Sign In
Blogs from Manzini, Swaziland, Africa
Advertisement
March 19th 2012
Manzini - Today the medical work begins. We are up for breakfast, will head to the hospital here in Manzini for a tour and then head out on the HIV Task Force - a home assessment of patients in their homes to evaluate their status, provide treatments and food. Taking the anti-retroviral medications with food is critical to avoid nausea, and many of the patients in the villages don't have adequate food, so the food program becomes critical. It is impressive how organized and systematic the program is here. Photos to follow later.... read more
March 19th 2012
Today really started to bring to light the reason we are here. First we spent some time familiarizing ourselves with the hospital in Manzini. Secondly, we broke up into teams, were paired up with community HIV/AIDS workers and went out with them to do community based visitations. The issues as I best understand them are as follows. There is an HIV/AIDS epidemic that has been ongoing for some time. It was predicted at one point that Swaziland would have no adult population by 2030 if the epidemic went unchanged. Treatment (Anti Retroviral Therapy or A.R.T.) is available to patients diagnosed and is effective at prolonging and improving their clinical condition. ARTs need to be taken with food. Nutrition and access to food is a critical issue with many patients on ARTs. This creates a vicious cycle: ... read more
March 19th 2012
Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital (RFH for short) is probably the best hospital in Swaziland. That is the best of three. It has about 350 beds, with a very busy maternal child ward (9000 deliveries a year or 25 babies every 24 hours!), a busy outpatient anti-retroviral clinic (ART clinic), a "casualty" emergency department, pediatrics ward (with strong ties to the Baylor system) an ICU and renal dialysis unit (donated by the governtment of Taiwan), and general medicine and surgery services. They have about 30 physicians - 24 medical officers (general physicians) and 2 OB/GYN, 2 general surgeons, an orthopedic surgeon and a pediatrician. Half of the hospital admissions have HIV/AIDS related diseases. The hospital operates on a grant from the government (95% of its budget), grants (3%) and patient payment (2%). It has autonomy in managing ... read more
March 19th 2012
I think the visits with the HIV task-force stir-up strong emotions in everybody. Initially, I feel sad for those I saw. Instrospectively, I feel guilty for living a quality of life that most in the world only dream of and not doing more. It was painful to see what once was a vibrant 23 year old mother relegated to a foam pad on the family room floor due to weakness. She is getting her AIDS medications and TB medications and I believe she is taking them. I think if she could just get proper nourishment she would be in a much better state. Sad to think that her body is left with the tremendous burden of fighting these diseases and without adequate nourishment to do so. It's very humbling to participate in her care. Her Grandma ... read more
March 18th 2012
March 18, 2012 (Manzini, Swaziland) Access to good internet service is still challenging in Swaziland. From what I understand they have premium pricing on cellular services with a limited infrastructure and this makes it challenging to get good a) coverage and b) performance. International data plans for AT&T do not apply here. In South Africa, I had a Boingo account that gave me access in the airport hotel which was nice. Here at the Hotel George, there is a limited bandwidth WIFI that is shared by all the guests. 3 AM is the only time I’ve been able to log on even for simple email services. Uploading images may be challenging, but I’ll try best I can to keep you posted. We have found out a potential solution – pricey, but as long as we get ... read more
Advertisement
March 18th 2012
To continue… After a trip through the gentle rolling hills of SE South Africa, we came to the border crossing into Swaziland. First we had to exit South Africa, then clear entrance into Swaziland…on foot. We gave all our passports to our driver, he processed them, then one-by-one we were called by the emigration officer and handed back our passports. Long queues but not to much of a delay. We then walked across to the entry immigration building on the Swazi side. Colorful display, long queue but again, rapid processing. After getting our passports stamped, we officially walked across the border and entered Swaziland. Prior to getting to the border, the terrain had become a bit more rugged, some granite rocks visible in the countryside. We stopped for lunch at a compound of local artisan crafts ... read more
March 18th 2012
0 0 1 117 670 Oculoplastics 5 1 786 14.0 It is easy to feel like a foreigner here in Africa, but the people here are interesting and friendly. While things feel different, a bit strange and I have a bit of apprehension not knowing the lay of the land, the people we have been able to meet here... read more
March 18th 2012
Manzini (March 28, 2012) We visited one of the local Nazarene churches today and exprienced a large friendly energetic and very musical congregation. They were most appreciative of our team and showed us great hospitality. I have some videos of the singing, but unfortunately can't post them because of bandwidth constraints. Here are a few photos that capture some of the personalities of the kids and the congregation.... read more
March 17th 2012
March 17, 2012 (Manzini, Swaziland) We all got up in time to make our planned 7:30 breakfast at the City Lodge Hotel and then say goodbye to comfort and head out in three Kombi vans to Swaziland. After a few hours of insomnia I decided to get up and do some work and the internet performance at 3 am was a bit better. Still got a few hours of solid sleep, a hot shower and a great breakfast. The three vans with two trailers in tow housed the entire group of twenty people. The trip to Manzini is straight East for about six hours over good highway roads. Our drivers are excellent experienced and drive fast (120-140 km per hour). As soon as we left J-burg we hit the rural countryside of rolling hills, pine and ... read more
June 1st 2010
After switching backpackers to one closer to the city center of Durbin via hitchhiking, using two Kombis (I finally figured out this is what they call the mini taxi's), and walking for a kilometer or two, we relocated to the Happy Hippo. Here I used the full day to do laundry, buy supplies, and catch up on emails and talking to people via skype. This backpackers had the cheapest internet I have found yet so I took advantage of it. The next morning we took off for the Amphitheater, which is located in the northern part of the Drakensberg. We took the Baz Bus one final time. The journey was about 4-5 hours. The Amphitheater was in a remote, flat, grassy area with the mountains in the background. The scenery around there kind of reminded me ... read more
