A Spikey Friend

 

“Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That's the problem.”
A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh  

As a few people already know, I went on Safari (a blog post to come) and had a chance to see some of the wondrous creatures living in Africa. However, one of my favourite animals that I've met on my African journey, lives a little closer to home. In fact right outside the front door of Family House 4, in Haydom.

Henry is an African Hedgehog, and an honorary member of Family House 4. He has been with me since I first arrived in Haydom over 5 weeks ago and has remained despite some challenges. Henry is not much of day-person and prefers to party at night; usually starting off with some fine-dining of bugs and plants around dusk. Although, friendly he largely likes to hang out by himself, and until recently he was very camera shy.

At the start of this week something happened that would turn Henry's whole world upside-down. One day whilst he was out (presumably at one of his other lodgings), a bunch of local human's decided they needed to demolish his careful crafted home to get access to a blocked drainage pipe. It was pure devastation, his home was annihilated in a matter of minutes by picks and shovels, never to be seen again. How does a hedgehog prepare for such wanton destruction.

Later that night Henry returned to what was once his home, staring across the barren red tanzanian dirt. Nothing was left, yet for him, there was now nothing left to lose. He did not run away, he did not hide, he continued on, because he had to.

It was on this night that we found Henry outside, alone, looking bare without the grass and scrub usually covering him. Amin (another medical student) scooped Henry up. Henry adopted his traditional ball defense position, leaving only a small part of his face exposed. For although we were already acquaintances, hedgehogs can never be too sure if you are friend or foe.

And this was how Henry had his first picture taken, barely fitting in Amin's hands. We merely captured a moment of this little hedgehog's life, yet it's a moment I will at least hold on to.

 
If you find hedgehogs interesting or want to find out more about Henry, you can look up Four-toed Hedgehog or Atelerix albiventris.

If you're coming to Haydom and stay in Family House 4 make sure you say hi to Henry.

Read More

Taking a Step Back in Time

Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come.
We have only today. Let us begin. ― Mother Teresa

At Haydom Lutheran Hospital (HLH), there is a set routine to things. You get up in the morning, go have breakfast, then go to the doctors meeting at 7:30am, followed by Sala (which is a morning prayer and general announcement session attended by all in the hospital), then the radiology meeting and finally clinical duties (which typically starts off with ward rounds).

At Sala newcomers and guests to HLH introduce themselves. I did this last Monday and I basically just said who I was, where I was from, how long I was staying and what department I was going to be working in. If you're really organised or already know a lot Kiswahili, it makes a really good impression if you say it in both English and Kiswahili.

While there is a large overarching routine to things, a lot of this falls away at the immediate practice of medicine. Having done several ward rounds now I can honestly say they have been of variable experience. One the fundamental issues is a lack of organisation at times, which seems to make ward rounds last a century. Secondly, rather than a single nurse in charge of a patient there are multiple. This might sound like a good thing, but the problem is each nurse only does one task (e.g. insert a line, be at the ward round, send for x-ray), and they don't always communicate with each other or the doctors. But for now I play the foreign medical student role and see how things play out. No one likes being told what to do, and if it works for them who am I to say otherwise.

In my first observed operation at HLH, I was able to get a reasonable picture of how all operations are done at HLH. We were very fortunate to be in the lucky theatre with a pulse oximeter (other vitals were just done at the beginning). I couldn't help remembering from SMACC whilst I watched, that the pulse oximeter is the world's first time machine, taking you a step back in time.

Some quick facts of life with Surgery at HLH;

• Typically no vitals. BP cuffs work on a hit and miss basis.
• Nearly everything that can be reused will be reused (e.g. ET tubes).
• Saline is produced on site.
• Anaethetists are not Doctors, but trained technicians. They are still very good at the job, considering they often have to deliver drugs and manually ventilate at the same time.

Our time machine came into play later in that first operation. In HLH oxygen is provided to patients during surgery, however since there is only one machine that makes oxygen, up to four patients can be plugged into the same box simultaneously. During our operation the patient started desaturating (/was already desaturated), and we had to problem solve. Ventilation was all good, patient was not losing any blood, and probe was correctly attached. So next step was for the newbie medical student aka me to do, go clamp off the oxygen lines to the other patients so that ours could get more. Our patient steadily recovered and it was then my task to go tell all the other surgeons that we had cut oxygen off to their patients (as far as know no once suffered an adverse consequences).

