Mostly Observations

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So it hasn't been long since my last entry so not terribly much has happened. Monday I had Libuyu Clinic (the unorganized one) in the morning. There is a guy who works there who is supposed to do registration and find the books for the patients. And we're supposed to take their vitals. But he doesn't; he expects us to do it instead. If we really can't find a book he'll help look but otherwise not. He sits there and watches soccer on tv. And he's getting paid! Extremely annoying! Gaaaahhh! In the afternoon I had reading club for the first time. The students were mostly grade 4 and were at all different reading levels! Some of them didn't even know the alphabet! So obviously they aren't going to be good at reading. I played some alphabet games with them, but it makes me wonder how they can survive school. You need to be able to read for most things! It's really depressing! And then there are some kids who are really bright and who would excel in our education system at home, but they will never have that opportunity here. Makes me realize how lucky I am!

Today I was at Maramba Clinic in the morning (the biggest clinic in Livingstone). It wasn't too busy so towards the end I went into the TB Lab to watch them test for TB. The patients have to bring in 3 samples of sputum or saliva and then tests are performed on all 3 samples. The are put on slides and stained and then examined under a microscope. The TB baccilli are fluorescent against the dark background. The bus came while the stain was still being applied so I didn't actually get to look under the microscope. Which was extremely disappointing! It probably was my only chance ever! You can't do stuff like that at home! The TB on the slides is still contagious so there is a fan in the room to push any disease out the window. Not the safest thing in the world. Patients who have a productive cough get this test. If they come back positive then the rest of their family is tested using the skin test that we use at home. I was expecting that to be used on everyone, but if sputum is available, that test is used.
In the afternoon I had building again. More plastering.

The roads here are insane. Not the driving like in India, that part actually isn't too bad. It's more the potholes. There are a couple main paved streets in town that are nice. In the compounds, however, that is not the case. They're pretty much all sand roads with tons of holes and ditches and when there is pavement it looks like it has a case of the chicken-pox.
Livingstone town consists of only a couple main streets in the "down-town" area. There is a grocery store, 2 markets, restaurants, a couple hotels, bookstore, internet cafes, banks, and some other businesses and that's about it. The majority of the people live in the surrounding compounds, each sort of their own village. Each has it's own market, clinic, and school. So even though we're in a somewhat developed area, the places that we work are more rural.

Garbage here is much like it was in India and Nepal. Garbage cans are non-existent. There is one are in between Linda and Libuyu compounds that I think is the dump because it's full of garbage and it reeks when we drive past. I want trash cans!
The rainy season is supposed to start by Friday and we can already feel the humidity increasing! The rain should make it cool down a bit, but I hate humidity even more than heat! Because it makes the heat feel even more hot!
Women here just wear a piece of cloth wrapped around like a skirt. Some wear skirts, but it's unusual, and only the professionals wear pants. Otherwise it's just a piece of very patterned fabric wrapped around the waist.
At the clinics if we have a patient with a temperature over 103 they have to go to the front of the line. We had a couple of those today and we always get dirty looks from the rest of the patients. It's kind of intimidating, but if they have a high fever then they're more of a priority. Especially if they're 3 months old with almost 104 fever like one child we had today. There was another one as well (10 months) who was coughing up sputum and had a high fever and probably TB. It is kind of shocking to see kids that are that sick! They needed to be taken to the clinic a long time ago!
One more thing... the dates here are backwards! Day first and then month. Actually I think the US is backwards because the rest of the world does it this way. I have to be constantly conscious though when I'm writing the date in the patients' books. I'm getting more used to it now though. Now people will just be confused when I get back home and am writing it backwards!

Tomorrow we leave at 5 am for Zimbabwe for 5 days! I am so excited!!! I could tell you everywhere that we're going but I'll leave that for when I get back. But I will say that we get to walk with lions and I'm exctremely excited!!!

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Comments

[kirsten]

wowwwwwwee. first off, you are seriously amazing. pretty much hero material, right here. and did i mention, awe inspiring??! haha zimbabwe sounds fun. all i can think about is model un and how they were always at the end for role call votes. ahaha. :]] have fun. stay safe. looooove from ak