First day at Haydom

On Sunday morning Henrik and I were lucky enough to get a ride in the public landcruiser from Arusha to Haydom, without buying a ticket in advance. But that also meant that we only got one spot each in the back row (you can buy more spots for more room) so we were four adults and one baby sitting in a tight three-peoples bench, with the roof so low that Henrik didn't get to stretch out his neck properly for six hours. But it was a very exciting trip! Over rivers, mountains and muddy dirt roads, we actually got stuck once, which was a little nerve-wrecking, because the car was in danger of tipping over. But we made it!

Today we had our first official day at Haydom Lutheran Hospital, so my room mate and physical therapy mentor from Belgium gave us the grand tour, Lynn, awesome girl! It took all day, because there was so much to see, and we were very thorough.

I consider myself kind of tough when it comes to seeing things difficult for us from the western world to understand, having been in a refugee camp for a longer time of period and meeting people with such sad stories. But today I was having a bit of a hard time.

You can prepare yourself as much as possible mentally, but it's still not the same as seeing it in real life. When I met a mother and her child freshly burned on their entire under-extremities today I had to work extremely much with myself to not faint or puke. They had been bandaged, and were laying in a bed together, you could see the blood and tissue through the bandages. The mother was speaking with the physical therapist very calmly, but obviously in extreme pain, while the baby lie lifelessly still resting. The sight together with the distinct smell had a physical effect on me. But this is something I will have to work with, because I wish to learn how to treat burn patients as well, and hopefully I won't react any more now that I have seen it.

Later Lynn took us food shopping in Haydom, which was great! Because we were able to find peanut butter to have with the bananas. You see there are no stores here... only small shops where they have the very basic stuff that has been transported from Arusha, 260 km away. So you have to pay a little extra because of the transportation.

(Lynn)

I'll end this post by saying we are extremely excited to get started with our practical, and learn more, because there is obviously so much to learn from what we have seen today!

- Shandell