Home sweet home

Hi guys

Well my travels are finally over, sorry I have not uploaded my recent blogs till today but time has ran away with me. I have returned to the land of Oz, lol.

I hope you have enjoyed reading, I have enjoyed writing, it has some how been therapeutic for me. I have had an experience of a life time, one which I think will change my outlook on life forever and one I will never forget.

It is lovely to be home, to see my wonderful hubby, family and friends in Perth - and soon to be setting off again to see those of you in the UK. Yet it feels a little bitter sweet right now, as I sit here writing this last blog in my beautiful home, with food in my fridge, water in my taps, heating on (yes pom's, it's evening and 10 degree's here!) and I'm thanking my lucky stars for what I have.

I am thankful for the opportunity I have been given and am glad to have been able to share it with you all.

Remember every day how lucky you are and how life is so different for many other people all over the world!

Thank you all for reading and hope to see you all soon.
Lot of love
Dawn
xxxxx

Story behind every hat!

Hi Guys

It's my final few days in Tanzania and the experience I have had here is hard to put into words. It's been challenging, sad, rewarding and life changing - hopefully for those I have helped, and most definitely for myself! I can't say I have enjoyed my time here as enjoy is not really the word I would use, but I have currently not hated it. I wish I could have helped more, I see so many ways that things could be improved, even with no money - improved basic nursing skills and better knowledge could save so many lives. I wish I could stay for longer and focus on just helping one hospital at a time, I wish I could come return with my awesome team of midwives and implement change. As usual though even though I am on the other side of the world politics and cultural beliefs make change very difficult. I have however made some changes, educated many professionals and left my mark - no matter how small that maybe. I hope that the nurses and doctors I have taught will be able to put into practise the skills we have taught them and continue to save more and more lives.

I wanted to share with you a few stories of women and their babies I helped along my journey.

This baby was born by emergency caesarean, it's mother had pre-eclampsia. She had an eclamptic fit and her placenta abrupted. This baby was born in very poor condition and I helped resuscitate her. Despite being possible 4 weeks early she is pretty big. The white stuff on her face is vernix (this is normal in premie babies). I am unsure whet this baby got to see her mother or indeed what happened to her. I gave this baby a knitted white hat, pink cardigan and a pink jump suit. Thank you to who ever made or gave me these. xxx

 

 

This women has just given birth about 10 minutes ago. She is in the labour room and her baby also required a serious amount of resus. To her right is another women still in labour. She has just birthed her placenta and now she has to sit on this stool to breastfeed her baby. When she has finished she will go outside to the postnatal ward and share a bed with 2-3 other women. I gave this lady a yellow knitted hat, white cardigan and booties and a white jump suit.

 

 

This baby was born to a HIV positive mother. It has a high chance of having contracted HIV from it's mother. Yet he is as beautiful as any other baby and will be loved and cherished by his mother, like an other baby. I gave this baby a blue hat, cardigan and bootie's.

 

This is Fatuma, she gave birth to her beautiful 3.5kg baby who I also resuscitated. All I had left in my bag was a 00000 (tiny baby for poms) sized pink jump suit and a very small hat. Fatuma was so pleased with her gifts she was determined for the suit and hat to fit her baby girl. She squeezed her baby into this outfit it was so funny to watch, anyone would think it was made of gold! She was also amazed when I took her picture and showed it to her. I don't think she had ever seen a photo of herself. Thank you to my amazing sister who hit the charity shops and markets with her friend for baby clothes before I left and I believe she picked up this one on her way - you made this woman's day!!!

 

Thank you all for everything you gave - you all helped make someones day xxxx

 







Children of the slums

Hi Guys

Today I visited the slums to see how most of the locals live. Boy how hard this was to see. First we went to a house which had 6 rooms, each room was no bigger than a master bedroom in a house. In each of these rooms lived a family of 4 or more. They had 2 mattresses and not much else.



In this one house (the size of one of our homes) housed more than 28 people. They shared a toilet block, which I did not look inside, but after my toilet nightmares in the villages I can only imagine what this was like!

 

 They had no kitchen so all the families used the hallway to cook in.

 

 

I spoke with some of the families and also to the land lady (via a translator - as my Swahili is getting better but not that good). I asked how much it would cost to live in this house. The land lady told me that it would cost the equivalent of $200 for rent for the year. I was shocked - my sunnies I had on my head were worth more than that! I felt terrible, what a different world we live in. Here I was in the position to pay for one families rent my just handing over my sunnies. So many things went through my head at that moment - I will never forget that moment in my life!

 

I would have loved to go to the cash point and take out enough money to pay the rent for the entire house for the whole year. However, I am well aware that this is a cruel world and as much as my giving them money would have been nice. I couldn't be sure that it would actually go towards the rent, things are very corrupt here. The land lady had a very nice little set up and there were some interesting men watching our every move! So on we went.

