January 24th: Today I spent the day at the Feeding Clinic with Nurse Elizabeth. We saw 6 children. The first child was very malnourished, it was very hard to treat her. She did not have a proper support system to ensure she was eating and developing properly. We encouraged her to take the baby to hospital, even giving the grandmother some money but baby never made it to hospital according to my colleagues who were working on the children's ward that day. I was confused when the person in charge of the vehicle that took emergency cases to the hospital did not consider this baby to be an emergency. It was very frustring and very heartbreaking. I have not stopped thinking about this child since we tried to help her and I can only hope she is in a better place than she was. The rest of the patients that we saw were doing well with the formula that is provided for them at the clinic. One of the mothers' who delivered twins had a mental illness and did not recognize one of the twins to be hers. So I was relieved to see that Grandma was taking care of both the twins. She let my friend and I practice wrapping a baby on our backs, like they do here. It was a blast! After the Feeding Clinic we got a tour of the actual rural clinic. I was surprised to hear that they are funded K600,000 to run the clinic per month. These people truly do wonders with what they are given. The doctor only comes Wednesday and Friday so when he is not there, the nurse acts as the doctor. Like at home, there are levels of education with the health care workers. 1. Clinical officers 2. practical nurses (3 years) 3. enrolled nurses (2 years).
January 25th: Today I spent the whole day at the Rural Clinic. They were overjoyed when we brought them supplies from our house in Melengwa like bandages, etc and gave us a very long list to bring next year. I sat in with the screening nurse and assessed patients. I saw many diagnosis different than Canada. Much malaria, gastroenteritis, peritonitis, Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, a woman who was in labour (I practised the Leopold Maneuver or feeling where baby was positioned in the abdomen and used the Fetal Scope (a large wooden device used to detect baby's heart beat). I found it interesting that they give antibiotics often here. The nurse says it is because although there is no infection now, more often than not, especially because of the high rates of HIV and malaria, infection does develop.
January 26th: Spent the day at the Rural Clinic again today! Saw many things while in the screening room. I removed stitches, helped the nurse diagnose, requested treatment for patients and assessed all the patients coming through. One patient that stood out was a young girl with a fever of 105F and a very low blood pressure. Malaria is so nasty and the nurses are very good at spotting which patients are infected. The test that diagnoses malaria takes about 5 minutes so it was interesting to see which patients came back positive and which didn't. One little boy did not come back positive so we thought the infection in his chest may have entered his blood making him so sick. I preformed breast examinations and referred a woman to the cancer clinic. I saw very high blood pressures. For example, two people came in with blood pressures around 220/110. I was surprised that they were still walking, the nurse said to me that the African people are much tougher than the people at home most likely. It is difficult because at home I would know how to help these people but here they often do not have what I know will help them. After the clinic I went to a nice woman's house and measured her blood pressure and met a young boy along the way who offered to carry my very heavy bag. I later learned that this young man is deaf from meningitis when he was very young. It is my hope that the ministry will listen to this young man's advocate and get him off the streets to a school where he can learn with other deaf children because it is very apparent he is very smart. After visiting with this lady I went to the Girls Orphanage. Along with my friend Julet, we taught 15 girls aged 14 and up about menstruation and pregnancy. It was a blast and a wonderful experience. They listened to every word (giggled a lot) and at the end they could answer all of our questions. We had put together little hygiene packs the night before and they were overjoyed to receive them. We also encouraged them to listen to their own heart beats and their faces were amazing to see once they heard it.
January 27th: Today we arrived at Kafue Safari Lodge! After a long bus ride we were introduced to a beautiful lodge. There were 2 pools over looking Kafue River. There were many carvings, statues, snake skins, turtle shells and pictures of Basil, the hippo that lives at the lodge. I was staying in a tent with my friend Amy. It was a very nice tent actually. It was a bit of a walk from the lodge itself and the ground was extremely muddy because of all the rain. I am unsure if my toes will ever turn back from orange to their normal colour! On my first safari we went on a 'game drive' or went by truck into the bush. I saw antelope, Kupu, birds and scary ants. These ants that have very large pincers travel in a big line, the ants on the side acting as soldiers and the ants on the inside acting as workers. It is said that if an animal angers the chimpanzee, the chimpanzee will throw them into these ants. I did not enjoy the biting flies that followed the truck! I saw a sausage tree which the hippos eat. It is said that the juice from this fruit can help cure skin infections. On my way to dinner walking from my tent, I was chased by some wart hogs. Or so I thought. It turns out they took the same path as us to their feeding place and we were just in the way. The food here is excellent. A delicious buffet and a treat to have food served to us.
January 28th: Another day at the Safari Lodge! Basil scared me last night. I heard these big foot steps and I thought it was a lion coming to eat me. Everyone told me I was crazy until we saw Basil sitting by the lodge. So he had in fact walked by my tent! On a game drive I saw: a pack of zebras, lions, elephants and heard lots of noisy frogs. I learned that there are 3 zones when it comes to wild animals. The comfort zone, the warning zone and the crticial zone. We must have entered the elephants warning zone because it started to shake it's head. The guide got the message and we moved away fast. There have been some scary stories about messing with elephants so I was happy to move away from them. We were able to see the sun rise on the safari which was beautiful. The boat safari couldn't depart this night because of a massive storm, so instead we just had a few drinks and enjoyed the night. I tried shima and was not all that impressed. I decided to stick with potatoes. I played a game of chess with Amy and thought the chess board was very cool, being different animals instead of the normal pieces.I learned many things about the different animals around Zambia and what to do if I either ran into them or were bitten by them.
January 29th: Morning boat cruise safari! Saw lots of hippos, the national King Fisher Eagle of Zambia, an alligator, lots of birds and learned about many trees. I even tried a bite of one of the leaves that was said to relieve stomach pains. We headed home today :(.
January 30th: Today was my first day on the Female Ward at Lewanika Hospital. I am still processing what I experienced because it is so different than my experience at the Rural Clinic in Lumulenga. They have such scarce resources it scares me. A patient today was stable but her level of consciousness was so low that I knew that she would probably not make it much longer. The most that we could do for her was give her IV fluids until the doctor came and the nurse had no idea when he/she would be in. The nurses are very knowledgable. I observed 'rounds' with the gynecologist doctor which was interesting. I did a few vaginal examinations to check to feel for babies head and drew blood for one of the women. We were expecting some trauma cases from a village nearby but they never came. It is so different than home. They do not do assessments and morning baths. The pace also seems slower although there is roughly 2 nurses for 24 very sick patients with a variety of health problems. I am curious to see how I will enjoy the hospital. It is very challenging, that is for sure.
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