Sorry for the lack of updates.I only have internet at the University and power is not the most consistent here..
Each morning, at around 4:30am and 5:15am, the local mosque blares out prayers over loud speakers. I try to go back to sleep until around 6am by which time music is playing, birds are chirping, and roosters are crowing. If I sleep until 6am without waking up, I know that the power's not working. Power has been a bit inconsistent lately; however, apparently it was worse during the rainy season just a few weeks ago.
It's about a 45min walk from our house to the University. Along the way, we'll have ppl saying "hello, hello, hello" or calling out "farengi", ie. foreigner, or "China" to me, or "you, you, you". We also pass by cows, sheep, dogs, goats along the side of the street. Sometimes we'll have random ppl walk beside us and follow us, listening in to the conversation for a bit. Nicole's been teaching her class in the morning for an hour on shoulder assessments and treatments. Afterwards, we've been either helping out with patients in the gym, or observing a clinician with assessments. It appears as if they only work in the mornings here as by the afternoon, the gym is empty and the clinicians are no where to be found.
I was supposed to teach yesterday; however, the food I had for dinner didn't agree with my stomach which my body ejected at night and I spent a day in bed with hot/cold chills. Also been new flea bites each night which are accumulating and getting quite itchy.
Today is a holiday, to celebrate the day an Ethiopian woman found the cross Jesus was crucified on. They set up what looks like pyres/crosses around the city. We'll be heading out later on to see what the celebration is about. Ethiopian Christian Orthodox seems to be the main religion, they walk around in white. We went to visit a church here last week. Neat to see the traditional church construction with the outer wall, then inner church building, and inner area with the back room. The high priest was there and they were finishing up a service when we went.
Definitely a different patient population here. A lot of children have clubfoot, which they treat with serial casting. It's very effective if the children get treatment before the age of 2. We did see a girl from the rural areas that didn't get treatment until 9yrs in which case they had to do surgery and even then the results aren't as good. Sad to see something treatable so untreated for so long. One of the physios here worked on a project going around the country to child development centres to compile a list of the centres, as well as provide information about signs to look for re: clubfoot and hopefully get information out for them to send kids here if needed. Usually, it takes about 5-6 treatments, then the kids need to wear shoes that keep their feet in a good position for 24hrs a day for 3 months, and then 14hrs a day for another 3yrs.
There are a lot more fractures that haven't healed properly since people tend to go for traditional medicine - which sounds like it consists of some type of binding so by the time they arrive in the clinic, it's harder to address.
There's more neurological cases it seems, we've seen a stroke patient, neuro cases as a result of HIV/AIDS/other retroviruses, and Bell's palsy. Overall, the knowledge of anatomy seems good; however, not sure about the hands on practice of it and their time management...
The "wards" consist of separate buildings, generally a large open rooms with beds and no privacy. The mattresses are generally filthy with dried up blood on it and no sheets. I have been blessed with a bad sense of smell as I hear it's quite bad in there and Nicole was literally holding her breath to keep from gagging. It appears that the clinicians here have an attitude that they're not paid enough to work on the wards so I'm not sure how many people actually get seen. They spend the mornings in the outpatient department, after which it's quite empty in the afternoon.
The physio department does have parallel bars and plinths, some broken walkers, and a treadmill. The hospital was founded 30yrs ago.. actually met the founder here the other day. Still a lot of construction going on on site.. a bit scary walking right beside ppl working high up on scaffolding.
Each morning, at around 4:30am and 5:15am, the local mosque blares out prayers over loud speakers. I try to go back to sleep until around 6am by which time music is playing, birds are chirping, and roosters are crowing. If I sleep until 6am without waking up, I know that the power's not working. Power has been a bit inconsistent lately; however, apparently it was worse during the rainy season just a few weeks ago.
It's about a 45min walk from our house to the University. Along the way, we'll have ppl saying "hello, hello, hello" or calling out "farengi", ie. foreigner, or "China" to me, or "you, you, you". We also pass by cows, sheep, dogs, goats along the side of the street. Sometimes we'll have random ppl walk beside us and follow us, listening in to the conversation for a bit. Nicole's been teaching her class in the morning for an hour on shoulder assessments and treatments. Afterwards, we've been either helping out with patients in the gym, or observing a clinician with assessments. It appears as if they only work in the mornings here as by the afternoon, the gym is empty and the clinicians are no where to be found.
I was supposed to teach yesterday; however, the food I had for dinner didn't agree with my stomach which my body ejected at night and I spent a day in bed with hot/cold chills. Also been new flea bites each night which are accumulating and getting quite itchy.
Today is a holiday, to celebrate the day an Ethiopian woman found the cross Jesus was crucified on. They set up what looks like pyres/crosses around the city. We'll be heading out later on to see what the celebration is about. Ethiopian Christian Orthodox seems to be the main religion, they walk around in white. We went to visit a church here last week. Neat to see the traditional church construction with the outer wall, then inner church building, and inner area with the back room. The high priest was there and they were finishing up a service when we went.
Definitely a different patient population here. A lot of children have clubfoot, which they treat with serial casting. It's very effective if the children get treatment before the age of 2. We did see a girl from the rural areas that didn't get treatment until 9yrs in which case they had to do surgery and even then the results aren't as good. Sad to see something treatable so untreated for so long. One of the physios here worked on a project going around the country to child development centres to compile a list of the centres, as well as provide information about signs to look for re: clubfoot and hopefully get information out for them to send kids here if needed. Usually, it takes about 5-6 treatments, then the kids need to wear shoes that keep their feet in a good position for 24hrs a day for 3 months, and then 14hrs a day for another 3yrs.
There are a lot more fractures that haven't healed properly since people tend to go for traditional medicine - which sounds like it consists of some type of binding so by the time they arrive in the clinic, it's harder to address.
There's more neurological cases it seems, we've seen a stroke patient, neuro cases as a result of HIV/AIDS/other retroviruses, and Bell's palsy. Overall, the knowledge of anatomy seems good; however, not sure about the hands on practice of it and their time management...
The "wards" consist of separate buildings, generally a large open rooms with beds and no privacy. The mattresses are generally filthy with dried up blood on it and no sheets. I have been blessed with a bad sense of smell as I hear it's quite bad in there and Nicole was literally holding her breath to keep from gagging. It appears that the clinicians here have an attitude that they're not paid enough to work on the wards so I'm not sure how many people actually get seen. They spend the mornings in the outpatient department, after which it's quite empty in the afternoon.
The physio department does have parallel bars and plinths, some broken walkers, and a treadmill. The hospital was founded 30yrs ago.. actually met the founder here the other day. Still a lot of construction going on on site.. a bit scary walking right beside ppl working high up on scaffolding.
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