Tues 20th Dec 2011
Today I thought it might be time to experience the surgical side of things here at Machame. So, with anti-retrovirals in pocket, I wandered over to the operating theatres for today's list. It was the Minor Procedure Room in use today, which was a nice gentle introduction to surgery, African style.
I guess it might be wise to start with what is similar to Australia. For instance, surgeons have exactly the same personality here as back home (unfortunately) and wear the most fashionable clothes of all the doctors.
Other things are quite different though. Like instead of putting gloves on your hands when putting in a drip (as I thought was a pretty standard manoeuvre), they tie the glove around the patient's arm for a tourniquet and cannulate with bare hands. Apparently both gloves and tourniquets are in short supply, so this has been deemed the most economical use of resources (even if it does look slightly ridiculous).
There were only three cases today – surgical toileting of osteomyelitis in a young boy, toileting of septic arthritis in an old lady and uterine evacuation after an incomplete miscarriage. As we are becoming used to, there is no pain relief used for any of these, although they were given some ketamine for mild sedation. People are just told to suck up the pain, which impressively enough seemed to work.
The first patient today was a Maasai boy, one of many Maasai patients that we have seen. The Maasai are the most famous tribe up here in the Northern Tanzania region. They are a traditional warrior people and instantly recognisable due to their characteristic dress and, in the women, jewellery (especially the earrings). Unlike most of the Tanzanians we've met, the Maasai have resisted westernisation and still live a semi-nomadic life, moving about to the best grazing fields for their cows. They are a subculture here and highly respected, kind of like the Maori in New Zealand, except about a third of the size and probably not quite as adept at rugby.
Also, Swahili is not everyone's first language. Chugga is the local language here, as well as the name of the local tribe. Swahili is used by many Tanzanians in the same way that English is used by Europeans – a common second language that can be used to communicate with people from other areas. So we've met quite a few people who can't speak Swahili at all, which was highly confusing at first as we just thought our accents were too atrocious to be understood. I may try to learn a few Chugga phrases, but I think I'm going to start forgetting English at the rate of trying to learn all these new languages!
One of the endearing things about English here is that the locals are unused to words that end in consonants. To overcome this, they tend to add the letter 'i' to the end of these words, often with amusing results. Like hearing people instruct ”take the bloodi pressure” or when they report the gender of a patient – ”the patient is Maria Africana, sexi female.” It's highly entertaining.
Kwa heri,
Michael
Things that went wrong: Day 9 edition
- I'm starting to get really sick of playing so much yahtzee. It's the most repetitive game ever! I don't get why the Swedes like it so much.
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