Month 2-part 2

So as promised, I am going to talk about some of the fixes we made in our hospitals. The blog is going to be technical and thus you can skip this blog if you start getting bored.

In addition to working in our hospitals we also worked in FAME clinic, an initiative by California based doctor who has been running the clinic for the part 10 years. The environment in FAME is a contrast to that in KLH. With better and high-end technology devices in use, we got to work on some of more technical devices while we were at FAME. And not to forget the food, we had a treat!!

 The FAME corridor

Lunch at FAME

So in the first week at KLH, after we finished carrying out an inventory we got around 10 devices that  needed fixes. Some of their were pretty simple while some needed thinking and deeper digging. Amongst the devices that I fixed, the oxygen concentrator was the easiest one. The part in the jar that screws in was broken and thus due to loose connection the oxygen couldn't enter the jar. I just called up my friend from another hospital and asked her if I could use the jar from the scavenged oxygen concentrator from her hospital. She agreed and there it was! My first fix and I was really happy. The other fix that was a little tougher was a suction pump, that I had to open and clean the motor and lubricate it. But after that it was working fine and had an awesome suction.

The fixed suction pumps

I also fixed two more suction pumps in KLH and one in FAME. Overall we fixed some stethoscopes, spygnomanometer, some remotes, beds, replaced tube lights in the wards. As I already mentioned, we got to work with different devices in FAME. We repaired a haemoglobin tester and complete monitoring system. This were really easy fixes as we had to find the manual, look for some troubleshooting guidelines and follow them. While I was in FAME, I was given a MAC to repair with all the instructions on how to do it. It was out of my comfort zone and I couldn't repair it, yet I was proud that I could open it and now I am confident enough to open my own MAC.

The Fixed aspirator at FAME clinic

Overall we had around 25-30 fixes as a group, however, not everything we touched worked. Some of the devices were extremely difficult to be fixed, in spite of spending hours we couldn't fix them, as we failed to discover what the problem was. One of these devices was the ultrasound machine. We looked at in the first week with our coordinator, realized that it had two blown fuses. However, the major challenge was that they were slow-blow and our coordinator only had fast-blow. We thought of trying the fast blow and the device worked the first time we turned it ON, but stopped working when we turned it ON for the second time only to discover that the fuses had blown again. We thought of using the slow blow, but could't as we didn't have any. We waited till we got the slow blow, that wasn't until the last week, and to our disappointment it didn't work and we couldn't figure out why, so we had to abandon it.

Other devices could not be fixed as it was very difficult to find the parts. One of them was the isolation chamber. After following the troubleshooting guidelines by the company, we realized that the problem was the SMPS(switching mode power supply), it was difficult to find it as it had a single input but dual output, usually the ones used as laptop chargers have single input single output. We looked everywhere in Arusha but couldn't find the part. I mailed the company with no success as they haven't replied yet. So that was our second major abandoned device.

However, the toughest and most challenging part for me in the second month was completing the ten needs interview form I was asked to do for my financial aid. Finding doctors was a problem, but the worse was communicating with them and getting answers to the questions that the form asked for. I somehow completed the ten forms in 3 weeks and had to dedicate a lot of time finishing the post interview form.

It is through one of this interview we decided the topic for our secondary project as one of the doctor mentioned the problem. He said that the mattresses don't last long as all the liquids like water, blood soaks into them and makes them soggy and hence they have to throw it away. So we thought of covering them with some water proof material. We bought some materials and thought of putting it on the mattresses using a rope. However, the hospital already had a budget for stitching the material so we  gave away the right size cut material to the hospital matron. We also donated some masai blankets to the hospital as they needed some for the patients.  

The almost ready mattress with the material

Overall I would say that this experience was quite enlightening for me. I realized my strengths and my weaknesses and boosted my shortcomings. I wouldn't say that the experience had all good moments, sometimes I had difficult ones and had to adjust a lot to work out of my comfort zone. But then it was the mixture of this difficult and happy moments that made this experience worth to be lived for.

Necklaces and bracelets made by Arjun for us

Month 2 - part1

I know guys I haven't updated since a month and believe it or not, I blame it on the excellent internet connection I got back in Karatu!! ( if you didn't realize I was being sarcastic!). So I thought its better to update you all, once I get out from the city. And so, as one month is a long period, the blog ought to be long ( so I am dividing it not two parts).

Or hospital entrance

So after spending a wonderful weekend, we returned to Karatu all ready and excited to start out work on Monday. I got up at 6 and had a quick breakfast, getting ready by 7. We left the house with our roommates, who are 2 swiss girls working in the same hospital as ours as medical students. The shuttle picked us up at 7.10 and believe it or nor we cramped about 20 people in a vehicle with capacity of maybe 12-15 people. The road to the hospital was so bumpy that sometimes I thought, the vehicle would disassemble by the time we reached the hospital, I kinda enjoyed it though!! At 7.30, we would visit the church and attend the prayers for about 30 minutes, did not understand anything, but we knew it was important as it was important for the hospital staff. So we never missed church for the whole month, I mean the four weeks we were there in the hospital. 

The morning church

After the church, we attended the hospital meeting where they usually discussed about the admitted patients and what measures were taken. That was also attended everyday by us for obvious reasons. In some of the meetings, we announced the fixes we made so that the entire hospital was aware of them and they could put the devices to proper use. They were really happy with them and always mentioned how grateful they were with all the repairs.

The morning staff meeting (the doctor in-charge with our fixed suction pumps)

We usually started our work at about 8.30 am or 9 am depending on when the hospital meeting ended. The first day in the hospital, we just went around the hospital, meeting the staff and looking around for the equipments in use or jut lying around, in technical terms carrying out an inventory. We introduced ourselves in basic Swahili. After doing that we got some devices that were not working to our workshop. Oh ya! forget to mention about our workshop, we have our own workshop close to the hospital, where we work with the hospital technician, Augustino Panga, who is experienced and trained in electrical engineering.

 The outside of our workshop

Our worktable in the workshop

At about 10 am we went for a chai break for about 15 minutes to have some delicious donuts or vitumbua( a local sweet) and refresh ourselves with a cup of tea. After that, we continued our work.

I would usually go looking for doctors to fill up the ten needs finding form I had fill up to get my financial aid. At around 12.30-1 we go for lunch, which was wali, maharage (rice and beans) for all the days we were in hospital and sometimes I ordered roasted nyama wa ngombe (roasted beef). After spending about 45 minutes for the lunch we returned to our workshop to continue working and kept working till about 4 pm when the last shuttle left for the town. Why was taking the shuttle so important? Because otherwise it took about 45 minutes to 1 hour to walk to the hospital( we know that because we tried it on one day when there was public holiday and the shuttle wasn't working.) From there we would usually visit the market, either to buy something for dinner or to buy supplies to fix devices, then we would head home.

The canteen

After we came back, we did some of our personal work like entering the inventory in the laptop or completing the remaining needs finding form (pun intended). Around 6 we would start cooking and the menu would be the same for a week, like mondays would be scrambled eggs, tuesdays maggi ( Indian noodles), wednesday pasta and guacamole, thursdays would be omelets. Why didn't I talk about the weekends? Because we usually would not be in Karatu(usually all the groups would meet up and spend the weekends together) and thus would eat outside in the restaurants.

Arjun multitasking (cooking and dancing)

During dinner we would watch some episodes of modern family together and then around 9-9.30 we would go to our individuals rooms and call it a day!! This was our daily routine all the week for four weeks, nothing different except that, our personal work would change. The updates about what we fixed and our secondary project would be continued in my next blog.

We watching Modern family

Ohh btw did you realize that everything in the pictures is red? That is because Karatu is covered with red soil and as a souvenir from Karatu, my shoes are red till I wash them!

The last week together and with our home stays

 

The major thing that happened this week was we moved to our respective hospitals but that wasn’t until Friday! So I should probably update you on what happened the rest of the week. The last week was quite similar to first four weeks. The Swahili classes had some interactions with the locals and some more lessons on grammar and vocabulary. The final day that is on Thursday we had a final evaluation and feedback session where everyone was asked to give both written and oral feedbacks.

Again this week we did not have any technical labs but just some reflection labs where we talked about how working in developing world can be. We also discussed about some forms that are very important to be filled like doing the inventory or performing need finding in our respective hospitals.

The last day before we left, Thursday we gifted our Swahili teachers farewell gifts and thanked them for their efforts and patience. During the labs we cleaned up our classroom, packed some working stuff and then coordinators briefed us about our hospitals and our stay for the second month. After getting home, our homestay took us out for the dinner. Later that night we had to pack up a lot of stuff but I managed to sleep early.

Farewell and thank you gifts

The next day we set out for our final visit to TCDC where we had transportation waiting for us to take us to our respective hospitals. It was a very sad to leave everyone and also our homestay. I gave my homestay farewell and thank you gift. The journey to Karatu, where my hospital was situated was long. First , we, me with two other guys( my partners I talked about and also shared a photo of them)  had to  drop of other people who were situated in Arusha, then we got dropped off at the bus stand from where we took public transportation to Karatu. It was a 2 hour-long journey cramped up journey and we arrived in Karatu at around 3 in the afternoon.

 The goodbye day

We were driven to our house by one of the coordinators in the hospital. It is a big house with huge drawing room and kitchen. We have our rooms and plus one room, where currently there are two Swiss medical students staying. They are really cooperative and told us about the town, we went out for the dinner we went. After the dinner we all were so tired that we went to sleep early.

The next day we set to Arusha again to meet our friends for the weekend. We visited a waterfall in Arusha, again it was about 6-7 kms hike one way. But the waterfall was beautiful and the water was really cold. Everyone enjoyed the trek and later we had dinner (Ethiopian dinner) in the town. The next day we returned back to Karatu again and cooked our own dinner and got ready for our first visit to the hospital.

The waterfall in Arusha

The fourth week

I am almost in my last week of the first month. The end of this week I will be moving to our respective hospitals with my partners. But instead of talking about the future let me know tell you about how my past week has been. The Swahili classes were no different from the previous ones except for new rules and vocabulary. And we had a simple test last week and it went fairly well.

