It’s so hot here, but It’s surprising how much of a difference it makes to be in the shade. This morning we started our placements. Apparently at TAFCOM the first day is orientation and you’re just supposed to talk about your feelings and stuff, but we wanted to do something right away. The TAFCOM children’s center is closed for the holidays, so we decided to have a day where we could open it and provide entertainment and food for the kids. We went out into the town to try to buy a world map so we could do some geography activities. This wasn’t the brightest idea we’d ever had, because we just wandered into a city we knew nothing about looking for something that’s pretty rare here. Luckily we ran into Edward from Pristine who took us around and helped us to buy one.
In the afternoon we visited a local hospital to hear a lecture about AIDS in Tanzania. It was a large complex with wards for lots of different illnesses. There were lines of old metal beds, no privacy, bars on the windows, and no decorations, but I was glad we didn’t see anything worse than that. There were a good number of patients there, but there were some empty beds too. We were told that when it gets really busy they can have as many as three people in one twin sized bed. This includes the maternity ward, where women are waiting to give birth. The most disturbing part of the hospital was the psych ward. The men were all in one huge room sitting on urine soaked mattresses on the floor with bars on the windows. The group that was considered especially dangerous also had bars on the door, and I don’t know if they had mattresses or not. It was exactly like a jail. We were told this is because when you put objects in the room (such as a bed frame) the patients break them and use the pieces to hurt each other and themselves. The most common diagnosis was schizophrenia.
After the hospital we stopped at a traditional craft market. The stores were in little huts that were separated from the main road by a little bridge. The market mostly sold paintings and wood carvings. After exchanging (the very long) greetings with a shop keeper, she asked me if I spoke Swahili. I was super proud of myself.
In the afternoon we visited a local hospital to hear a lecture about AIDS in Tanzania. It was a large complex with wards for lots of different illnesses. There were lines of old metal beds, no privacy, bars on the windows, and no decorations, but I was glad we didn’t see anything worse than that. There were a good number of patients there, but there were some empty beds too. We were told that when it gets really busy they can have as many as three people in one twin sized bed. This includes the maternity ward, where women are waiting to give birth. The most disturbing part of the hospital was the psych ward. The men were all in one huge room sitting on urine soaked mattresses on the floor with bars on the windows. The group that was considered especially dangerous also had bars on the door, and I don’t know if they had mattresses or not. It was exactly like a jail. We were told this is because when you put objects in the room (such as a bed frame) the patients break them and use the pieces to hurt each other and themselves. The most common diagnosis was schizophrenia.
After the hospital we stopped at a traditional craft market. The stores were in little huts that were separated from the main road by a little bridge. The market mostly sold paintings and wood carvings. After exchanging (the very long) greetings with a shop keeper, she asked me if I spoke Swahili. I was super proud of myself.
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