Rough day; it will get better.

I am so thankful for the interweb.  I don’t think I could do this kind of international experience without the support (and communication) with friends and family back home.  We have a local bar & grill (quite Westernized) about a 10min walk from the house where I am staying that has wifi that is superb (and is where I am writing this…fully equipped with TVs, one has a cricket match and the other has the Australian open!), especially by Tanzanian standards…and it’s free!  I do try to give them business by getting a Guiness or 2 while writing as to not totally leach free internet : )   Today was first day at hospital, and MY was it interesting.  To be quite frank, I am utterly lost, not sure what my role here is or what I’m doing here.  Tanzanians may be quite polite, but from what I found in the wards, they are quite closed-off also.  I think it takes them a couple days to warm up to new people b/c no one really acknowledged my presence, nor did they offer any kind of instruction as to what I was supposed to be doing.  I did rounds with some docs and local med students throughout all the obstetrics wards, quite appalling.  These were actual wards, including the delivery suite, which housed 12 or so women, their beds barely divided by anything.  In the other parts of obstetrics, patients were sharing beds (again ward style), so maybe 20 beds to a room with 2-4 patients per bed.  Because rounds were conducted in part broken English and Kiswahili, I had a fantastic time trying to follow along.  I think there were several patients with pre-eclampsia, maybe one had malaria superimposed over her pregnancy, some were anemic.  Not sure what they did for each patient; with the language barrier all was quite unclear, I assure you!  At one point, I think the docs were draining some kind of adnexal mass (I’m hoping they diagnosed with imaging rather than just a palpation exam of the abdomen) by sticking a needle and aspirating bloody discharge.  It looked rust colored to me, not typical blood, maybe a mixture of blood and pus but couldn’t be sure.  They looked at the specimen for a moment and shook it back and forth, and then after that, I have no idea what happened b/c we moved onward to the next patient.  I couldn’t believe that they stuck a needle blindly into this patient’s belly.  Like I said, I feel rather lost, but I am hopeful that as the people warm up to me, they will be more apt to involving me in the treatment of the patients.   Yes, interesting day.  I’m a bit disheartened, but all will be okay.  I’m going with the flow and learning what I can, mostly from the differences between our healthcare practices.