2 posts in one day!

Since I haven't posted in a while, I figured I'd try to make up for lost time.  

Well, actually I just had a lot of great experiences in the last two days and wanted to share a couple of them with you.  

Yesterday I had what may be one of my favorite moments since moving to Tanzania.  I visited an HIV+ client in a rural area around Kilimanjaro and the late afternoon light made the inside of the small mud house even darker.  As we finished the visit and began to file out of the house there was an elderly woman standing in the outer room and greeted us each as we walked by.  I was the last one to walk through and I greeted her with the standard Swahili greeting for an older person.  She started to speak but then did a double take as she pulled me closer to the light coming from the front door and with genuine surprise said “wewe ni mzungu!” (you are a white person).  She couldn’t believe that there was a white person in her house and she didn’t even know it (unlike the children who had gathered outside the small window to peer in and look at the white woman).   Then she said in English “Good morning, how are you?” (a phrase she may have learned from her grandchildren)  She was so tickled to have a white person at her house and even asked me to stay and sleep over for the night.  With my hand in hers and, still in a bit of shock, she went on and on talking about the “mzungu” at her house.  She walked back to the vehicle with us, still holding my hand, and invited me back again.  

I hope that I can take her up on it one day.  

hospital visit

I went to the hospital today.  

Don’t worry, not to be treated, but to visit someone.
This hospital was in Marangu, a town literally at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro frequented by tourists planning to climb. It is a beautiful, lush area, especially now during the rainy season. Everything is very green, many trees and flowers are in bloom, and numerous fields are full of maize 6 feet high.

As soon as I walked into the hospital I commented on how clean and well maintained it was. As we entered the different wards I also noticed how empty it was, which seemed very strange to me. I was informed that the hospitals in the rural areas are often not full. However, during holidays, when people in the cities return to their traditional homes, the hospitals are much busier.

The purpose of our (Imara staff and local volunteer) visit was to see a HIV+ client we had hoped to visit in his home. He had recently been treated for malaria but was readmitted to the hospital for continued problems of fever and vomiting. As we entered the ward I saw him on the far side of the room in the bed against the window. I knew it was him because the other 5 beds were empty and he was the only patient in the big room. Although at first glance you might not have even known that a person was there. He was curled up in such a tiny ball with his head tucked under the sheet that you might have thought there was a pile of sheets sitting on the bed instead of a grown man.

As we walked up to the bedside I could see vomit on the floor and couldn’t help but note the strong smell of urine in the air. And, it soon became clear why this man had tucked himself so tightly in the sheet, he was cold! It was also apparent, even with the sheet on top of him, that he couldn’t weigh more than about 70 pounds.

During the past 5 years I have spent a lot of time in hospitals. It has become a bit of a comfort zone for me, it’s a place where I feel like I have some control over certain things and it’s where I’m empowered to do certain things as a nurse. Today I felt like I was so far from my comfort zone I really didn’t know what to do with myself. My heart broke for this man lying in the bed in front of me on sheets too small for the bed and wearing a shirt that used to be white and crisp many years ago. I wanted to do nothing more than bathe him, make his bed using fresh clean sheets and do whatever else I would normally do to make a patient in his condition more comfortable. I started to cry when I saw his condition and realized there was nothing I could do for him. I was definitely not in my comfort zone!

There were no staff members around because they apparently take breaks during visiting hours since friends and family members will be present to attend to the patients’ needs. But what about the patients who don’t have visitors coming to see them? Who will empty a bedpan or clean the face of a man who has vomited if he doesn’t have a devoted wife or child at his bedside? I started to get angry.  The answers I received in response to my questions only made me more angry.  

But then I saw something beautiful. I saw this volunteer, a man in his 30’s whose face literally shows the scars of a hard life, a man who looks like he’s trying to maintain a certain image (the "I wear my sunglasses at night" sort of image). I saw this man empty the bedpan which was sitting under the bed (which I didn’t even see and wouldn’t have known where to empty it if I had). I saw him hunt down a blanket from the seemingly nonexistent staff and cover the man as he spoke gently and compassionately to him. And I was even a little tickled to see him teach the patient how to hold his hand and wrist to ensure that the IV fluids continued to flow through the IV in his wrist. 

It was clear that this volunteer cared a great deal for the man in the hospital bed. This encouraged me more than you can imagine. Not only because this particular man was comforted but because this volunteer represents so many others who have been trained as community care givers. People with AIDS are being loved and cared for! This made my heart swell. We all prayed for this man before we left and I walked out with a renewed sense of hope.

Quite a range of emotions in a span of 20 minutes.

kili in the clouds

Here ya go John, Kilimanjaro from Arusha National Park

my new career

Well, I’ve found my fallback career.  If the nurse thing doesn’t work out in the future, I think I may try being a safari driver.  

