February 15, 2009

I forgot to write something in here the other day that was really pretty special. The Zambian African Impact has a house handyman that can fix absolutely everything. Well, he got a pretty terrible cut on his right pointer finger about a week ago when he was fixing something at the house. About a day after it happened, Lucy, the project coordinator, called me over to where they were standing so that I could see what I thought should be done about it. He told me that he had been to the clinic and that all they had given him was Panadol for the pain and had said that they were going to have to amputate the finger. He was very upset for obvious reasons but also because he is the house handyman - so if he is unable to use his hand for awhile then he would most surely lose his job. So, after looking at his finger for a little while, I decided that it was definitely infected because it was swollen to about 3 times the normal size - the swelling had also spread to the palm and the front of his hand as well and he was in a significant amount of pain. If this had happened to him in the states then it would have been cleaned, bandaged, and he would have been given a 2 week dose of an antibiotic and he would have been fine - I'm sure that there would have been no talk of amputation. But, in Zambia, amputation is a very common treatment b/c antibiotics are not readily available and if they were, no one would be able to afford them. So, I got out the first aid kit that Luke had given to me before I left - I cleaned the wound with betadine, put some gauze over it, wrapped it, and taped it. I also gave him some of the Doxycycline that Bradley had given to me before I left. Doxy would definitely not have been what I would have recommended for him if we were in the US but I figured that it was better for him to take something than nothing. He was very grateful and said thank you about a million times. So for the next couple of days, I would come home for lunch and clean and re-wrap his finger for him. A couple of days ago, about 3 days after I first looked at his finger, I was doing the daily rewrap on it and I asked him how he was feeling. He looked at me and said, "I know God sent you and I thank him. I was going to lose this finger but you saved it. I couldn't move it and now look (he bent his finger back and forth)...the clinic was going to cut it off but you gave me pills and cleaned it....it feels like brand new. I called my wife last night and told her 'This white lady from America saved my finger. She is here to volunteer and she didn't have to care about this but she does and she checks on it everyday. She really cares and now I won't have to have it cut off. God sent her to me.' I thank you...I really thank you. It probably was the sweetest, most heartfelt thing that anyone has ever said to me. And now that I helped him out, I have become pretty much "the medicine woman" for the staff. The bus driver came to me for "flu medicine" (I gave him Tylenol), the sports project manager had a bad cut on her knee from rafting - she came to me and I dermabonded it for her....it is really cool. I really enjoy it......This was definitely an experience that will stick with me for a lifetime.

February 12, 2009

Today was actually a really good day! This morning I did Dambwa Home Based Care with Bex and four home based care givers who were there to translate for us. We saw about 5 patients in total and ended up finishing around 10:30. All the patients that we saw had pretty significant health problems that needed to be seen by a doctor but all of them had transport problems. One lady had a necrotic left great toe. After I assessed her and asked her some questions, I finally came to the conclusion that she had an infection in her left foot. I told her that I was unable to gie her any antibiotics b/c we don't carry those around with us but that she really needs to be seen by a doctor at the clinic b/c the infection could spread and she could end up losing part of her leg. She responded to me by saying that getting to the clinic was very hard to do b/c it is quite a long walk and she hadn't eaten since Saturday (and keep in mind this was on Wednesday!). I came to find out that she quite frequently did not have enough food and she was therefore too weak to walk to the clinic. Uggghhh!!! It was so hard to not really be able to do anything for her other than give her some Panadol for the pain and tell her that we would try to arrange some sort of transport for her. It's really frustrating for me to go to someone's home to help them get better and have to just walk away without getting them on the road to a cure. I felt like all I did was give a little advice and say, "Hope you get to feeling better!" But, I guess I did all that I could do given the circumstances.
In the afternoon I did HIVE (Human Immunodeficiency Virus Education) with Bex, Gillian, and Brave. Since it was my first time doing HIVE, I really just sat back and listened to Bex and Gillian teach. Brave interpreted for them and did such a good job - he is so animated that he just demands everyone's attention. All the people in the class were constantly taking notes and were not really able to pay attention or ask any questions so I decided to make a pamphlet for the next HIVE classes. It has a diagram on the inside that describes (with pictures that I drew) what the HIV virus does to your body and on the other sides, as well as the back, it talks about how you can get HIV and how to protect yourselves and others that you may come in contact with. I am quite proud of it and am going to take it into town and make about 50 copies of it to hand out to the class so that they don't have to write so many notes. It is only about 500 kwacha per double sided copy - which comes out to about $3.00 for all the copies - so it is definitely something that I can afford. It will be a little donation from me......

February 11, 2009

This morning I went to the Hospice Center. I really, really like that place and am really glad that that I got to go there with Laura. She is a really sweet person and I am sure that lots of her patients in the UK love having her as their GP. The Hospice House is a pretty big place and is a lot nicer than I imagined it to be. The view from the back porch is unlike anything that I have ever seen - there is like a 360 degree view of the Zambian countryside. I'm sure the patients there find it a very relaxing place to be. The nursing staff and the nursing students started the morning off by singing a prayer. Laura and I obviously did not know the words but we clapped right along with them. They all had such beautiful voices and really harmonized well. After this, Laura and I went around to all the patients and did exercises with them. Since most of them are not able to get out of bed, we found that they really enjoyed being able to move their muscles a little bit. They all worked so hard on their exercises and I was thoroughly impressed with how badly they wanted to get better - it was such a huge difference from what I see back at home. I'm so used to having to make patients do things like their exercises that not having to do this was huge!!!! I love their positive attitudes.

