15.08.2011 Nkoaranga Hospital

15.08.2011 Nkoaranga Hospital

            Today Ashlee and I went to the hospital for the first time.  To be perfectly honest, I was nervous as hell.  Not only have I not done any nursing in about two months, and I’m a fresh graduate, but I knew nursing here would be nothing remotely similar to nursing at home.  Dose sterile technique exist?  Do they have pumps?  Do they clean wounds properly and regularly?  Do they use local anesthetics for most of their surgeries?

            We left around 0900.  The hospital we were supposed to go to no longer accepts volunteers and TVE was having difficulty finding another hospital to accept us, so Ashlee had found this one during a coffee tour she took last week.  So, we decided our own hours and which day we will be going.  We had to take a yellow dala dala to manzini, and then a green dala dala to kilala.  After kilala, we were at the base of Mt. Meru.  We decided to walk, because we didn’t think it would be too far away.  We were wrong.  We were climbing up such a high altitude that our ears were popping.  It took us an hour and a half to get to the hospital itself.  Ever seen Off the Map?  That’s our hospital!  There are several buildings that hold the separate wards, and you must go outside to get from one place to another.  There are chickens and cows running around the hospital grounds.  Each hospital room fit many beds, and privacy isn’t a likely option.  Luckily, we met a woman from Belgium named Tanya.  She was a God send.  She gave us a tour, taught us the system, and gave us some hints.  She even offered to give us a ride up to the hospital in the morning and back down in the afternoon.  She has been here since February, and will be here for a year.  She is in charge of building and operating the pediatric ward, which is not yet complete. 

            After our tour, we did rounds with the doctors.  There are two, and both were very

eager to teach us.  We saw cases that we would never see in the States.  Severe malaria, typhoid, TB in the bones (one particular man looked like a holocaust victim; he was so frail and malnourished), and people with growths of unknown reasons.  We saw bota bota accident victims also.  Besides this, it was mostly just an orientation.  I can’t wait until I feel comfortable with their system, charting, and overall way of caring for people. 

            We left at around 1500 to go back home.  On the way home, a man got on the same dala as Ashlee and I and starting talking and yelling about us.  The woman in front of us looked back and gave us one of those, I’m sorry you have to deal with this looks. Whatever he was saying, it must have been pretty offensive because the dala driver pulled over on the side of the road, walked over to where the man was, literally dragged the other man out of the dala, and they started throwing punches.  Neither were seriously hurt, but the dala driver won the fight.  He got back in and drove off, leaving the other man behind.  Right after this, he got a flat tire so we had to get off the dala and catch another going the same direction.  As a dala was pulling over to collect us, I was praying the man who was just kicked off the previous dala wouldn’t be on there.  He wasn’t. 

            On a high note, I’m almost caught up on my blogs!  I’ve been so busy living life that I haven’t had time to write about it.  A lot of people have been calling me or facebooking to tell me they miss the regular updates.  Samahani rafikis! I will try to do better.