Wards

Wards in Tanzania is something that can not be described.  People keep asking me…’so what exacty are you doing dentistry wise in Tanzania?’ simply replying ‘wards and rounds’ doesn’t capture the essence of the experience.

Day one of Tanzania started with the 3 of us getting dropped off at Dr.Mug.’s office.  She introduced herself, us, Dr. K, and told us our first day would include a tour of the university.  We were taken around to see minor theater on the first floor, pediatrics and restorative on the second floor, and, the dental lab on the third floor.  We were also escorted to the student finances building to receive a ‘bill’ for our tuition fees and then to a bank to make the actual payment and collect proof of payment, to then return to the office of financial affairs once again to make us ‘official students.’  We were also escorted to the id-building where we paid to get our cool laminated ids stating we are official students at our University.  …but I digress.

The part I really want to discuss is first ‘’rounds’’ and second ‘’minor/major theater.”

Rounds:  Rounds happens at the wards.  During this the three of us and all the Oral Surgery residents and other interns on their oral surgery rotation would gather from patient to patient to discuss each case. This is a grueling session with doctors asking questions, generating discussion and expecting application of knowledge such as ‘what kind of epithelium covers the respiratory tract’’ (psuedostratified epithelium)… However that is just a factual description of rounds.

My first day of rounds, I knew I was in a hospital because the nauseating smell of urine hits you as you enter the building.  It seemed that prior patients and visitors had used the elevator as their own private urinal.  You also notice that women are housed in a different wing than the men.  The women in the wards usually have some anomaly that deems them acceptable to wards – be it fractures due to motor vehicle accidents, or adenomas, carcinomas, lymphomas, fibromas, etc. The women’s side often smells of sweat.  Funnily, the one place you can ‘’smell’’ Tanzania is its currency.  If you stick a Tanzanian shilling up to your nose you’d say to yourself, ‘’yup, im in Tz”  The odor is a concoction of sweat, lemon, the oil of crayons/wax, and BO.  It is powerful and especially prevalent in the womens section of the wards. 

Each ward is a large room with approximately 30 beds.   Most of them filled with either women or children.  Each bed comes with a little potty bowl, a small shelf and a mosquito net.  There are no TVs, air conditioners, or private bathrooms.  – This was so eye-awakening—I would always threaten/ scare Nat and J when they wanted to try fresh juices or dairy that they would end up in the wards!  Often patients would sit on their beds withering away, just waiting to be taken to be biopsied, or waiting on results of biopsies or waiting for surgery.  The wards are just that – a waiting game and space for transition till they figure out what to do with you. 

Now the men’s ward is a whole other story.  For the first day, I found myself retching multiple times, trying to keep my breakfast down.   The area smells foul. The closest smell I could find was that of the meat shop down the street from our hotel.  To be exact, the men’s ward smelled of rotting flesh, sweat, urine, and body odor.  Moreover , both wards are plagued with flies that swarm around patients, so much so that at some point, they stop swatting at them. 

Walking around the wards makes for a Gruelling Tuesday morning – by the end we are More than ready to go home. 

NEXT POST: MAJOR THEATER!