Mochudi, Part 2 and Back in Gabs
Ack! I have been so remiss in posting this week. In my defense, this is largely because this week has been totally crazy. I have finally joined a gym near campus, and have started working out. So for any crew girls reading this, y’all better get your butts in gear. If I can train on a different continent, there is nothing stopping you at home. (Kidding and with love, of course.)
Saturday night after we got back, we all went to Bull and Bush, which is quickly becoming one of our favorite places, to celebrate being back in Gabs. Josh’s host brother from Mochudi came along with us. We ended up dancing for a while, but some of them were a little grabby so we just ended up chilling out at the bar.
Basically, Batswana guys have this unfortunate habit of asking you to marry them, or pronouncing their love for you, especially if you’re legoa, a white person (it actually means “vomited from the sea,” how lovely). Currently, my proposal count stands at 8.
Monday we were supposed to go to the kgotla, the traditional court of the village. Court here as in, the court of a king, not the justice system, though it can serve as either. I was sad that it was cancelled, but I hope we get a chance to go again.
We also had Setswana on Monday, where we spent much of class learning vocab and basic verb constructions. I can now utter such meaningful sentences as “I love food” (ke rata dijo), “I want to eat porridge” (ke batla go ja bogobe) and “stop at the next stop” (o eme mo stopong). Obviously, some of these will be more useful than others.
That afternoon, we went to our internships. Alyssa, Robin, and I were supposed to be working at Holy Cross Hospice, though apparently the name “hospice” doesn’t mean quite the same thing here as it does stateside. We were really hoping for some clinical, semi-hands-on experience, but all we would be doing there is writing proposals and drafting newsletters and stuff, with almost zero patient interaction. I will probably end up working there anyway — it’s once a week for four weeks, and who doesn’t like someone with grant proposal writing experience? — but it looks like the other two will try to move to the orphanage and play with the kids for their internships instead.
Yesterday we had five hours of class. There was a guest lecturer in Enviro, who works for the Botswana Defense Force (the Army) as a doctor. He was super cool! I really enjoyed his class, and we’ll have a few more of his this week. In Community Health Practicum, we went over (for two hours) how to write a questionnaire, and if I can’t do that after TA’ing sociology stats for a semester, I clearly did not earn my keep. In the afternoon, we had a lecture on multiple concurrent partnerships (MCP), a phenomenon which probably accounts for a significant portion of the AIDS spread in Botswana. Apparently monogamy is not such a priority here, especially for men. Bummer.
I will be writing papers and finishing my med school applications for the foreseeable future, so wish me luck and don’t be surprised if the updates aren’t quite as regular as they were in week one. Luckily, tonight we have plans to go see Transformers 2, as we have to get a movie ticket for our Setswana scavenger hunt. So technically, I will be doing my homework.
Ok, traveling back in time a week, to continue updating Mochudi:
Monday 15 June
We started the day all together, going to the DHT (District Health Team, I think) office. It was nice to see all of us, especially after my night of near-solitude with my family. Dr. Solomon, a public health specialist at DHT, lectured us for a while, mostly about what kind of programs were available at the clinics we would be working at.
After that, we split up to our clinics. I am with Josh and Nichole M. (Josh goes to F&M, and Nichole goes to Trinity in SA. Both schools with which I am semi-familiar, yay!) We’re working at Makakatlela Clinic, a clinic without maternity that’s about a ten minute combi ride out of town and a ten-minute walk from my house. For most of the morning, we just weighed babies and took vital signs, not realizing that this made us the most active of the groups.
Apparently, the clinic had two real nurses, Ivy and Mma ANC (whose real name I never learned, or forgot). You could easily tell them by their capes. We also had Tebe, the PMTCT (prevention of mother to child transmission) counselor, and the other clinic workers. The other clinic workers did just about everything the nurses did with the exception of giving immunizations and doing consultations with patients. They included Seloi, the Fat Lady, Moagi, and the cleaning ladies. They let us do all kinds of things, including weighing babies and taking vital signs. Ivy also spent a lot of time with us going through the things we had to research for our paper on our time in Mochudi. I have about 15 front-back pages of my notebook (it’s one of the smaller ones) of notes that we took from Ivy and the others.
