Pole sana! So sorry for the delay!! We've been without internet for about 2 weeks and there is much to catch up on!! The Maasai village was quite the experience. We were greeted and welcomed like royalty and fed like kings and queens the entire time we were there. It was crazy. Tons of really really good food though. The first night we spent some time talking with some of the village leaders via a translator, mostly Dr Lace talking, but it was very interesting hearing about some of their concerns and also seeing how much they love Dr Lace.
We spent the next day at the clinic and basically saw a lot of malnutrition, pneumonia, eye and ear infections, ringworm and intestinal worms. Almost all of the kids complained of eye pain and difficulty breathing and when we got a chance to go visit one of the huts, we found out why. They live in huts filled with smoke 24/7. We were only in there for 5 minutes and our eyes were burning and we felt like we were suffocating. No wonder they complain of eye pain and difficulty breathing!
Friday morning we woke up to find out that someone had died in the night. Dr Lace and Kurt had gone to attempt milking a cow only to find the women in hysterics and the men talking trying to figure out what to do. They saw the body and the most likely cause of death was that he had had a seizure during the night and fallen off his bed since he was a known epileptic. Dr Lace left clinic early that day and went to help clean up the body and prepare it for the funeral. After lunch we got to witness a Maasai funeral and we were the first outsiders to ever attend a funeral in their village. It was pretty crazy. We also found out that what they usually do is take the body outside the village and wait 3 days, then go back to see whether or not the animals ate it. If they did, it means that the deceased was a good person. In the last year or so, many of the villagers have become Christians and they've started having burials, so this was probably only the 11th burial in the village. Pretty crazy.
Afterwards, everyone gathered to eat together. The men ate separately from the women and children and likely got most of the meat. Thankfully though, we finally got an opportunity to serve them. Lindsay and T went around and washed hands of the women and children and I helped hand out the food. When it came to our turn, we were absolutely stuffed and begged our host, Gladness, to let us feed the kids. Of course she obliged and the children were thrilled to be served by wazungu, white people.
We got a couple chances to walk around the village and just observe and meet people, mostly on Saturday morning when we went and handed out candy and coloring book pages to the kids. It was mass chaos. They absolutely loved us and followed us around in herds begging for more candy. We tried to distribute it as best we could, but it gets difficult to tell who's already had a couple helpings and who's new. We also found out that they think cameras are hilarious and love to see their pictures and we enjoyed toying with them a bit and singing funny songs to them like "In the jungle..." and maybe some Backstreet Boys songs thrown in just for good measure.
All in all, we had a blast and learned a lot. Gladness is doing some amazing things and trying to help the women gain more rights and independence. Our first night there when we were served dinner, the women actually got to eat before the men and then the men had to serve themselves!! Apparently that was a really huge deal and had never actually happened before. Usually women are served after the men and before the children and get whatever's left of the meat which is usually very little. Hence malnutrition being a huge problem. The men also typically have many wives and force themselves upon the women who have no choice as to whether or not they want to participate. They really have no say as to who or when they have sex and whether or not they get pregnant. HIV and STDs are a really big problem and it's difficult to talk about because there's such a stigma attached with it that no one wants to seek help or admit any problems. Female circumcision is also still a huge problem in the village. According to Gladness it's practiced to keep the females from enjoying sex so they don't cheat on their husbands. It's a barbaric method of control and enslavement. However, methods of circumcision have at least improved in that they are starting to use a new clean knife instead of the same one to circumcize multiple children at the same time. It typically takes place for girls between 11 and 13 years of age and for boys between ages 14 and 17.
Zanzibar was a fantastic break and a chance to relax and soak in some sun and delicious seafood. We spent most of our time in the north part of the island where we found a cozy little hostel where we all shared one big bed and took cold showers every day. Not really a problem since it was constantly so hot and humid. Our "innkeeper" really enjoyed having us there and was always joking with us and very nice. He would also climb up a coconut tree near us, knock down a bunch of coconuts, cut them open with a machete and then give them to us to drink the fresh coconut milk and then he'd open them for us to eat the coconut meat inside. It was a delicious treat that I think we're all going to miss a lot!
While we were there we also got to go snorkeling and saw some amazing fish that were almost too close for comfort. We were also served a yummy spicy octopus lunch with rice, a salad and fresh fruit. We also went on a spice tour and got to learn all about the local spices, what they're used for, how they grow and how they process them to be used. It was really interesting and then we were again fed a delicious lunch along with some fruit sampling including some delicious custard apple type thing that I don't even know how to describe.
Stonetown was also pretty amazing and we got to take in most of the sights in one day. We got to see the spice market, fish market, meat and chicken markets and then we went to the Anglican Church which is the sight of the former slave trade. It was pretty eerie walking around a place where so much violence has occurred. I took quite a few pictures, but it's really nothing compared to seeing the shackles and holding chambers for yourself. We also went to the night seafood market and got to try some really delicious shark, baracuda, lobster masala and the ever so fantastically amazing zanzibar pizza with nutella and bananas!
We got back to Arusha on Wednesday night and went back into the hospital for Thursday and Friday. Since we hadn't been into the casualties (ER) area yet, we decided to check it out. Not a whole lot going on, but it was a pretty big wake up call seeing them remove stitches on wounds that still were not fully healed, brutally shove a girl around who had just been unconscious and leave a guy laying on a bed for 20 minutes who had been brought in on a stretcher and didn't seem to be conscious. We later found out that he had fallen down a well, but we didn't get much more of the story or the extent of his injuries than that. Mostly seeing how they treat patients here makes me so thankful for the care and compassion that we have in the states. We went to a talk hosted by Dr Lee on Thursday and they even mentioned during the talk that one of the huge obstacles to care here in Tanzania is the attitudes of the staff and the lack of supplies. I think that's been the most frustrating thing about being here, there is a HUGE lack of care and concern for patients as human beings. It's hard to know how to help change that attitude.
A great example of their lack of supplies is that apparently a man had come in just after we left from an accident with a bus and he had 2 transverse fractures of the femur, one proximal and one distal, both completely displaced, transverse fractures of the tibia and fibula on the same leg as the femur fractures and a fracture of the tibia on the other leg. Obviously this guy needed surgery immediately to stabilize the femur. However, doctors and hospital staff had already left for the day AND, they didn't have rods, nails or screws to do either internal or external fixation. What I gathered from the conversation was that he had to be transferred to a private hospital where he is likely going to be unable to afford the care that he needs. It was a very sad story to hear, but just goes to show how important it is to have supplies and staff that are available.
I think that's all for now, but hopefully that gives you a pretty good idea of what we've been up to for the last couple weeks!! We have one more week at the hospital before we go on safari for 3 days and then a couple days in Arusha to do our last shopping for souvenirs and then it's time to head home. Crazy to think that we'll be back enjoying the comforts of home in less than 2 weeks!! We are definitely enjoying our time here but are getting excited to be back home.
Hope everyone is enjoying their summer back home!!
No comments:
Post a Comment