I expected that my time Haydom would take me into a different world of medicine and clinical practice. As often is the case though your preconceptions, can differ from reality. There were aspects, I could not anticipate, and scenarios that I thought would exist, that have not yet materialised (and I doubt will). I thought working at Haydom would be like taking a step back in time. However, I now think it's something rather different, it's about going back to the basics. Sometimes doing things there in the moment, not knowing how it's going to play out further down the track. Many people doing the best they can, with the limited resources available, to make a small difference.

Read More

The Odd One Out

We boil at different degrees - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Like this sunflower in a field of maize, being in Africa can make you feel like the odd one out. I would not characterize this as a bad thing, if anything it adds another dimension to your experience.

On my first day at Haydom, I met a large number of the other volunteers, medical students and guests at Haydom Lutheran Hospital (HLH). Unsurprisingly (at least to me), I was something of a novelty. Where as most of the volunteers are from Europe (especially Norway), here was this lone Australian. Not a single person knew where I was from without me telling them. First I was English, then American (someone even spread a story round that I came from a ranching family in Texas) and all sorts of places in between.

The Dongobesh Experience
As much as I was a novelty to the HLH community, as a foreigner (Kiswahili: Mzungu) you stand out in general in Africa. On my second day in Haydom, the Egenberg Family (Signe, Art and Lars) offered for me to go with them to visit some of their friends in Dongobesh. However, the car only had space for four and there were six of us going.

What were we going to do?

The answer was simple, two of us would ride in the tray-back/trailer of the truck. The two lucky volunteers for the first part were myself and Lars, as we were the youngest. So we set off for our two hours journey to Dongobesh, holding (or clinging) onto to the truck's rollcage.

As would come to no surprise too many, the roads were rough and full of holes. And so if you ever find yourself in the back of a truck, on dirt roads anywhere in the world, my advice would be stand up as much as you can. This saves you a lot of pain down the track. The downside is that you might get flipped off the back of a truck if you hit anything. So weigh up the pros and cons.

So here we were, a pair of Mzungu on the back of a truck; and quite possibly the oddest thing around. As we drove along the road, through towns and farmland, people would point, wave and look with almost a sense of shock. It's not uncommon for many Africans to ride on the back of a truck, but clearly Lars and I brought a different aspect to a common thing.

In Dongobesh, we met the Egenberg's friends, who are both highschool teachers (one teaching English, the other Kiswahili). It was at their house that I had my first family cooked meal in a Tanzanian household. And what can I say other than that the food was superb, and was all from produce (e.g. Icrops & animals) right in their very yard.

Whilst I was at their house, their kids inevitability caught a glimpse of my iPhone (I was using it to take photos). Being curious little critters, they wanted to look at it, which I happily obliged. The two boys loved it and were constantly battling over who's go it was to use it. The most amazing thing I saw was that, a four and a seven year old who had never seen a touch screen phone before, who couldn't speak or read english, pick an iPhone up and within the space of 30 minutes know who to navigate it. A win to Apple I guess for intuitive design. Somewhat to my angst, the only game I had on my iPhone Zombie Highway, which basically involves running over and shooting Zombies. I thought it was probably not a good lesson for young kids that the way to succeed is to see how many bodies you can run over. I'm sure others would argue however, that everyone, including man, woman and child, needs to be ready for a Zombie Apocalypse. 

Eventually we had to say our goodbyes and make our way back to Haydom. But, not before we took a walk through the fields outside of Dongobesh (where the above photo was taken). During this walk, we had the opportunity to see how things had been done for centuries, but also the progress being made towards a better future (the construction of a small dam for irrigation purposes).

The Lesson
Sometimes being the odd one out can be challenging, and leave you of unsure about where you fit in. The obvious truth however, is that we are all different. We each have different beliefs, personalities and perspectives.

Though we may be different, like the sunflower in a field of maize, we share the same soil, the same water, the same energy. We interact with and are molded by those around us. We may be separate in appearance, but connected by nature. For we each have something to add, and our individual oddity does not weaken us, but makes us stronger.

We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams. - Jimmy Carter

Read More

Blog in Development

The Haydom Health blog is currently in development. Resources will be added as permitted by time. In the mean-time take a look Haydom.com for more information and news.

Read More