Dental Surgery, Tour of the Town & The Sunset From Gangilonga Rock

~ Monday 11th August

Day 1 of the GapMedics experience - it didn't disappoint.

Placement started at 8am so us newbies were walked to Iringa Regional Hospital (from tomorrow we make our own way) so breakfast was served at 7, before we left at 7:20. I gotta hand it to Aqib, our cook, breakfast was amazing. Anything you could possibly want, was there. There were pancakes, cereals, fruit, hot chocolate, a toaster and a toastie maker, four different types of english cereal; anything you could possibly want, we had. And it was all self-serve so we could make and help ourselves to absolutely anything we wanted. (The pineapples were the sweetest pineapples I have ever tasted, no lie.)

I was expecting a 25 minute, 30 minute max walk to the hospital because that's what was written in the intro booklet, but boy was it a ridiculously long walk. It took us a good 45 minutes to get there and then we split up into groups according to the department we were in. There was only one other person with me in the dental department, David, so we headed off to the dental surgery. Yes, surgery. I.e. a single dental surgery in the whole hospital.

Wait, hold up. Let me insert a picture of it.

It's a damn sight better than the surgeries in Malawi, I'll hand them that. But you can imagine just how crowded the waiting area outside was, there seemed to be an endless seam of patients. And we didn't start till after 9 which was annoying. The doctors we were shadowing didn't turn up until about 9. We had Dr Nghezi and Dr Grace; we had Dr Nghezi for the first half, and Dr Grace for the second. Dr Nghezi is, um, well, suffice to say, I don't like him.

But never mind. After he taught us the basics of teeth, we watched extraction, after extraction, after extraction...

I understand that it's the first point of treatment because of the lack of facilities and equipment, and also because the patient comes in during the last stage of the problem because of a lack of public awareness on oral hygiene, but it's so sad that patients so young have to lose adult teeth or succumb to life-threatening situations simply because of poverty.

Later on though with Dr Grace, we saw a case of intermaxillary fixation, the removal of an oral tumour, and the treating of an abscess. The latter involved excising the cheek to drain the pus and then cutting out any abnormal tissue that could potentially give rise to a tumour if not removed.

We finished a little earlier today because it was our first day so Sam, the project manager, and the house staff, Delphine and Amina, were going to take us out and show us the town so we broke off at 12:30, headed back to the house and had lunch before we left.

We spent three hours walking in town; they showed us the ATM machines, introduced us to the best cafe places and took us to the Masai Market. It was actually a pretty fun walk and the closest we'd get to sight-seeing although I'm terrified that I haven't remembered the way at all so if I want to pop into town with anybody, they're going to have to know the directions because chances are I'm going to draw a blank.

We got back just before sunset so we quickly freshened up, then we did a little bit of rock climbing; we walked to the top of Gangilonga Rock where we watched the sunset and took loads of funky pictures that I've shared below. It was so much fun.

And then at night, after dinner, we were treated to African dancing! It was brilliant to watch, these local Africans came in and showcased their traditional dancing/singing which was interesting to say the least. If you want to have a watch, brace your ears, make sure your volume is not so loud so as to protect your eardrums, and click play on the video below ;)

Happy watching!

Gangilonga Rock - Video Maker


AFRICAN DANCING:

African Dancing - Video Maker