That afternoon, we went on a house call with Seloi and the Fat Lady (I’ll explain her name later). When we got to the house, we saw an elderly woman just lying outside. I don’t remember her name, and it would be wrong of me to tell it if I knew anyway (sure, HIPPA doesn’t apply here, but this is ethics). I’ll just call her Mma Sukiri, which means Ms. Diabetes. She was, as her name might suggest, diabetic, as well as hypertensive. She had not eaten or had any water in five days, and was basically in a diabetic coma when we got there. We spent an hour (at least) holding her up and feeding her watered down bogobe (porridge) with a small amount of sugar and water. But because the doctor was not at the clinic that day, we couldn’t do anything else. We ended up putting her back in her house with lots of blankets for warmth and told the kids who lived in the house nearby to come check on her during the night.
This was definitely a jarring introduction to medicine in Botswana. If the doctor wasn’t there, the ambulance probably couldn’t do anything. Most people at the hospital have to be referred by a local clinic, and the doctor is usually the only one who can refer. And this woman had no one to take care of her, to sit with her and make sure she ate. It was unbelievable.
I think all three of us hoped, but didn’t necessarily expect, that Mma Sukiri would live through the night. Tune in next time to see what happened, because right now, I need to go shower and eat breakfast before class.
JTM
(Edited because I was cranky when I wrote this post, and didn’t intend to be such a grouch.)
Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed
Mochudi, Part 1
Hey guys! I’m back from Mochudi, which ended up being a more intense week than I ever could have imagined. I have a ton of stories, most of which will make it up on here before too long, and some of which you’re going to have to ask me about in person. Because I’m making [...]
Cow stomach and other adventures
Yes, dear readers, you read that right. We make breakfast and dinner in the apartment, but we have lunch on campus at the cafeteria, and the other day they served cow stomach. I decided to be brave and take it on. Let me first explain something: Batswana food is very different from American food. We [...]
Family Dinner
So yesterday we had our first real classes (other than Setswana, which almost doesn’t count). Our Intro to Public and Environmental Health professor seems a little dotty, and really we only went over the syllabus, but it’s all good. My Community Health Practicum prof, who had come to the hotel to meet us last weekend, [...]
Say What?
Sorry I haven’t been good about updating. So much to tell, though!
On the 6th, we finally moved from our lovely hotel into the dorms and homestays. I am staying in the dorm (there’s a long story there too, but ask me if you’re really interested) with seven of the other program participants. Four of us [...]
‘Dumela’ from Gaborone!
Sorry I haven’t been able to update at all the last few days, but things have been crazy busy! Updating from the start:
I arrived in Gaborone first out of anybody in my group, at about 8:30 Thursday morning. I met Batsi, who is the head of the program, and Rapula, his assistant, at the airport. [...]
Joburg
Well, I can now officially tick “go to Africa” off the Bucket List! I landed in Johannesburg about an hour and a half ago, and PHEW was that a long flight. 15.5 hours, give or take. I was right about the entertainment system on the plane, and honestly (speaking from experience) it’s WAY better than [...]
Atlanta is not burning
I’ve made it to Atlanta, my jumping off point for the flight to South Africa, from whence I go to Gaborone. My flight from Austin was uneventful. I had brunch with the parents, then headed to the airport, where I am quickly discovering how much I love Southwest Airlines. Delta is, well, much more annoying, [...]
All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go
So I’ve spent much of the night packing my bags for the trip, and now that I’m looking at them, I’m astounded by how much space I appear still to have. Naturally, now I’m wondering if I egregiously underpacked and will show up in Gaborone with nothing, which would be ridiculously unfortunate. Don’t worry, I’ll [...]
Welcome to the blog!
I’ve had several requests from friends and family to blog during my time in Botswana. I will try to actually do it!
My itinerary, as I know it thus far:
June 2 - Leave Austin, fly to Atlanta
Depart Atlanta
June 3 - Arrive in Johannesburg, South [...]