In the labs, we built an infant incubator alarm, which sounds when the temperature exceeds the required level and thus keeps the babies from cooking. An infant incubator is used to keep babies warm when they are born prematurely. This was a two-day lab and it was fun making something so useful and practical that can be put to use.

One of my classmate working on the infant incubator

The other two labs we had reflection sessions like the previous ones. One of this reflection sessions we spoke about issues like some obstacles we might face, what we should accomplish and how to make relations with the staff. It was a nice discussion session where everyone sat in the grass in a circle and discussed about these issues. We also worked on a troubleshooting lab where every group opened some or the other device and troubleshooted the problem.

The reflection session

The troubleshooting lab

It was our last Friday at Mt. Meru hospital.  However, this day was slightly different as it was raining and so we could no longer work in the open, we had to arrange our workspace below two shades. There were no instruments to repair and I so worked on the air compressor I told you in my last blog. I just made another tiny fix with the stethoscope by replacing the missing diaphragm. The final hour of the day all the groups discussed about devices they had fixed for the day. Some students also spoke about the fixes they had made while they were in the operating room. It was a good idea to discuss all this as everyone got some idea on how to repair a device if they found similar problems.

Air compressor from oxygen concentrator

On the weekend we had planned a trip to the Ol Doniyo Lengai which is an active volcanic mountain. We reached the base of the mountain at around 3 in the afternoon after a 6-hour journey. The road was so dusty that we were covered in sand by the time we reached the place. After arriving we decided to visit the waterfall. The trek to waterfall was around 45 minutes and we had to cross the river and the rocky paths to reach the waterfall. The waterfall was amazing and the flow was so forceful that we couldn’t swim against the flow.

The trek to the waterfall

The waterfall

We got back to our camps when we were surrounded by the local msichana ( girls) selling local jewelry. I bought some from a girl and it was difficult to say no to others. After returning we had a quick dinner and we had to leave for climbing the mountain at 11 in the nigh (yes you heard it right!). After resting for some time we set off to trek.

The mountain looked serene below the full moon and we started the trek at around 12. I wouldn’t go through all the details. I would just say that it was extremely difficult and there were some moments during the hike where I doubted myself and wasn’t sure if I could summit the mountain. Thanks to my short height and lack of stamina it took me around 17 hours instead of 11 hours to complete the trek. But I was happy that I climbed all the way to the summit and conquered it. On the summit, we could hear the lava in the crater. Scary and exciting at the same time!!

This is how steep the mountain got 

The crater with active volcano

We got back home at around 3 and were completely tired. I was completely covered with dust from the mountain, as I had to slide all the way down. My pants were torn and my legs were hurting beyond description. I was glad that the day was over and I was home safely. Stay safe (Salama!).

                                                                                                  

The Third Week

Habari gani (how are you) people? I am back with some more stories( doesn’t it feel like you read my blog just moment ago?? Phewww ! Days or should I say weeks are just flying by. By now you must be well aware of my daily routine. Swahili classes this week included an exercise where we have to speak with locals in Swahili. It was a learning experience where I realized I have a long way to go to speak flawless Swahili (its not possible to be fluent in a month).

The interactive Swahili lessons

                                                                                                  

The labs this week were different in the sense that there was no technical work; instead we spent time on reflections. It was great break from the usual technical stuff where we introspected what had changed within and around us. The first session made everyone analyze some poetic quotes in context to our experience with stay and culture in Tanzania. The next day we had a guest lecture by ex-EWH student who had come to Tanzania for the same purpose as ours, however she planned to stay and work for the betterment of the people in Arusha. She is been here for the past four years. It was inspiring the way she spoke! One of us asked us what did she miss the most from back home and she said I miss nothing!! The last session in reflections was an icebreaker activity where each student had to communicate one-on-one with other about 12 topics mentioned by our coordinator.

One of the group  presenting in the reflection session

The day at Mt.Meru hospital was relaxing yet challenging. Remember I told you about the battery I had removed from the generators? I put that to charging, to see if we could reuse it. Rest of the day one of the other girls and me worked on to convert an oxygen concentrator to an air compressor. We also went on a tour around the hospitals just so we got an idea on where to find broken equipment and how to work with hospital staff.

The night after the hospital visit was fun. All of us went around the Arusha market. We had dinner at Khan’s barbeque; I think I mentioned going there in our first week in my second blog. After that we then went to a club where everyone danced till like 3 in the morning.

The next day, Saturday our coordinator had arranged a visit to a school, St. Jude. It’s like a boarding school with huge campus. The graduating advanced level students had organized some activities for us, where we were divided with the students into different groups. We played musical chairs, performed some activities like a play or some dance and then they taught us a song in Swahili (cant remember any of it except for the first verse). We ate lunch with them and they showed us around the campus. They were really happy to have us and asked us if we would visit again.

EWH students with the St. Jude students

The lunch session with the students

And Sunday, I got up at 8. First actual Sunday. The rest of the day my roommate and me spent almost the whole day braiding our hour. Most of you must have seen me in them. It took like 4 hours to finish braiding them.

So guys pretty much this was my week. It is going to remain almost the same for the next 2 weeks. Be happy (kuwa na furaha) !