  We have been celebrities.  We wave out of the buses, and kids wave back with huge smiles, jump up and down, yell “white people” in their native language, and laugh.  This goes for the adults too, particularly when we greet them in Tonga.  They laugh and laugh, totally loving us butchering the five words we know! Once in Chikankata, we stayed in another very nice guest house and became familiar with the Salvation Army Hospital that was there.  We had a couple hosts, Simon and Lindsay.  Simon is from the UK, and Lindsay from Ireland.  We also met Medical students, Anna and Eleanor from Denmark, and Gemma from England.  We loved our time with them so much, and we have offered to have them come visit us later on.




Gearing up for the OR!

 

The first day of our clinicals, we toured the Chikankata Salvation Army Hospital.  It is very well known, and the hospital serves about 100,000 people, with many being HIV + patients.  People walk miles and miles to get there from all over.  I wanted to go to the Maternity ward, but there was not currently anyone in labor.  So, me and three others went to the “theater,” or operating room, where there was to be a cesarean section.  There was only one surgeon, who was still working on a previous emergency surgery, and so we walked in to watch the end of that.  The patient had a sexually transmitted infection that developed spread in to his abdomen.  The infection was very wide-spread throughout his body.  The thing that surprised me the most was that he was put to sleep, but received no pain medications whatsoever, until after he woke up from the surgery.  He was breathing very quickly, obviously in a lot of pain.  This is very typical of how the hospital is with such limited resources, and the stigma that pain medication is a sign of weakness.  We were also told many doctors do not like to use it because they are afraid of addiction.  It was difficult to understand, but is also very what they are used to.  Once the c-section started, the same went for the mother.  No pain medication during surgery, but she was put to sleep and given a paralytic, so she couldn’t move during the surgery.  I don’t know how they can do it.  The woman was only 24, and looked nervous beforehand.  I prayed for her, hoping that she either wouldn’t feel the intensity of the pain, or that she wouldn’t remember it.  During surgery, the suction for both mom and baby stopped working.  In all fairness, the suction had been checked prior to it beginning, but further complicated things.  It took probably ten minutes before they got it going again.  Once baby was born, the baby did not cry for the first 8 minutes.  It killed me!! I wanted to step in and stimulate that baby, but I could only observe.  The surgeon lifted the baby out and held the baby upside down by one foot!  Then the midwife took the baby, and starting assessing the baby, trying to get suction working again.  Finally 8 minutes later, after bagging the baby and with suction working, the baby starting whimpering and crying.  (Mom, the apgar scores for the baby would have been pathetic!)  I was told that even for this hospital, that surgery was more involved than what is typical.  I was relieved.  I was impressed with most of the staff.  They obviously enjoy their work, and are good, hard workers.  Before the baby was born, a few of the nurses, all men, bet on the sex of the baby in the OR suite!  The man who bet 10,000 kwacha (only about 2 or 3 $) lost. 



This was our guest home in Chikankata.



The next day I went to a nearby village, Dundu, where a Mother and Child clinic was set up.  Our job was to help educate the mothers, weigh babies (many were malnourished), give immunizations, and prenatal exams to the pregnant women.  This was a neat way to get to see how these rural people were.   They were extremely receptive to the teaching that was provided, and all very eager to weigh their babies.  We are estimating there were probably over 200 people there, with many walking miles to get there.  The mothers are a huge support system for one another, and often times I didn’t even know whose baby was whose, because they all care for one another.  As the clinic wrapped up, we were able to paint many of the girls, and some of the boys, nails.  They loved it and we had a long line of people waiting!  We also blew bubbles and had balloons.  It was a hit!

On Friday, our group had the opportunity to go to Malala, where we visited the homes of HIV + patients and OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children).  There is a program set up to help support these people, and the program has become very effective in helping to provide resources and school needs.  I went to the home (a hut) of a grandmother who was caring for 9 of her orphaned grandchildren.  She had 7 children, 2 of whom have died.  She is now the provider for those children, and we met 3 of them.  She said she has a hard time having enough food, and most often does not have any stored food.  They find food on a daily basis.  Her grandchildren farm for the family, and they did have a good number of chickens.  We asked her if there was anything she wanted us to know about her and her family.  She said she wanted us to remember them when we went back to America, and help send fertilizer and seed.  She was so happy to have us and it was so interesting to see how she lives.  She sang a blessing over us, and we all had a hard time not being able to do anything for her.  However, she is getting help from the program, but still has a hard time making ends meet.

We just arrived in Choma (where we will be the next 3 weeks), a nice town that is not so much a part of the country.  We are in yet another very nice guest house, with excellent food.  The last place had good food, but they served the same thing for lunch and dinner four days in a row.  Our team is so excited to have fresh fruit and peanut butter at this new place!!!  The next few days will much slower, as the elections for the new Zambian president are on Tuesday.  We plan on staying pretty close to the guest house while that goes on, but there should not be any concern for our safety.  I need the time to get homework completed! 

This was a long one, but I am still getting over the surgeries I saw!  Hope all are doing well and I would love to hear from you!  Thank you for the continued prayers!  This week has been a little harder for many people on the team, as the adrenaline and initial excitement has worn off a bit.  We are still doing well, and are amazed at all we have seen and done in just over a week!  Love to you all, Sarah

Oh, and I know our group blog was recently updated as well!