The first week at the hospital

Above, one of the wards at Selian Lutheran Hospital. There are about seven buildings this size that comprise the hospital, all arranged around a courtyard (below).

We started work at the hospital! There is a lot to get adjusted to: different diseases (like malaria and TB), limited available treatments, and a new language. Actually, it's two new languages, because most of our patients speak Masai instead of Swahili, since Selian serves the outlying areas of Arusha. Makes for a lot of time spent waiting for translations!

I am on pediatrics this month, which has been a great rotation to start with; the kids are adorable! Big surprise, all of you reading this know that I love kids. Below, two of my favorite patients from the past week:

As you can sort of tell from the pictures, the mothers all stay in the hospital with their children. It seems that because of the limited nursing staff, the moms have to be around to feed and change the babies. Below, the Tanzanian interns on my team during rounds in the pediatric ward:

(Those are mosquito nets hanging above the beds.)

Every morning at the hospital starts with morning chapel, or "sala." From there, we proceed directly into morning report, which is held in the chapel itself. Then we have chapati (fried bread) and chai, and THEN we finally start seeing patients. It's a much different pace than working at hospitals in the States.

Above, morning report, held in the chapel right after morning prayer.

A page from the Swahili hymns at morning chapel...

we have no idea what they say, we just sing along!

Megan, above, is a recently graduated Med/Peds resident from Michigan who is volunteering at Selian for the next year. She is shown here with one of our patients, Baraka, who came in with a hemoglobin of 3.5 and really needing a blood transfusion. Unfortunately, like almost everything else at Selian, blood was out of stock. When Megan realized that she was the same blood type as Baraka, she rolled up her sleeve and donated a unit right on the spot! This picture was taken a day later, with Baraka all spiffed up in his suit and ready to go home.

In contrast to the rural setting and financial instability at Selian, the other hospital we work at is shiny and new. ALMC (Arusha Lutheran Medical Center) is right in town, just opened a few months ago, and is fancy enough that local Tanzanians don't go there for fear it will be too expensive. You can see why from the pictures:ALMC

ALMC Courtyard

We have been walking home from work at Selian, which takes about an hour and fifteen minutes. It's a beautiful walk on a rural country road:

We pass adorable kids along the way, who usually want to hold our hands and always say "Good morning!" no matter what time of day it is...

We also get a great view of Mt. Meru on the walk home:

Closing pic: girls on our road on their way home from school. So cute, never gets old.