Beestenboel (animalfarm)

Back to English..

First of all I want to sent my greetings from prince harry (frog nr 1, 2, 3 and 4), the mosquito’s), the fly’s, the birds , the barking dogs, the donkey who makes a noise that almost sounds that he is abused, the worm (of 20 cm bij 1cm), snail (that is 10 cm big), the salamander that was joining our night rest and all of the other insects who keeps us company during the evening/nights.

You almost think that we are not getting bored here with all of our new friends. Disappointing, but most of the time I do. The weekend I experienced it as a living hell (oke, I may exaggerate a bit..). I can see that I learnt to relax and have patience. The whole Sunday I did nothing. Only some reading, sleeping, and playing cards with the others.
Monday we could finally start to work at the hospital. After we got dropped at the head of the nursing departments, he showed us around and told us something about the hospital. He also told us that we can join a operation and we ask if we could join a delivery (geboorte). It was possible. So I was very happy to have something to look forward!

After we came to the wards, we heard that there were no diabetic patients. Later that week when we joined the clinic, we heard that there were almost no diabetic patients. Most of the diabetic patient go to Banjul or don’t go to the clinic. For a group who is doing a project about giving health education to diabetic patients is it a hard assignment, or very easy… Anyway, we decided to go back to Banjul over a 4 days on Tuesday instead of 3 weeks in bansang, because then we have enough information for our project. It is too bad for my dearest friends, especially the mosquito’s, I will miss them!

This Thursday we went to see a staaroperation (eye operation). It was very fascinating to see how an eye looks like. The eyes of the Gambian people are always very fascinating, it looks like they don’t have a pupil, so black that the eyes are. While the operation you could see the pupil and the membrane (vlies). We made some pictures of the eye, so for the ones who wants to see it, just say so and I will sent them to you (warning for children, sorry cel…)

The rest of the free time we spend by reading, working most of the hours on our report for the project, my reflection report, waarbenjij.nu stories, playing cards or eating.
About the food…you can say that it is eatable. Because we don’t have the time to go to the market (market is open in the morning and then we have to work. Thereby we have a difficulty with the transport) and it was a lot of fuss to get all the materials to cook, we decided to eat the lunch with the head of the school. Well the assistant makes it. It is always rise, sometimes with fish or with bulls meat and a little bit of vegetables. In the morning we eat brood with banana, at night brood with sometimes the lunch what was left. But don’t worry, I will not lose weight, all the rise and oil will compensate

Although it seems terrible here, it has also another side. In the morning it seems we’re camping. A lot of different kinds birds are here. Everyone with another color and other sound. That bird watching from a few weeks ago was nothing (naja..dat was t sowieso al niet, maar dan nog)! Behind our house there lives a family with a lot of children. We think that that man has 2 wives. They are really living in Gambian style. The women wears only a skirt and above nothing. They wash themselves next to the house. The women only clean, wash and cook. This morning a child wouldn’t wash his face, the mother gets a tak and dreigt to slap with it. Here they give the children easier a tik then in Holland. Anyway..very fascinating the different way they life, the culture.

Today we went to see the head of the nursing department. I gave him and the wards the blood sugar meter. They were very happy with it. They don’t have any test strips and machines. Although there not a lot of diabetes patients, it is very hard to get the test strips, because it has to be imported and then send to the inlands.
I was a bit disappointed when I heard that the hospital was out of insulin. Otherwise I could use the sponsored money to buy medicine in Banjul for Bansang Hospital. The whole country was out of insulin, it was only available in Banjul.

Today we went to the maternity ward if we could see a delivery. When we arrived there was a women with volledige ontsluiting (fully dilatation). She couldn’t get birth, because her pelvis (bekken) were not wide enough, so she should go for caesarian section (keizersnee). But there was a problem. The surgeon was not around, so she should go to another hospital, what is 3 or 5 hours drive. Fortune for the 23 year old women, who got already 3 children where 2 of them died, the surgeon was around and could operate. Of course we wanted to join them. I must say that I was a bit nervous, afraid I was gonna to faint. It was so interesting to see. I can go in to detail, but I don’t want to scare people away. I can see that I’m very happy with the good health care conditions of Holland, because they don’t work that sterile and with that up to date material and not that many people who working at the theatre (operatiekamer). I was the assistant of the anesthetist. I had to control the breathing of the patient by pumping that balloon. When the baby was delivered it wasn’t breathing, so cpr was given (reanimatie). And our little girl, named Aisha Isatou was borne. At the end I didn’t feel that good, but that was because the patient woke up, during stitching the wound. The anesthetist gave her some drugs, but that was enough for me to see.

Saturday we went to Basse, a village 60 km from here. The school bus went to basse to pick up some students to start on Monday with school. After an hour drive through the green landscape (see movies at renates site), we arrived at Basse. This is the first town where we didn’t hear any ‘toebab’, only the surprised faces. The market was the same as every market. After an hour we went back to bansang. On Sunday we wanted to go to a forrest parc nearby Bansang, but when we were at the market Binta called us to tell us that she was at the hospital in Bansang. First of all we didn’t believe her, because it takes 5 hours drive to go to bansang and it was 10 o’clock in the morning and at that time the ferry is not available. So after some waiting we saw binta and ramma. They were for some kind of workshop here in bansang and go further to Basse. It was a nice surprise.

regards, kaddy

ps. for the birthdays, i just write them down in my notebook, so maybe it was wrong. any way, for everyone: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! ;)