Friday in pediatrics was just what I needed! It was such a relief from all of the stressful units to just be in charge of healthy kids for once. The setup of the pediatrics unit is quite interesting. They just use 2 tables underneath a covered pavilion area to do checkups. There are no doctors in the area at all. Basically, mothers are given a blue birth card, similar to a birth certificate, after delivery. They are instructed to bring their children in every month until they turn 5, which I think is way excessive. On the cards is a growth chart made by the World Health Organization where we mark the child's weight each month. I was in charge of weighing the toddlers on Friday. The whole system is a little silly in my opinion, since the majority of the children are extremely underweight and after we mark it on the chart, they just go home. There is no counseling or suggestions given to help the mother raise a healthier child; they are just sent home. It's not surprising that most cards were at least 6 months behind. The whole experience is a little chaotic. There aren't any lines, so its pretty much which mother can shove their card into my hand before everyone else!? The kids are funny too. Some are so brave and just stand there, hand over their card, get weighed, and leave. Others are deathly afraid of me!! They take one look at white skin and sprint in the other direction. I couldn't help but laugh even though it's kind of sad. I know I mention it a lot, but it's so hard to get used to looking like some kind of monster here! Anyway, after they are weighed they are sent to get vaccinations pretty similar to the US. However, in The Gambia, all children get an injection of Vitamin A every month. Being a nutrition student, I find that very interesting. Vitamin A deficiency is the number one cause of blindness in childhood, so I think it's awesome that kids are supplemented here! Although, its sad for the women who go 6 months without bringing there children in. Since we finished at noon in pediatrics we went into the maternity ward (everyone's favorite) to see what was going on. It wasn't a very pretty sight, as it normally isn't. There was a woman there that had given birth to a stillbirth child and was hemorrhaging. It was really scary! She had lost so much blood. To check the relative amount of healthy blood a person has you pull down the skin underneath the eye and check the color. It's supposed to be a healthy pink/red color, but her's was the whitest I had ever seen. And it was ridiculous how the nurses and midwives were acting. She was probably a max of 10 minutes away from passing away and they were just sitting around talking. There is no such thing as an emergency here! They were waiting on a unit of blood to warm up since it had been in the fridge, but they were running it under the cold water-the only way it comes. We were all freaking out. FINALLY, she hooked up the blood and Fatou was able to be transfused. Maiouna, the head maternity midwife we all love, said they would also put her on oxygen since her hemoglobin was so low, except there was no electricity. Yet another downfall of living in the area. She was transported to the Banjul hospital shortly after and we haven't yet heard if she made it. I swear I can never escape the sad parts of a frontier hospital even for a day.
After getting off work early on Friday, we met up with a friend, Isa (yes it's VERY common here), to search for fabrics. A couple girls want to get traditional African dresses made and a lot of us want pajama pants! The fabric is relatively cheap, but we have to take an escort with us since it's easy to rip off the toubabs. After shopping, we went for our weekly night out to eat at the "American fast food" restaurant. It's always a nice break from all of the fish!
Saturday was another day at the beach. This time there were 18 of us in a 13 passenger van! It was a sight to see! We had so much fun, like we always do! The swim lessons continued and of course the basket tossing. The weather was perfect and so was the water. After a full day at the beach, we traveled to Senegambia to go to dinner. Senegambia is apparently the tourist spot of Gambia, because it was SO nice! The restaurant had a dance floor and we had such a good time learning some new African moves.
After dinner we headed home for a quick shower and then a few of us went to a traditional Gambian nightclub. We weren't sure what to expect, but were definitely pleasantly surprised. Either Kaba is apparently more famous than we thought or because we were white, we got in VIP, which was a treat! It was the nicest place we've been yet, and the first with air conditioning! We just couldn't get over how a night club had guaranteed electricity and AC, but the hospital seems to never have it. Anyways, we stood out even more since Muslims don't drink and us Americans were ecstatic that they had whiskey! Not to mention, we were all wearing three times the amount of clothes the locals were! The nightclub stayed open until 5am, but we left around 3:30. It was a great way to have some fun together and let loose. :)
Since we didn't get home until after 4 am, most of us slept in until around noon today. We are spending the day playing cards and relaxing around the lodge. Tomorrow and Tuesday I will finish my time in Peds and will be put in a new rotation Wednesday. Looking forward to a start of a great week.
Love and Miss you all!
-Isa :)
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