Hospital Pictures

This is our Maternity Ward. There are about 14 beds and usually about 20-30 patients in the ward! Maybe you can see in the back of the ward, most of the beds are shared by two, sometimes three patients! We are lucky to have received brand new beds with mosquito nets from Mama Salma Kikwete, the first Lady of Tanzania, who recently came to Lindi to donate beds and equipment. Its a full ward round day, meaning we see and examine all of the patients in Maternity Department. Farther back in the ward, through the double doors is "Labor and Delivery" where patients are brought for triage and for delivery. There are 3 delivery "beds". In our hospital we are doing on average about 140 deliveries per month so those 3 delivery beds are usually always full!



This young girl is 16. She just delivered twins by cesarian section. I think she is actually lucky. There are so many teenage girls who come very late to the hospital or get referred from a dispensary after having been in labor for 2 to 3 days. They often end up with an IUFD (Intrauterine Fetal Demise) and unfortunately a VVF (Vesicovaginal fistula). While this girl managed to deliver healthy twins, she will need alot of social support being only 16 and a new mother!



Here you see our "sterile speculums" and other "sterile equipment". The equipment has in fact been "sterilized" in an autoclave but certainly you would not be able to guess by the look of these! Our patients don't complain nor do they even seem to notice!


I only have 7 days left in Lindi. A lot of mixed emotions! There are many things I'll miss and many I will be happy to leave behind. In fact I only have 5 working days left, but who is counting!

What I'm really going to miss most is the people I've met here in Africa - some very extraordinarily genuine people. There is one particular author, Kuki Gallmann, who describes Africans as "People for whom tradition is important and to whom family values still matter; people who protect the young and respect the old, care for the sick and feed the hungry, even if it means sharing the little that they have; generous people, ready to smile and to forgive; people with a song in their heart and a dance in their step; enduring, compassionate and infintely patient." (From the novel 'African Nights'). I think this is a very accurate description.