 

We moved on to look at many house near a very dirty river, there were kids playing near the river. They were all so pleased to see us. The families here told us that each year the river (which also was sewage) flooded and ended up in their huts (houses). The water reached incredible heights and bought with it disease and much more. The children we met were amazing, they have so little and lived in terrible conditions yet they were the happiest kids I have seen. All smiles, playful and laughing all the time. I gave out heaps of the packs I had put together and they loved them. Thank you all so much for all your donations, you really did make these children's days!

 

 

I will never forgot these slums and the children and their families who lived in them. We are all truly blessed to live where we do and we must all never forget it.

 



Feeling very grateful right now xxx

Teaching continues

Hi Guys

On return from Zanzibar we set back to work in the main city, continuing to train the local nurses and doctors at the local hospitals. The train the trainer idea was in full swing now and all our nurses were doing a great job at training other nurses and doctors.

One day I went to a hospital to assess the nurses on our course. They had to teach a skill and be assessed doing this. I went to all the maternity wards and assessed several nurses who were on our course. They all did very well, I had the props with me like a baby doll for resus and a mini Annie for adult resus etc. Then I got to the pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure) ward (yes pre-eclampsia is such a problem here they have a whole ward of women with it!). This one nurse was going to teach her fellow nurses and doctors how to manage an eclamptic fit. When I got their she was all prepared, she had all the equipment they used ready and took me over to a women who was 39 weeks pregnant and had been admitted with pre-eclampsia a few days ago. All the staff huddled around and the nurse started to provide me with a case review about this women. I was stood there wondering that this was a little strange as we were with an actual women and I was unsure how she was going to do a drill in this ward as it was extremely busy and there was no spare bed to use.

As I was considering this the women started pretending to fit!!! I was mortified, the nurse had actually asked a real women who actually had pre-eclampsia to role play her situation. All of a sudden all this equipment was being pull out and I was actually worried they were really going to use it (for real!). At one point as I was stood there I actually had to check with the nurse that the women was not actually fitting! My face must have said it all I was so shocked - morally and ethically this is something we could never do in the UK or Oz!

The poor nurse who I was assessing, bless her she thought she had failed as my face must have been a picture. Fair play for her to use her initiative though it currently lead for an interesting a real to life role play - one I will never forget! After that I felt so bad for the poor woman that I conducted an antenatal check on her and checked her blood pressure and talked through with the doctors her plan of management to ensure she was being well looked after. She was very great full - they see white people and assume they are in safe hands, so that was one good thing that came out of it.

Another day whilst working on the ward I met a 19 year old girl who was 37 weeks pregnant and had been admitted the previous day with pre-eclampsia. Her BP on admission was 160/110 (this is very high, for all you none medical people). She had also just discovered she was pregnant with twins. Whilst teaching the nurses about pre-eclampsia and assessing this woman, I checked her record (which are practically nothing) and her blood pressure was still the same. She had apparently been in hospital for 12 hrs and had 3 lots of medication and yet her BP had not actually changed. Her BP during this time had not been checked since admission, even though they all knew it was supposed to be checked 4 hrly on this ward. I found this hard to understand that despite 3 x medication nothing had changed. I tried to explain this to the nurses and they told me her BP had been checked but just not documented (Hmmm...?).

When I finally got to the bottom of things, I discovered that not only had this women not had her BP checked in 12 hrs she had also not had any further medication since admission. The nurses do not seem to talk to the women. There are so many women on the wards the nurses do not even know who they are. The have no name bands on, all share beds and have no charts on the beds. The only way they could identify the women was by pulling their charts and shouting out their name from the front of the ward. I have no ideal how they even know who's chart they are writing in or who they are giving the medication to. It was mind blowing! Eclamptic fits are so common here, I have seen many already. I wonder if just through simple management and organisation these could be reduced. I don't even think basic observations like a BP is being done and this may be all it takes to save many more lives.

Take care all and I will see you all soon. xx

Zanzibar

Hi Guys

Decided to head to Zanzibar for a weekend of R & R. However in usual Dawn style more drama's were ahead of me!

We headed down to the ferry port to catch the early ferry to make the most of our weekend. We arrived at the ferry port with plenty of time to spare - only to find out that we actually needed our pastports to go to Zanzibar! We jumped back in the bajargi (tut tut for those of you who have been to thailand)and headed back to our house to collect our passports. We had 45 minutes to get back to the house, collect our passports and get back to the ferry port - we were pushing it for sure. We got back to the ferry port with 5 minutes to spare and the ferry was still in the port - relief - well for all but 5 minutes! Got to the ticket man, who then told us we were to late, they had closed the gate and we were not getting on the ferry! TIA (this is africa, for god sake!) nothing ever runs on time, so we couldn't understand why they wouldn't let us on that ferry. After arguing with the ticket guy for 10 minutes we accepted defeat........

