I always have so much I can write about I never know where to start. So this first part will be about work. I'm still having a blast in the hospital and I think I FINALLY have the proper Zulu greeting down with all it's variations! Luckily the greeting doesn't have any words with clicks or smacks (which are really hard to incorporate into without chopping up the word), I can say sawabona, unjani, and nilapila without getting laughed at :-).
I worked a little all over the hospital last week. Even got to ride to Mbibi Clinic with Dr. Boot (Fem). This was quite a trek, it was an hour of bouncing around in the sand and flying through puddles four feet deep and hoping we didn't get stuck! The pharmacist, a nurse, and receptionist rode with us out there, so we basically had the whole clinic in one car.
We only say probably ten or twelve patients, which I am told is quite a lot for that clinic. It was extremely rural and the clinic had its own water basin/tower thing that allowed them to have running water. My favorite patient was a 100 year old gogo who was almost blind and extremely hunched over but she still moved relatively quick and wore the brightest colors and the most different patterns out of anyone there. All she wanted was her hypertension medication too. The women here are so strong. You can see how hard she has worked her whole life and it's amazing to see someone won't so few resources make the most out of what they have and still make it to a century old with no disabling problems. I tried to get a picture with her but she was too fast out of that place to catch, haha.
Back at Mselini Hospital, there was much going on as well. We admitted an 8 year old girl with a recurring laryngeal papilloma that was blocking her airway and causing her to struggle extremely hard to breathe. A baby boy, a few weeks old, also was admitted by a family member because he was extremely lethargic and not feeding well. This boy has admittedly captured my heart a bit. The staff tells me that when he was born, his mother took one look and literally ran out of the hospital with the nursing staff chasing after her. She never came back and wants nothing to do with the boy. Her family has kept him since but is not committed to taking care of his special needs. He has clubbed feet and scoliosis and a very narrow rib cage, making his body look contorted. His ears are small and sit low on his head, which is full of curly black hair. He has huge brown eyes as well and will sit and stare at you for hours of you hold him without making much of a peep. He has micrognathia (small, recessed lower jaw with a small tongue), which might be part of the reason he is not feeding well. We don't know what is wrong with him but it is presumably some sort is genetic syndrome that we don't have the resources to test for.
He is doing quite well now that we are tube feeding him and correcting his electrolyte imbalances. When he was brought in, he has small, strategically placed razor blade scratches all over his body. This told us that his family had made an attempt to "rid him of his demons that made him look different" by taking him to the traditional Zulu healer, the Sangoma. While Sangomas can do wonders with their herbal remedies, or "muti", curing diarrhea and some cases of pneumonia, for babies muti can be lethal. Dr. Boot has seen it all too often and I see her counsel patients every day about giving their babies Zulu muti that can cause liver failure and a wide assortment of other issues depending on the ingredients used. The people seem to understand our concern and we do our best to respect their traditional practices and continue to encourage the use of the safer varieties.
Off the topic of medicine, I was able to go away this weekend to Sodwana Bay, which is about a 20 minute drive from here. A beach that is largely untouched by tourists, I really felt like I was seeing an untouched part of nature.
Since I don't have enough time here to get my diving certification, I decided to ride along on the dive boat with Dr Boot and went snorkeling above where they were diving. It was beautiful! I saw two sea turtles, a sting ray, and thousands of colorful fish.
Femke i.e. Dr Boot (left) and our friend of the day, Kurt, who is a local, hanging out on the stumps.
...until the monkeys start stealing swimsuits off the clothesline and putting them wayyy up in the trees (happened to the gal in the tent next to me!) haha. Here's monkey waiting for me to wake up so he can try to get into my tent to see if there is food in there...
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