Rural experience, Chikuni

This week I am in a small village called Chikuni, it is about 4 hours from Lusaka, but it took us about 6 hours to reach the Chikuni Mission Hospital. We took a long distance bus (Very good one, European standard) to Monze, where we took taxi to the Monze Mission Hospital, and from there the  hospital driver took us to Chikuni, which is about 30-40km from Monze, dirt roads, see pictures.  The mission hospital in Chikuni is a quite big, but there were not many patients in. In the hospital they have almost everything that they need, x-ray department, operating theatre, maternity and labour and also neonatal intensive care unit and few isolation rooms. There are pharmacy, laboratory, outpatient clinic and walk in clinic. Previously there have been only one doctor but now there is 3 doctors as there are 2 volunteers from France.  In the mornings there are around 6-8 nurses and lots of volunteers, who will do the cleaning, repairs, and cooking etc.

We are staying at a guest house called Mukanzubo and we are the only ones in this house, so we have the place for ourselves, but there are others living in the other houses.  There is running water, warm water in the shower, and no need to use buckets when having a shower, Luxury. Chikuni is a very small village, there isn’t even grocery shop, but there is a hospital, and at least 3 schools and radio station. There are not many cars, there are only dirt roads. Here you can find chickens, cows, donkeys and sheep just walking around.

Tuesday I went with the local hospice to outreach to villages called Namakube and Sintemba , where they have home based care programme for HIV patients.  The hospice has taught locals to be caregivers and how they can help the HIV patients, and the nurse from the hospice makes a visit to the villages once a month to check them up. The patients are gathered around a big tree, where there will be prayers, There is always a health talk to the patients, today there was a talk about safe sex and HIV drugs. Then the nurse talks with the patients, and will have them weight and measure their blood pressure before she will have one to one talk with each one and give some medication if needed.  Today, we visited 2 different places, in the bush, literally you will see from the pictures. I measured blood pressure from the patients and gave the medication that the nurse ordered them to have.  I had such a great time and it was great to hear and see benefits of the programme. We saw there maybe all together 50 patients (age range from 5 to 70 years old) and it took us the whole day, and there were 4 of us working. Typically the nurse does it all alone, which is lots of work, measuring, filling the papers and giving the medication. An American girl called Kimberly came with us to the outreach because she has just working for the hospice and she is going to stay for a year with them working in the home based care programme.  She has been here before working in a school. She was telling me about radio school that they have in here. Radio schools are in the rural area where the children don’t have money to go to school or the school is too far. The children gather around a big tree in the village, where someone had brought radio to and the lessons from normal school is broadcasted to them. I think that is excellent idea, to educate the children when otherwise they wouldn’t be able to get education.

 Out patient department, examination room.

 My room at the guest house.

 Living room at the guest house.

 There were some nice paintings at the guest house.

Ready go to first outreach.

 I know that I have small feet, but the size of this pine cone is huge!!

 The guest house in Chikuni.

 Me at the hospital entrance.

This road was quite good compared to the others.

Tänään (to 8.11) pääsin tekemään paljon uusia asioita ja opin paljon uutta. Oltiin sairaalan järjestämällä mothers and children outreachilla , jossa oli alle 5 v. lapsia ja raskaana olevia naisia. Osa lapsista ja äideistä on HIV positiivisia, joten tämä sopii hyvin mielenterveys- ja päihdetyön harjoitteluun kriisityö osiona vaikka en sitä varsinaisesti tehnyt. Ensimmäisessä kylässä Moonya, olin ensin raskaana olevien naisten luona, jossa mittasin painon, verenpaineen, raskausviikot sekä ensimmäistä kertaa olevilta verinäytteen. Pääsin myös kuuntelemaan sikiön sydän ääniä sekä tunnustelemaan sikiötä. Tämä oli opettavaista, koska Suomessa en pääse tätä tekemään. Sain ottaa näytteitä HIV-pikatestejä varten aikuisilta ja vauvoilta. Täällä ei ole neuvoloita kuin Suomessa, joten vauvat ja lapset tulevat outreacheille rokotettavaksi, joten pääsin myös sitä tekemään. Pistin rokotteita alle 1v. lapsille reiteen sekä annoin suun kautta polio-rokotetta. Olin myös sairaanhoitajan mukana kun hän tarkasti 6 päivää vanhan vauvan, ja kaikki oli kunnossa. Toisessa kylässä Hanamaila, ensin kirjasin ylös lapsien painoja, kasvavatko he normaalista sekä mitä rokotteita heidän kuuluu saada tällä kertaa ja sitten pääsin antamaan rokotteita heille.

 Giving immunizations.

Here I am giving Polio immunization.

Illalla pääsin näkemään perinteistä Tongalaista tanssia (Tonga on yksi Sambian kielistä/heimoista, joka sijaitsee etelä Sambiassa). Jouduin/pääsin itse tanssimaan, kun tanssijat tulivat hakemaan, niin oli pakko mennä, joten nyt osaan hieman Tongalaista tanssia. Valitettavasti tästä tapahtumasta ei ole kuvia, kun ajauduin ihan sattumalta katsomaan tanssia, ja kameraa ei ollut mukana.