Our first official week is already over! We’ve been having a
fantastical time getting to know our housemates. We hang out, cook, and eat
together. Lately we’ve been watching some sweet Louis Theroux documentaries
after dinner. We’ve also been able to escape Nkoaranga a few times after work
to visit our host family (they’re doing great!), spend the night with our lady
engineers in Arusha, pick up spare parts for some equipment, and even discover
our new favorite food obsession: Lasagna Fridays at Tanz Hands. It’s a
Mzungu-friendly place to eat in Usa River, and also school for the disabled!
Check it out at here.
Thursday was my Dad’s birthday! Happy belated birthday
Daddy! J
Thursday also marked the glorious day I got to watch a Tanzanian surgery! In
classic African fashion, I literally walked into the surgery unit (scrubbed in,
of course) to watch. No problem. Hakuna matata. The pulse ox actually
malfunctioned a bit during the surgery, so I got to touch the patient's hand
and equipment. Again, hakuna shida.
Last year, I shadowed at Huntington Hospital on Long Island,
so I was curious to see the differences. The surgery itself was really boring.
It was a hernia repair - YAWN. So I watched for a bit, but I was more curious
about the things occurring around the patient. Here at Nkoaranga, they don't
use an anesthesia machine - they give the patient a drug called ketamine. You
may have heard of it, it's a horse tranquilizer. They only used a pulse
oximeter, automatic bp monitor, and oxygen concentrator (patient was breathing
on his own) to make sure the patient fared well during surgery. Dr. Julius also
didn’t use an Electrosurgery Unit, just a good ol’ scalpel. This surgery, and
generally all surgeries performed at Nkoaranga, went really well. Dr. Julius is
a really skilled doctor and surgeon. He’s actually the only doctor at Nkoaranga.
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