Independence Day

I thought that in honor of yesterday being America's Independence Day, I would write a post about how incredibly lucky I've felt to be an American since being here. (Btw we celebrated by laying out in the sun after rounds and having watermelon-the only "American" food we really have here).

I remember doing a presentation about my last trip to Africa when my dad and I were confronted with the question, "Why should we give money and support to people in Africa when there are so many people suffering in the United States?" At first I was offended and confused, but now I realize I am grateful for that question because it gave me a lot to think about. So I'd like to share some "normal African things" I've seen that even the poorest of the poor in America would scowl at in disapproval.

• A large majority of the patients who pass away in the hospital have died of sepsis. Sepsis. In a hospital.
• The incubator is a wooden box with a light bulb hanging above it.
• Every day children come to play outside our house because they are locked out of their homes until parents come home for work. Their clothes are always a mess.
• I examined a girl at a dental clinic whose mouth was filled with blood because she'd just been hit across the face by a teacher who keeps the students in line.
• The "sterile" linens used in the operating room are reused. They are boiled in a vat of water and then hung outside to dry on the fence where the cows graze.
• Patients wake up during surgery.
• Cheating on your wife is normal. In fact, a few of the doctors we work with that are married have known girlfriends.

On Monday I examine a man who was HIV positive and hadn't yet taken ARVs, was diabetic, and developed gangrene in both feet. They can't amputate because his body probably isn't capable of healing and the gangrene is spreading fast. He asked to be discharged so he could go home and die peacefully.

I've never appreciated the phrase "count your blessings" until I started mission work.There are so many things I take for granted on a daily basis that I would never think of.

On a lighter note, Dr. Britt invited Sarah and I to join her at Migori's only GYM! We had to walk through a sketchy back hallway of a restaurant, down a stairwell and through a doorway with a sheet over it to the one room gym. It smelled horrific. There were free weights, on very scary treadmill, a bike, two exercise balls, and plenty of steps for aerobic class. We paid 100 shillings (that's about $1.20) for a step aerobics class that had us sweating like pigs-it was so fun! But the generator went out before we got to floor exercises and we had to leave because it seemed a little too dangerous to sweat it out in the pitch black.