hello all- sorry this is basically a one line entry but I'm exhausted. I'll probably write more later this week but in summary Botswana was absolutely incredible. Here are some pics to entertain you until I'm done losing the war against jet lag.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
A shout out from Sara
I'm officially finished with the hospital and now off to go get eaten by a lion in Botswana. The best news of the week is that my friend Sara Kamins is here with me! So she's guest starring in this blog writing it with me this morning.
We got a taste of a classic African bus experience after I picked her up at the airport. I've taken several 4 hour bus rides since arriving in Zambia but everyone has always advised me to take a specific company called Mazhandu. Until Wednesday I stuck with the advise but that afternoon they told us their last bus for the day had already departed when we got there. Fortunately, wink wink, they had a sister bus company with a bus leaving "in 15 minutes". We should have know an imminent departure was less than likely when we got on the large bus to find only 3 other Americans and about 67 empty seats. Sara's first 4 hours in Zambia were spent being told we were leaving in "15 minutes" while guys from the street boarded and tried to sell us boxer shorts, watches and bananas. We eventually left 4 hours after boarding and got to Choma at about 11 pm. So much for showing her the sunset.
Yesterday I showed her around Choma and said goodbye to everyone I've come to know in the past few months. She saw the hospital (Don't worry Sue it was from a distance), a few schools, the market (including smelly dried fish) and the guesthouse. We enjoyed our morning walking around and then hopped on a much less chaotic bus for livingstone. Last night we stayed at Jolly Boys, the hostel I've been at before and now we're waiting to be picked up for our big Botswana adventure.
No internet for the next 8 days so we'll keep you posted when we're back. Take Care!
Melissa AND Sara
We got a taste of a classic African bus experience after I picked her up at the airport. I've taken several 4 hour bus rides since arriving in Zambia but everyone has always advised me to take a specific company called Mazhandu. Until Wednesday I stuck with the advise but that afternoon they told us their last bus for the day had already departed when we got there. Fortunately, wink wink, they had a sister bus company with a bus leaving "in 15 minutes". We should have know an imminent departure was less than likely when we got on the large bus to find only 3 other Americans and about 67 empty seats. Sara's first 4 hours in Zambia were spent being told we were leaving in "15 minutes" while guys from the street boarded and tried to sell us boxer shorts, watches and bananas. We eventually left 4 hours after boarding and got to Choma at about 11 pm. So much for showing her the sunset.
Yesterday I showed her around Choma and said goodbye to everyone I've come to know in the past few months. She saw the hospital (Don't worry Sue it was from a distance), a few schools, the market (including smelly dried fish) and the guesthouse. We enjoyed our morning walking around and then hopped on a much less chaotic bus for livingstone. Last night we stayed at Jolly Boys, the hostel I've been at before and now we're waiting to be picked up for our big Botswana adventure.
No internet for the next 8 days so we'll keep you posted when we're back. Take Care!
Melissa AND Sara
Friday, April 3, 2009
Last Week
Hola,
As is typically the case at the end of an adventure, I'm not quite ready to leave. This week has been really fun as I've been exploring other parts of the hospital in addition to working with Dr Johnson in the theatre. My favorite part of the week was delivering babies! A late night C-section last week reminded me how great is is watching these tiny little guys pop into the world. Since then I've been hanging out with the midwives during breaks this week and delivered 4 babies so far. Labor and delivery is quite a bit different here than at home as there are no fetal heart monitors and NO PAIN MEDS!!! Watching these ladies made me think us Americans are such wimps, but when I eventually get around to having kids you bet I want that epidural.
What the labor room here did have which most at home don't is a resident cobra. Yes, a cobra as in long scary poisonous snake. Here in Zambia there is a old wives tale that a snake won't come near a pregnant lady. Hmmmm...consider that myth dispelled by a bunch of midwives and pregnant ladies running around the ward yelling "snake!". Fortunately nobody was bitten and the snake was beheaded. We're still waiting to see if he has friends who will be gracing us with their presence.
