Friday, May 27
Nyeri
Today we did the usual ate breakfast and walked to our next site. It was a ten minute walk from the hotel. We would be getting a tour of Nyeri Provincial Hospital. We spoke with the Deputy Medical Superintendent, JL Macharria. He was not every effective in answering our questions. Nyeri Provincial is the second ranking provincial hospital. It has 410 beds. He showed us the many awards the hospital received. Similar to our health they offer waivers to people who cannot afford. He went over some data with us that was on the wall.
We met Dr. Njau who would take us on a tour of the different wards. They have a system set-up in the outpatient clinic where the patients first went to reception paid 50 shillings and were issued a patient card to see someone. This side of the hospital is mostly ran my Clinical Officers and Medical Officers and the interns. They have various special clinics for diabetes, orthopedics, plaster room, and Mother and Child Health care. The in-patient clinic is ran by the 8doctiors. There is two female wards and one male ward. They have consultants that specialize in specific areas. We visited the maternity, pscyh, trauma, and internal medicine ward. It was heartbreaking watching pregnant women sharing beds or children and adults with severe burns. Many of the patients shared bed which must not have been sanitary or comfortable. Also they were all in an open room compared to home where everyone has their own space. Carlo almost broke because she was so distraught seeing something like this, she was so unaware of this and it happened in her own backyard. I had enough for the days o I didn't go into the psych ward. One thing is for sure anyone who practices medicine in a developing country is the best doctor because they have to deal with so much. Our group finished a bit earlier so I sat on the grass with Carlo and chatted for awhile then I decided to grab this superb fruit salad that had avocados, mango,banana, pineapple, and watermelon for less than a dollar. It was so filling and tasty.
The bus arrived just in time. we stopped in town for a short lunch but I do not eat. Our next stop was a project on the River that Wamai helped to donate life jackets for. They took us for a ride in the boat then they got tilapia which they fried for us. It was amazing...I ate so much fish! We saw the tree nursery and even planted our own.
Next stop, Muringato Primary School where Dr. Wamai's sister Ann worked. Once again the children greeted us in song so we sang back. WE had a really intense discussion that Hellen facilitated about women taking advantage of the knowledge and go on to politics. We asked them whether they thought a woman could run a country and a boy stated that "No because women cannot run a house so they cannot rule a country." We handed them school supplies and sent them on their way as it was running late. The teachers had chai, avocado, chapati, and donuts waiting for us. More food...I was stuffed. I decided not to eat dinner.
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