First Day at The Hospital

6/2/14
As of now I have been writing every day since I have arrived (all two of them), however I am most likely going to be posting observations from the day etc because time/internet access does not permit me to post as often as I would like.

As a little background, the house I am staying at is called Rock House and has a main building with couches and space to hang out, a dining room, and kitchen.  Spread out from the main building are about 10 small houses where we stay with beds, dressers, and modern style toilets (quite a luxury in Tanzania since most toilets are holes in the ground... more to come on that).  I live in "Arusha" with 2 other girls who arrived the week before.

Today (and many to follow) we woke at 6am, had breakfast at 6:45, and started walking to the hospital at 7:15 (the food is delicious by the way).  The walk takes about 30 minutes and actually very pleasant.  It is not a very urban area... think African suburbs... and it was still cool outside so the temperature was bearable.

The department I am working in this week is the Outpatient department which involves emergency and walk-in cases.  It's basically equivalent to GP.  From 7:45 to 1 I was with Dr. Lyapa and another girl from England on the trip.  We first attended a general meeting of all the doctors and nurses and then went to Dr. Lyapa's office to see patients.  Cases of hypertension are extremely common so after a lecture on blood pressure, I quickly became very good at taking bp's.  When seeing the patients the doctor first speaks to them in Swahili and then explains the case to use, including symptoms, treatment, and other details.  Dr. Lyapa also only sees patients with national healthcare so we we're only exposed to people who are slightly better off.

After going back for lunch all the students who had just arrived went on a tour of the city, checking out internet cafes, restaurants, banks, and vendors.  This is extremely helpful because I now have places I can go on the weekends besides safari and staying at the house.  The restaurants and cafés are also a 2 minute walk from the hospital and good for lunch breaks, rather than walking an hour to the house and back to get lunch.

After walking for quite a while we made it back to the house and then went on a hike up to a huge rock above the house that overlooks the city.  We stayed there until the sunset and finally got to have diner, finishing the day with a dance/musical performance put on by locals.  Over the course of the day I probably walked about 8 miles or more... needless to say, I am exhausted.