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Ahhh, what a week! I can’t believe how tiring it is to sit in a car all day! So “field work” is like a week long road trip where there is hardly anywhere to stop for food and bathrooms are holes in the ground surrounded by either a small brick building or a structure built of sticks and banana leaves. I swear my ass is bruised from all the bumps we went flying over. The driver usually managed to slow down but at dusk, the red roads did well to hide them. Those one’s hurt.
The more I saw of the health facilities out here, the more I realized the magnitude of the challenge of providing any form of health care. We visited a dispensary in a local mining town where, according to the doctor, almost all the women had HIV and yet he had no gloves. There were facilities without the gas-freezers used to store vaccinations and so unable to provide vaccines and would refer patients to the nearest health center which may be a half hour drive away, if not longer. There were facilities that had run out of penicillin over a year ago and were still waiting for
it to be delivered by the Ministry. Often times it was easier just to refer patients to the nearby pharmacy to purchase the medication themselves and return to the facility to have it injected. Unfortunately, few people have TSH1000 -2000 in cash and disappear from the records.
The test that is done, haphazardly at best, is fairly simple if the supplies are available. It requires needles and ideally gloves to draw blood, test tubes and a centrifuge (the have these little hand-spun shakers that don’t require electricity) to separate the serum from the blood cells, the test reagents and spot cards and a freezer to keep the reagents at the correct temperature. It comes down to needles, a shaker, a freezer and the test kit and when we tried to deliver reagents to some of the facilities we couldn’t because they were lacking basic supplies.
I did discover that I quite like the smell of antiseptic characteristic of our hospitals and doctor’s offices. The alternative is enough to make you gag. It is the smell of body odour and the excreta of the sick that over time, and hot temperatures, has become baked into the frame of the building. It is hard to believe that these places are where the sick seek help, there is nothing upon entry that reassures aside from the presence of the staff. Many of the doctors, nurses and health officers we met were incredibly friendly and upbeat as they described how little equipment and supplies they had to work with. I would find it depressing to have patients come in search of care and not be able to provide them with anything other than words of advice.
We’re heading back next Sunday but just for one night so some of the London folk can see how everything’s going out in dusty Geita. I can’t say I’m looking forward to it but it’s only for one night and given the two flat tires from this trip, I imagine something will happen to provide a little excitement!
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erla
non-member comment
Hello
Hey it's great to read your blog! I also have quite a sore bum from bumpy rides :) Sounds like it's a great experience though....They were quite keen to get everything done here, i was sent to the field an hour after i arrived without really having anytimes to prepare....I only spent a week in the field and now i'm back in the city, I'm trying to make sense of the data which just seems like a big mess now....Good luck and have fun, when are you back in London ? x erla