Yellow Flower

We began at 8 a.m. at Mount Meru today. 

The supplies around the hospital are always few, which required us to get antiseptic for the phlebotomy clinic right away. On the way there we passed a pair of bloody flip-flops, and a man being rolled out on a stretcher, face covered, dead. Before the hospital I thought I had experienced culture shock, but it wasn't until my first couple of days at the hospital that I felt the true difference in cultures. I could go on and on about the differences in aseptic technique, care for patients, confidentiality, and availability of supplies but I imagine that as my blogs continues you will get a sense of the differences yourself. 

I worked in the lab today. I worked alongside a very sweet, and talented lab aspiring technician by the name of Joseph. Today was clinical testing day, as is every Wednesday. We focused on two tests LFT (liver function test), and RFT (renal function test). LFT consisted of testing for two liver enzymes that appear when damage occurs, and RFT tested creatinine, which appears in high amounts when the kidneys aren’t functioning well. I worked with the lab ladies (and Joseph) testing these levels from various blood samples. The language barriers between us have certainly been difficult encouraging simple word vocabulary, slow speech, and hand signaling.

I have got to tell ya’ll about the most interesting part of my day: my very first blood test of the day was the RFT (creatinine) test. Mr. Machina had a very high level of creatinine in his blood, along with symptoms of chronic hypertension, and edema in the lower limbs. The test reported such a high value that the test was repeated a second time… with the same results. I was then asked to retrieve blood from the patient who was in the general medicine ward. Although asked, I didn’t draw blood myself agreeing to assist. After retrieving the vials of blood, and testing for a third time we, yet again, we got results 8x the normal range. Renal failure? I don’t know, but I promise to check up on the patient tomorrow and report back to you guys!
OH and Dam (blood) is my Swahili word of the day. 

We visited the orphanage again today. We planted trees as I mentioned in my previous post. 

There seemed to be more kids today than we saw last week. They sang songs to us, and we played games us volunteers played as kids. Heather and I taught them the Hokey Pokey!
As me and five other children walked down from the beautiful hidden backyard garden where the trees were planted I decided to pick a beautiful yellow wild flower.

I wanted to give the flower to the little girl beside me. As I walked toward the flowers she darted over to me, and picked one from the same bush. I handed her the flower I had picked and she handed me her freshly picked flower simultaneously. Soon after our exchange, the other five kids picked flowers and we all ran back to the orphanage with a little more color than we started with.

If ever I am down in the dumps I will think about these kids, who have nothing but smile endlessly as long as they have a hand to hold.