Friday was another day of teaching for the teachers. From what I heard from them it sounded like they were able to settle in a bit more and all felt comfortable in the classroom. I was not able to spend the day at the school. After taking the teachers up to the school I walked with Greg to Adziwa. He wanted to walk around to take some pictures and then at 9 was set to meet the building crew. The plan was for them to dig holes for the posts for the learning center. I went to find Tamweka and see if she was feeling better. When I found her she looked a little better, but once I picked her up and spoke with her caregiver it was obvious that she needed to be taken to the hospital. Tovia said she would go with me so we started getting everything ready so that we could leave as soon as possible.
We collected the medicine that Tamweka had been given when she went to the clinic and Tovia wrapped up Long and put him on her back. We needed to walk to the local clinic to get the paperwork from them they had on Tamwekas last visit. Once we arrived at the clinic the man there wasn’t helpful. He said they didn’t file things by name, but only by month. We knew she had been seen in June or May so the man handed us 2 big files that had all the patients from those months. We were then supposed to sift through each sheet of paper and look for Tamwekas name. Tovia didn’t seem bothered at all and she began looking through the files. I sat and held Tamweka on my lap. Tovia did find one sheet of paper from a visit in June, but the man refused to let us take the information with us to the hospital in town. Lucky for us I had my cell phone and so we took a picture of the document. We then walked up the road to catch a minibus that would take us to the city. It’s a small van that seats 8 people. It costs a very small amount of money to ride. It was less than one dollar for all 4 of us. Tovia had Long on her back and I sat with Tamweka on my lap. Once we got in our seats and took off I counted and there were 19 of us in the bus…the minibus stopped a few times along the way letting people off and letting more on. Each time we would have to either get off or move seats to make room for the new passengers or to get out of the way so people could get out. It was an interesting experience to say the least.
The hospital is big. It’s spread out and there are lots of buildings and open air hallways. Tovia thought she knew where we should go, but it turned out that it took us quite a while to find where we needed to see the doctor. The process at this hospital is very different than what we are all a custom to. First you see a doctor or nurse who figured out what the issue is and then you are sent for tests. The first test that they wanted was a scan of her belly. We took the order and went to find the scanning room. There were about 50 people sitting in the open concrete hall waiting to have scans done. Tovia told me to go in and hand over the paperwork. I did that and in just a few short minutes we were taken into the room where the ultrasound machine was. I will never be able to explain what the room was like to anyone who hasn’t seen a hospital in Malawi. The tiles on the ceiling were falling down, there was a large hole in the floor where you could see down to the dirt. The bed was messy and isn’t cleaned between patients. There was a small trash can on the floor at the end of the bed. As soon as I put Tamweka up on the table she started to cry. She was afraid of getting an injection. I tried to comfort her, but suddenly she started saying she was going to throw up. I took her down and let her throw up into the trash can. One of her symptoms had been that she was coughing and throwing up blood. After we laid her back on the table she seemed to calm down. Then we had to take the results of the scan back to the first doctor (might have been a nurse). So back we went and then we were sent for an X-ray of her chest. Again we walked through the buildings looking for the right place. We got to the X-ray room and there were 50 or more people waiting. I sat down next to Tovia and after a few moments Tovia told me to go through the door. I said that the sign said “X-ray in progress don’t enter”, but she insisted so I took Tamweka and through the door we went. We got inside and there was a man on the table getting an X-ray of his foot. The tech shuffled us behind a wall while he took the picture and then quickly he scooped up Tamweka and went ahead with hers. Again once she was put on the table she started to cry. The tech let her hold his cell phone and said if she felt any pain at all she could keep it 🙂 the X-ray was done and off we went back to the first doctor or nurse to show them the picture. After seeing this picture the woman asked me if I knew Tamwekas HIV status. I said that I didn’t believe she had ever been tested. Now we were told to take her to the children’s HIV ward and get a blood test. There were several reasons why I wasn’t thrilled with this next order. We went though and Tovia and I sat outside a small office waiting for someone to return to their desk who could give Tamweka the test. After a short time we were called in and she was tested. The test needed just a few drops of blood to be put onto a test strip. In just less than a minute we would know the result. Tamweka didn’t like getting her finger pricked and I felt just awful watching it all happen. I felt myself start to get upset as we waited for the result. The woman who pricked her finger was there writing in her chart by wasn’t saying anything. Then she brought the test strip over to show me. I told her I didn’t know how to read it and she showed me the faint pink line that had appeared in one of the segments on the strip. Again I looked at her and said I didn’t know what that meant. “Negative”, she said. My eyes again welled up with tears and we all stood up and left. Back to the main desk again to give her results and find out what was next. While we had gone for the test the doctor (or nurse) had shown Tamwekas chest X-ray to a colleague of hers. The consensus was that they both thought Tamweka had tuberculosis. There is no way of knowing though unless they test a specimen of sputum. We were told to go to the TB office and pick up containers and then come back to more with them filled so they could be tested. We walked around and around until we found the office. There was nobody there but the door was unlocked. Tovia told me to just go in. I went in and saw the box that had the specimen cups in it. I went back to hallway, looked both ways to see if anyone was coming and then quickly went in grabbed the cups and we left. It had been a long day and I didn’t want to wait 🙂 Now we had prescriptions that needed filling. We went to the building where that happens and it was closed for lunch. The sign said it would reopen in 45 min. There was a large crowd on the ground waiting so I knew it would take a long time before we would have what we needed. We decide to get in another minibus and go to the privet pharmacy and just pay for the medicine. While we went there I called Isaac to come get us and take us all home. I couldn’t get on another minibus with this sick baby in my lap 🙁 just wasn’t going to happen. Isaac was home and wasn’t busy so he came right away and took us back to Adziwa. We needed to go over the medicine with Tamwekas caregiver and then Tovia and I could head back to the village. Isaac and I dropped off Tovia and then he drove me down to be with the rest of my group. It had been a long day. We were set to go to the lake in the morning so everyone was just relaxing and packing. That evening we had a big treat and got to see a troop of local dancers come and perform. The entire gang had a great time! We stayed up a little late and just enjoyed each others company.
The next morning we were set to leave for the lake. Before we drove to the lake everyone was scheduled to enjoy a tour of town and then do some souvenir shopping. We are back from the lake now and I’m finally able to post. I’ll write tonight about our weekend at the lake and give you all an update on Tamweka. Hopefully I can get back to Internet and post that tomorrow. Sorry for the long post about the hospital, but since it is what’s happening I thought some of you would be interested to hear. The group is doing great and everyone is happy. Kisses to you all and Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads!