Dragonfly Photography

Week Two

So week two is now half way. Somehow, in this chaos you do find some sort of routine. If you don’t, you cannot survive this I think. It still continues to be an emotional roller coaster, many new impressions and adjustments every day. Monday I was sick. (still, again, who knows) So I did not go to the preemie ward, since they have enough of a fight ahead of them without me sniffing and coughing. Now everybody is sick here. Coughing everywhere, so I think we keep passing it on to each other. The swine flu prevention, cough, fever, cold or flu symptoms=mask, does not apply here. Lots of rules do not apply here. For now I am focusing on what there is instead of wondering why something is not there. It helps.

Monday we went to the nursing school. The curriculum is set by the Tanzanian Ministry of Health. The length of the training has been cut by a year. And here also, a shortage of teachers and more students than spots. After three years they graduate and then can specialize as a midwife or psychiatric nurse. Next Monday we are going back to help with teaching how to obtain vital signs, so the groups can be made smaller and hopefully everybody will be able to get enough out of it.

Yesterday and today I spent the morning in the preemie ward. Not too bad, lots of preemies. Quite interesting to find a baby with no identification, just laying there with some blow-by oxygen. Still wrapped in just a sheet from the delivery, unknown how long it has been laying there. So then your task is to locate the mother. It’s like a puzzle…. And no worries about mislabeling specimens or identifying with two identifications, there isn’t any. Man, I hope I can still do this when I come back, reading ID bands and asking patients for their name. If you are lucky, the baby will either have a piece of tape around the wrist with the name of the mother on it, or a piece of tape on the sheet it is wrapped in with the name of the mother on it.

When I arrived at the preemie ward, there was somewhat of a chaos. The two preemies that have been there for a long time and need to go to the orphanage were both screaming because they wanted to eat. Three mothers of the other preemies were there too, to feed. So imagine this room being as small as my kitchen, two benches, 40 degrees Celsius or so and a couple of adult bodies radiating off heat…. Then the personal hygiene here is not what we are used to, so you probably have guessed by now.

Today I had excellent help. I was wondering around on hospital grounds looking for linen, I am finding my way but not quite sure where certain things are. And there they were, two Norwegian student nurses, walking there. I asked them if they were bored and guess what, they were! The ward they were assigned to, had nothing for them to do. The Haydom nursing students are in class on Wednesdays so I was by myself. So they were more than willing to come and help me out. Weighing, changing and feeding and in no time everybody was clean and fed and sleeping.

Then Ellen, the doctor in the maternity ward, also needed help. And since now my work was being done, I was able to help her round. So the other nurses could do what they needed to do. And in the end everybody was happy.

Friday afternoon I am leaving for a safari. We are going to the Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara, both located in Northern Tanzania. Now where am I located, you may ask. If you go to one of my earlier blogs, there should be a picture of a map. I am near Mount Hanang, this is the mountain I see from my window. So look it up if you feel like it… So hopefully I will see elephants and zebra’s and maybe even a lion. I am very much looking forward to this!

Until next time!