I also attended a general meeting of all of the hospital staff. It was really interesting to see what issues they found most challenging or concerning. In contrast to my last post, saying people weren't so concerned with other staff members dying, much of the meeting was dedicated to the very subject. Sadly they are faced with so many funerals of community members that they have whole policies and committees determining how funerals are handled. Employers here are much more responsible for providing for employees in all aspects of living. Many people are fed and housed by their employers. To an extent this also includes planning/financing funerals and weddings. There were interesting concerns of funerals for employees at different pay levels getting more priority or people in different jobs having more freedom to attend all of the funerals they would like. This is also compounded by a cultural concern that if you don't attend someone's funeral you will be blamed for their death.
They also discussed extensively plans to fix the broken generator versus the broken minibus. These are issues I can't really imagine making it to the board meeting at a hospital at home but truly matter day to day here.
Not much else is new-just lots of social plans this weekend with people in town who know I'm leaving soon. Last weekend one of the cooks from the guesthouse invited me to her home to meet her family which I just loved. While I was there we were watching TV, as they typically do on a Sunday afternoon. There aren't many channels but what was on was WWF wrestling. WWF is ENORMOUSLY popular here. I can't say I'm proud that's what Zambians think America is like, but for whatever reason they absolutely love it here. Perhaps the funniest moment of my time here was when the 3 year old niece introduced me to her teddy bear and told me it's name was John Cena, after a WWF star. Scary!
That's it for now- have a great week!
As is typically the case at the end of an adventure, I'm not quite ready to leave. This week has been really fun as I've been exploring other parts of the hospital in addition to working with Dr Johnson in the theatre. My favorite part of the week was delivering babies! A late night C-section last week reminded me how great is is watching these tiny little guys pop into the world. Since then I've been hanging out with the midwives during breaks this week and delivered 4 babies so far. Labor and delivery is quite a bit different here than at home as there are no fetal heart monitors and NO PAIN MEDS!!! Watching these ladies made me think us Americans are such wimps, but when I eventually get around to having kids you bet I want that epidural.
What the labor room here did have which most at home don't is a resident cobra. Yes, a cobra as in long scary poisonous snake. Here in Zambia there is a old wives tale that a snake won't come near a pregnant lady. Hmmmm...consider that myth dispelled by a bunch of midwives and pregnant ladies running around the ward yelling "snake!". Fortunately nobody was bitten and the snake was beheaded. We're still waiting to see if he has friends who will be gracing us with their presence.
I also attended a general meeting of all of the hospital staff. It was really interesting to see what issues they found most challenging or concerning. In contrast to my last post, saying people weren't so concerned with other staff members dying, much of the meeting was dedicated to the very subject. Sadly they are faced with so many funerals of community members that they have whole policies and committees determining how funerals are handled. Employers here are much more responsible for providing for employees in all aspects of living. Many people are fed and housed by their employers. To an extent this also includes planning/financing funerals and weddings. There were interesting concerns of funerals for employees at different pay levels getting more priority or people in different jobs having more freedom to attend all of the funerals they would like. This is also compounded by a cultural concern that if you don't attend someone's funeral you will be blamed for their death.
They also discussed extensively plans to fix the broken generator versus the broken minibus. These are issues I can't really imagine making it to the board meeting at a hospital at home but truly matter day to day here.
Not much else is new-just lots of social plans this weekend with people in town who know I'm leaving soon. Last weekend one of the cooks from the guesthouse invited me to her home to meet her family which I just loved. While I was there we were watching TV, as they typically do on a Sunday afternoon. There aren't many channels but what was on was WWF wrestling. WWF is ENORMOUSLY popular here. I can't say I'm proud that's what Zambians think America is like, but for whatever reason they absolutely love it here. Perhaps the funniest moment of my time here was when the 3 year old niece introduced me to her teddy bear and told me it's name was John Cena, after a WWF star. Scary!
That's it for now- have a great week!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)