I spent the weekend with four of the other volunteers camping on Pangani Beach. Very nice and relaxing!! Saw the moonrise--didn't know there was such a thing and beautiful sunrises. Lovely strolls on the beach and got asked to marry a Muslim tour guide who was in his late forties one morning, but I told him all about my lovely (and really non-existent) boyfriend back in Scotland who gave me this engagement ring on my right hand ring finger...he understood.
Back to work this morning, didn't see much, it was unusually a SUPER quiet day. Good! that means less people having problems. Jumped about the different wards to see bits and pieces of everything but went home around 12.30 so I could sleep a bit before doing the night shift tonight. On the way home though I was riding the dallah-dallah and the only white person of course in the vehicle, greeting by "Mzungo! hello how are you?" I answer and the two door men start speaking swahili to each other, look at me and then continue to speak, every now and again I'd hear the word Mzungo and know that they are definitely talking about me. And then they'd start to laugh and then the passengers in front of me would look at me and smile, I had NO idea what they were saying. More swahili spoken amongst several passengers now, laughter, and theeennn the two passengers AND driver turn their heads from the front of the dallah to look at me and smile, talk about AWKWARD! jeeze...eventually the guy next to me decides he'd be nice and tell me what they are saying which was that the one door man would like to talk me for a drink. Who knows what else was said but I replied thank you for the compliment with a smile and got off a the next stop...(I was at my destination, not just being rude) such a funny situation! haha only in Africa :)
Witnessed a circumcision today, poor kid sounded like he was being murdered! The doctor gave him a local anesthetic, but it should take 20 minutes for the effects to kick in, but the doctor decided it's good to go straight away and away he went! Jeeze I probably would have gone mental too if I were the 6 year old. It looked so messy and horribly stitched but I haven't performed one so I can't say that it was. I was just the iodine pourer. Then after the boy, a women came in with a huge abscess on her arm from a tetanus shot. When there is no external opening for an abscess, it is termed a sterile abscess. The doctor cut into the area and he asked for an assistant, which I gladly volunteered, to hold the tray while he squeezed the pus out and then he swapped positions, allowing me to do the squeezing. It was insane how much pus this women had in her arm, holy cow it just kept coming! Then the doctor would dig around with a pair of scissors to free any blockage and then more pus would come out until finally I hit just blood. Then it was just a patch up with gauze, some iodine and she was good to go. Pretty exciting stuff!
Back to work this morning, didn't see much, it was unusually a SUPER quiet day. Good! that means less people having problems. Jumped about the different wards to see bits and pieces of everything but went home around 12.30 so I could sleep a bit before doing the night shift tonight. On the way home though I was riding the dallah-dallah and the only white person of course in the vehicle, greeting by "Mzungo! hello how are you?" I answer and the two door men start speaking swahili to each other, look at me and then continue to speak, every now and again I'd hear the word Mzungo and know that they are definitely talking about me. And then they'd start to laugh and then the passengers in front of me would look at me and smile, I had NO idea what they were saying. More swahili spoken amongst several passengers now, laughter, and theeennn the two passengers AND driver turn their heads from the front of the dallah to look at me and smile, talk about AWKWARD! jeeze...eventually the guy next to me decides he'd be nice and tell me what they are saying which was that the one door man would like to talk me for a drink. Who knows what else was said but I replied thank you for the compliment with a smile and got off a the next stop...(I was at my destination, not just being rude) such a funny situation! haha only in Africa :)
Witnessed a circumcision today, poor kid sounded like he was being murdered! The doctor gave him a local anesthetic, but it should take 20 minutes for the effects to kick in, but the doctor decided it's good to go straight away and away he went! Jeeze I probably would have gone mental too if I were the 6 year old. It looked so messy and horribly stitched but I haven't performed one so I can't say that it was. I was just the iodine pourer. Then after the boy, a women came in with a huge abscess on her arm from a tetanus shot. When there is no external opening for an abscess, it is termed a sterile abscess. The doctor cut into the area and he asked for an assistant, which I gladly volunteered, to hold the tray while he squeezed the pus out and then he swapped positions, allowing me to do the squeezing. It was insane how much pus this women had in her arm, holy cow it just kept coming! Then the doctor would dig around with a pair of scissors to free any blockage and then more pus would come out until finally I hit just blood. Then it was just a patch up with gauze, some iodine and she was good to go. Pretty exciting stuff!
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