There was a patient at the Hospice House that had Parksinson's disease. He was a young man named Joseph that used to be a professional soccer player. He talked about missing being able to run - so, in order to take his mind off of his sadness, we took about 5 or 6 walks that morning. He loved it and wanted to keep going for more and more walks. It really was sweet yet heartbreaking at the same time. When I first saw Joseph, I was instantly reminded of my dad. He was so similar to Dad in so many ways - at least how Dad used to be when he first got sick. The facial expression that never changes (always looks as if he is wearing a mask), the trembling lower lip, the shuffling gate, the blank stare, the loud swallowing, the trembling hands, and the obvious weight loss. The similarities were astounding and it really made me sad to know that diseases like Parkinson's are present in such amazing places - why does a country as open and loving as Zambia have to be affected by diseases like this? Why must there be suffering here? It brings up many, many questions in my mind. Joseph's best friend at the Hospice Center was a young boy named Kennedy who had cerebral palsy. After Laura and I woke Kennedy up from his Haldol induced sleep, we wheeled him out to the porch to sit next to Joseph. They sat on the porch together and played with Kennedy's truck. It was such a beautiful moment and I was really touched by it. Two lives, both striken by terrible disease and heartache, end up coming together to form one unbreakable friendship. Simply amazing.....

February 8, 2009

1 down, 6 to go!!!!!! I went and saw 1 wonder of the world today...Victoria Falls!! It really, really was the most beatiful thing that I have ever seen. Walking over the bridge, over the falls, while getting sprayed by the water was thrilling, refreshing, and life changing! I stood on the bridge today alone and just watched the water come down - I began to cry b/c I was simply amazed and in awe of what I was witnessing. The tears were uncontrollable and were a result of the most honest feeling that I have ever had. The falls in front of me were enormous and so majestic - it really made me realize how enormous and majestic this world really is. We as humans, b/c we are human, tend to think that our problems or the struggles that we go through everyday are the largest and most significant issues that anyone could ever be forced to go through. I know that my life has, and is still having, some pretty difficult situations. But, standing on the bridge today, as my tears mixed with the spray off of Victoria Falls, I realized how small we are compared to the vastness of the Earth. I saw how truly small my "huge" problems are - although they seem to take up so much space in my life, they really are just a small, tiny piece of the life that I have been given. The beauty that surrounded me today was incomprehensible and I am so very lucky that I was able to witness it. Life is about having moments like the one that I had today - I vow that I will fill this life with more moments like this. Moments that take my breath away and that conjure up emotion that is pure and real.
The only thing that could have made this day any better is if I had been able to witness all of this with Bradley - it was quite a romantic, emotion-inducing place. Having him by my side while standing on that bridge would have made today absolutely perfect. He is who I am meant to spend the rest of my life with, the one that I want to experience everything with, and the one missing piece of today. But, I know in my heart that I will be standing on that bridge again someday, witnessing the incredible beauty once again - but this time I will have Bradley by my side and the missing piece will no longer be missing - it will be the perfect day.

I remembered!!!

I'm at the internet cafe again tonight and I remembered to bring my journal with me this time! :) So, here are the next couple of journal entries:

February 6, 2009

This morning I went to Libuyu Clinic with Nicole and Bex (two other African Impact volunteers). It is a pretty cool clinic and very easy to work in because I feel as if it is a lot more organized than all the rest. It was really pretty slow in there today but I really welcomed the much needed break. I have literally never been this tired before in my life. I now know what hard work truly is. Since it was pretty slow today, I was able to get to know Bex and Nicole a little better. Nicole is a radiology tech from Canada. She is a really sweet person and easy to get along with. Bex is a student from London. My first impression of her was definitely wrong - I thought that she was kinda snobby at first but after today, I see that she just has a really strong personality and is a very confident person. She is only 18 years old but seems much older - more grown-up than most 18 year olds that I have met. I really, really like her.

I'm an idiot....

So....I spent about 2 hours last night journaling about the last couple of days so that I could post it on the blog. Well...I walked the several miles to the internet cafe today and, once I got there, realized that I had forgotten my journal at the house. I will post all the stuff tomorrow!!! I had such an amazing weekend so I want to tell you guys all about it!!!!!!!!! Please check tomorrow!

The Zambezi River

I went whitewater rafting today with a girl named Gemi - she is another medical volunteer for African Impact. We rafted on the Zambezi river, right below Victoria Falls. It was so much fun!!!! We have every weekend off from our projects so we have to do our excursions on either a Saturday or Sunday. Our guide for the day was a Zambian man who goes by the nickname of "Baby face". We really lucked out by getting this guide because he is a really fun person and really knew what he was doing.......thank god! :) There was a point in the rafting trip where we were able to get out of the raft, climb up the side of the canyon, and jump off the cliff into the Zambezi - but only if we wanted to. Well, of course I chose to do it. You could choose to jump from the lower level cliff or from the higher level cliff. Well, of course I chose to jump from the higher one. It was so freaking high.....but it was so thrilling to do. I'm glad that I did it. After we got back into the raft, we had some really scary rapids ahead of us. Well...one of the rapids that we went over was named Terminator 2. :) It definitely got the best of us....as soon as we hit the rapid, it flipped the boat over and we all went flying out. As I was being thrown out of the boat, I was hit in the mouth by someone's paddle. Pretty hilarious huh??!!! When I came up out of the water, my immediate reaction was to put my hand to my mouth and check and see if my teeth were still there....and I found that all of them were still in the right place but my mouth was already bruised and swollen. Looking back now, it is really, really funny but at the time....it was really scary. The rest of the trip was so much fun and I soon forgot about my busted lip - although the mirror reminded me about it later. The canyon surrounding the Zambezi river is absolutely beautiful! Gemi and I both said later that it was exactly the way we imagine heaven to be with little waterfalls everywhere and the greenest plants you have ever seen - absolutely incredible. This trip was definitely one for the record books and I can't wait to be able to post all the pictures from it!!!!