Jumatano

A view of the front of my house. There are 3 "houses" in this building. I live on the far left side if you are facing the house.

The path from my door leads to the hospital which is about a two minute walk to the morning conference room - a little better commute than I had in Chicago:)

Today I rounded in Wodi 2 - the male surgical ward. There were 54 patients today - mostly orthopedic cases, but some general surgery and urologic cases. I rounded with one of the Tanzanian Assistant medical officers and the orthopedic surgeon. Most of the orthopedic patients were s/p fractures that had been internally fixated? (Sanders - i'm sorry if you read this and I'm wrong with the ortho terminology, its been over four years since my ortho rotation). Many patients were post op after having an ORIF - open reduction, internal fixation. There were a couple of post op prostatectomy cases, hernia repairs and hydrocele repairs. Two boys had been admitted after snake bites to the feet. Both had a large amount of soft tissue damage in the foot. One man was admitted after an aligator attacked him and injured his arm/shoulder.

This afternoon I was walking back to the hospital to go to the surgical outpatient department, when I walked past one of the german nuns, who stopped me and introduced herself. She has worked as a doctor/teacher at Ndanda for the past 35 years. She was on her way to the nursing school to give a lecture and invited me to listen, so I came with her. This nun is also a doctor and at one time practiced gynecology, now she works in the family planning department.

Her lecture today was given to the 4th year nursing students on a very interesting topic - "cervical mucus":) She introduced me to the nursing students, who looked like they were pleased to have a visitor in their classroom.

The nursing school class had about 30 or 40 students that are probably in their late teens, mostly girls. Most were busy taking notes, some looked interested, others asleep during her lecture. I was curious how much of the lecture the students understood as every word was spoken in English.

After the class I met one of the other clinical officers who works maternity and also surgical outpatient department. He is older and told me he's going to retire in a couple of years. He was absent from morning report this morning because he was doing a repeat cesarian section late last night. His afternoon clinic was very slow, so a good time to chat and get to know him. He told me that the administration is setting up my office next to his. I was surprised to hear this, as I was not expecting an office of my own.

The afternoon clinics usually run until about 3:30 and then most people are done with their work, unless they are working a night shift or on call.

Its hotter than usual today so I went back to the house. I keep the fan on while I'm in doors because even with the lights off and shades closed, the house gets pretty hot. Today Janet, my housekeeper came to clean. She charges 5000 shillings (a little less than 5 dollars). Obviously way less than any American, but probably more than most house cleaners make here, and on my salary it probably evens out.

Dinners for me are still a dilemna/challenge. Until I learn to cook I expect to loose a few lbs's. Last night I walked to the (only?) restaurant in Ndanda, which is just down the road. They sell chicken, meat, fish, rice, etc.....I was craving chicken but they were out of chicken so I ate the fish - edible, but not good by american standards; however, much better than my spaghetti and tomatoes!

(BTW Jumatano is Kiswahili for Wednesday. The thought of "cervical mucous" as a title for this post crossed my mind but then again Wednesday is a safe enough choice:)