The guy then tried to sale us a flight (Hmmm.. now I understand!). This gus was obviously trying to rip us off - however I was the only one who could see this. The other girls thought this was an awesome idea. The guy told us it was 10 minutes to the airport and her would give us a free transfer (sure he would!). Apparently the next plane left at 10.30 - it was now 9am. the next ferry left at 1pm and took 2 hrs. The plane took 20min. I could see the advantage of this but anyone who knows me knows I hate flying and the thought of getting on a tiny plane was giving me palpatations!!!

So finally we agreed to go by plane as it was only $30 more and we headed on the 10minute journey to the airport (bulls***), 30minutes later we arrived at the airport. There was a guys who meet us at the airport and took us through the security. Not sure what they were checking for on the x-ray machine as my freind had pepper spray & a knife in her bag and I had a razor but it was like "come on through!". After getting through customs we had to pay this mystery man a departure tax (hmmm....) think that went in his pocket. We got to the departure lounge (which was a shack really), only to find we have missed the 10:30 flight (oh what a surprise!!!) the next flight was at 12:30! We had been well and turley riped off and after agruing with the airport people - we got a free coffee (great!).

Eventually it was 12:30 and we got on this tiny plane (my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest at this point). My friends decided to sit right behind the pilots, this would not have been my first choice but I was in no state to argue. The journey was not to bad really, the views were amazing it really did only take 20 minutes. I did get a little concerned at one point when my friend started talking to the pilot ( why is so har to understand that you do not distract the driver!!!).

Well I can say Zanzibar was well and truely worth the stress to get there. Beautiful beaches, cocktails, great food and amazing scenery. Totally loved every minute, felt very guilty to be living it up though when I thought about all the poverty I had left back in Tanzania. Gona be an interesting transition back to reality in Perth that is for sure. Pic's on FB already.

xxx

　

　

Village adventures - Part 3

Hi guys

　

The next few days we continued to visit the village hospitals and provide education and help out. By now we were getting very used to the bumpy ambulance rides and the holes in the ground for toilets! However we were still all having nightmares about using the public holes in the ground (see below). These were worse than the ones in our accommodation. Not only that but the holes were a lot smaller and I have no idea how women are supposed to aim in them. For this reason we were very careful what we drank through the day, in the hope we didn’t need the toilet! The bumpy ride home was not good for our full bladders by the end of the day. We kept joking about someone getting a bout of gastro and having to use it, that would not be a pretty sight, lol.

At the hospitals there were lots of sick kids and adults, lots of malaria and road traffic accidents (RTA). The roads are terrible here and I am not surprised that RTA’s (after malaria and HIV) is the next biggest killer here. I met so many people who had lost family members to a RTA. Yet no one drives carefully, the rules of the road do not seem to apply here. For example I have been in many a scary situation when our driver over took on a bend, I just closed my eyes and hope and prayed for the best (sorry mum!). Thankfully there are not many bends on the roads in the city (and I am back safe & sound as I write this!). The average life expectancy is 53 for women and 56 for men over here, which is incredibly young. Due to this the kids end up bringing up the kids.

We also visited the local people. They lived in mud huts which were amazingly built and very cool in the summer I’m sure. The women looked immaculately dressed with what seemed like ironed clothes, make-up and their hair looking perfect - with no running water or electricity I have no idea how they managed it. There was me with no make-up on, hair a mess and sweat patches everywhere, I felt rather embarrassed for the state of myself! The school children were the same, they had these little school uniforms which were very clean and also looked perfectly ironed. They have this metal iron thing which they put on the fire and iron their clothes on a piece of wood! Only the families with a little money (living in the better mud huts!) could afford to send their children to school so there were always heaps of kids around everywhere we went.

On the way back from one village hospital we were waving to the kids from the ambulance and they all started chasing the ambulance it was so sweet. They are also loving Ruth (the kangaroo), this is Fredie holding her.

 

Can’t believe I have been here almost 4 weeks now, feels like a life time ago I left Perth but has also gone very quick.

Miss you all xx

Village party time

Hi guys

　

 

Well the village went off last night!! Party time African village style!!

We invited a few of the nurses and doctors from the villages to our village resort for dinner. We had asked the owner to prepare some food for them. What we thought would be a few villagers, ended up being what seemed like the entire village! Everyone came, they bought their families and it ended up being about 40-50 people! They all heard the ‘white people’ were throwing a party and all camedown! They also all thought it was a free bar! Even the local nun came for a dance!



Often the language barrier can be difficult, but when you are telling them something they don’t want to hear it becomes even more difficult! We told the bar and the locals that the first drink was free and then they had to pay, however I think I only saw 2-3 people pay all night. They were also ordering drinks and putting it in their bags and taking them home! Thankfully TIA (This I Africa!) and the prices are a lot cheaper than Oz. We ended up with a $300 bill for dinner and drinks for 40-50 people all night, which divided by 4 was not to bad. We had an awesome night too, lots of African dancing and music and lots of laughs, it was well worth it.

The buffet they put on was also heaps better than rice and spinach which we had become accustomed to and with free flowing Savannah dry we couldn’t complain! Awesome night had by allJ

Miss you all xx