Ok, not really.  But I did it for a day and it was pretty fun.  Arusha National Park is about 30 minutes from my house and has a lot of game viewing opportunities as well as hiking safaris.  This past Saturday my roommates and I, along with an out of town guest, decided to go hiking on part of Mt Meru in Arusha Nat’l Park.  The only problem was that the hike we wanted to do required a 4x4 vehicle, with capabilities beyond what our little RAV4 could offer, to get to the starting point of the hike.  So we borrowed a Land Cruiser and were off for a fun day of hiking.  I ended up in the driver’s seat and found that I really quite enjoyed myself.  Once we got into the park and made our way to the ranger station to pick up our armed guide/guard to hike with us (a requirement for hiking in this particular area where wildlife is present) the sky started to look a little grey.  We were not deterred.  After crossing a small river and engaging the 4 wheel drive for the first time we made the ascent up the winding dirt road to the starting point of the hike.  Just about the time we reached our destination the skies opened up.  After deciding that waiting it out was not the best option we very slowly made the descent down the steep, winding dirt road along with the water that was now rushing down the mountain.  We made it safely to the bottom about the same time the rain lightened up.  We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around the park looking for wildlife and got a great view of Kilimanjaro as the clouds broke.  So the day wasn’t a complete bust, and I got some good 4x4 experience!  

We'll give it another shot on another day, maybe after the rainy season passes . . .   

Happy Presidents Day!

Presidents' day has never been one of those holidays that really held special meaning or memories for me. However, today that changed. Today I saw my president on presidents day . . . ok, I almost saw him. I saw his vehicle as it passed by, the dark tinted windows make it pretty impossible to see inside. Bush visited Atlanta multiple times while I lived there and I hardly noticed, sometimes I would see it on the news after the fact. That was definitely not the case here in Arusha today. Many roads throughout town were closed for portions of the day, some schools were closed, a lot of people didn't go to work, American and Tanzanian flags were put up at strategic points around town. There was really no way to miss it. The road to town from the airport happens to be the road that I live on and the road where my office is located so I got to see the motorcade coming and going (it was kind of like a parade with people lining the street and waving little flags). It may not seem like a lot to you, but it was quite a bit of excitement for the town of Arusha (and a couple of American girls living in Arusha).
Hope you have a great Presidents' Day too!

the latest

I know I have been absent from this site for a while, long enough that I don't really know where to begin to fill you in on the last month. But here are some of the highlights:

• I celebrated Christmas and the New Year with my friends and "family" here (someone even filled a stocking for me on Christmas morning)
• I was more homesick than I ever thought possible (its getting better now)
• I went on safari the week after Christmas to Arusha National Park (where parts of the film Hatari! was filmed)
• I celebrated my 30th birthday with a series of parties and events planned by my roommates, friends and coworkers. I even had two homemade birthday cakes!
• I taught two sections of the current HIV training course: Caring for an unconscious or bedridden patient and Basic first aid and wound care
• My roommates and I cut out and laminated hundreds of pictures for the 18 students in the HIV course to take home a teaching set to do seminars in churches and schools in their communities
• I've travelled to several different villages, once to visit HIV patients, once to take pictures of sponsored children to send back to America, and once to observe the fieldwork portion of our HIV training course
• One of the HIV+ people I visited was newly diagnosed and had a CD4 count of 17, normal is 500-1500! This means he has practically no immune system left and even taking antiretroviral medication at this stage may not help. (This is a great reminder of the importance early testing and counseling)
• I've seen Mt Kilimanjaro from three different sides in the past two weeks, and yes, it looks very different from each angle
• We have a mouse in our house that seems to have super powers and a taste for dried fruit and nuts. (He's learned to avoid all the traps our landlord put out and can climb walls and tables. Any suggestions?)

A few people have asked about the child with hydrocephalus I wrote about before, here's the latest update: he is a good candidate for surgery, it will just have to be done in Dar es Salaam (10+ hour bus ride from where he lives). Pray that logistics and funding will be worked out in a timely manner for this surgery to happen.

I've added some new pictures to my picasa page, just click the picture link on the left.

pray for Kenya today

I don't know how much of the news from Kenya is making it to the states, if you are not yet aware of the current state of affairs do a short internet news search. The political state is quite volitile following the recent election. A friend of mine is currently living and working in Kenya and has written a great blog about what it feels like to be in the midst of it all. Please check it out, and please pray. http://everydaygrace-alida.blogspot.com Today is a crucial day as there have been many rallies planned all over the country. I'm told the tension in the air is palpable.

ps I am in no danger here in Arusha