There's a first time for everything

Having spent most of my life in California, I’ve become assimilated into the rich and diverse cultures of my communities. I have forgotten what it was like to be an outsider. It was and is an uncomfortable experience to be stared and hollered at while walking down the street and to be asked constantly if I was from China or Japan after introducing myself as an American. According to one of the nurses, I must be a “mixture” (White and Asian) to identify myself as “American”. I’ve realized how much I took for granted: my life back in southern California and my relationships and experiences with friends from various ethnic/socioeconomic backgrounds.

Before coming to Tanzania, I’ve spent a good number of years traveling and volunteering in various underserved communities. I thought I was prepared to face the poor conditions and health disparities in Arusha. But my encounter with patients and the medical staff at Mt Meru left me somewhat speechless. On my first day doing rounds with Ob/Gyn physicians, I’ve watched a deceased patient, who passed away due to infection from an unsafe abortion (dead fetus was left inside the patient for months), being left unattended in a room full of patients waiting to be seen. She was finally taken to the morgue after the doctor examined her body and checked for a final heart beat, with students and patients all in attendance. I was also drawn to another patient: a 13 year old girl was raped and admitted for HIV and syphilis testing. She sat silently with her mother, waiting for test results to come back. I left the ward with the sad haunting faces of the women imbedded in my mind. Their fates seemed so bleak and hopeless.

A few of my firsts:
1. Watched Dr. Lee perform a leg amputation, manually and with a dull saw
2. “Scrubbed in” for two C-sections and then sat in the dark for an hour, waiting for the power to come back on
3. Held a woman’s hand while she sat naked, shaking and crying on the operating table—with physicians and nurses laughing and chatting about music on their cell phones
4. Rocked a baby to sleep after she was delivered, cleaned, and placed in her mother’s blanket
5. Witnessed a mother giving birth by herself, without physicians or nurses assisting
6. Clamped and cut an umbilical cord and delivered a placenta
7. Felt a baby’s head while doing a pelvic exam

Skills to work on:
1. Blood draws
2. Give shots
3. Put in IV lines
4. Suturing
5. Casting
6. Deliver babies
7. Assist in surgeries