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!
