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May 25, 2009
25 May 2009 - Akum, Bamenda
Jane and I had a very exciting and independent day. We started by traveling up to Akum (by ourselves!) to visit the Holy Family Health Centre. The taxi ride up was our “closest” yet – 8 people in the cab (the taxis here are also smaller than Chevy Metros). We made it there safe and sound and met up with Dr. Bakia. He showed us to Sister Virginia, the matron of the health centre, who gave us a tour. I was astounded by the number of patients Holy Family had – about 60% of the beds were filled.
After the tour, Jane and I got to sit in on consultation all day with Dr. Bakia. We saw tons of different cases – really unique and interesting stuff (although I don’t know how much I can disclose due to confidentiality). During the afternoon, we got to see an ultrasound. I had to duck out early as the warm ultrasound room, combined with our very meek diet was making me somewhat lightheaded (contrarily, Jane hypothesizes that the thought of babies makes me want to pass out). With fresh air, a few crackers, and some water, I was back in business soon enough. We saw a few more patients, but Dr. Bakia was so efficient that the lab was not able to keep up with his consultations and he had to stop consult for a while.
Also joining us in consultation was Charlotte, a medical student from Holland. Charlotte, and her travel companion, Yasmine, are also with ASHIA! It was awesome to meet them, especially since ASHIA is based out of Holland. Both Charlotte and Yasmine were actual medical interns at Holy Family and were doing the work as part of their curriculum for medical school.
Jane and I departed from Holy Family to get back to Bamenda, where we went grocery shopping for the essentials – peanut butter, Ramen, and toilet paper. We also called home! During errand-running we took a break to get a solid meal at Dreamland. We were very proud of ourselves for making it back to Bamenda on our own (without getting mugged) and also for running errands without VSO-volunteer supervision (again without getting mugged). We’re turning into regular Cameroonians.
Back at the flat, we enjoyed some watermelon and relished in our successful day. Tomorrow we will head back to Akum to see a biopsy retrieval and I will hopefully get to talk to their staff about nutrition for HIV patients.
Power outages: 21
Posted by ajvandeu at May 25, 2009 03:35 AM