Day 19

Hey everyone!!

Sorry for not posting in 6 days!! We haven't had internet since then so I was unable to post. We didn't do much over the last few days, primarily only relaxing after our busy last week. This past weekend we went to 2 different markets to look for different souvenirs and items. The first marketplace was very busy and had many different shops lining the street. Our primary goal at this market was to find cloth. Almost all of the women here wear very colorful cloth wraps as skirts and dresses or wrap their babies in them and tie it around their bodies as carriers. Anyway, these pieces of cloth are so African and so colorful! We have definitely wanted to buy some to bring home with us. I bought this beautiful blue and yellow cloth that I'm going to use as a tapestry for the wall of my room this year. I also bought a large piece with the Zambian soccer logo, and a Zambian soccer jersey.

On Sunday we went to a small marketplace in the shopping center where we always buy our groceries. It was filled with outdoor stalls and many many Zambian and African souvenirs. I've decided that the figurines of hippos are literally the cutest things ever!!! I will definitely be bringing home a few of them! I found several souvenirs that I will be getting for my family, get excited!! :) After walking through the market for several hours, we all went out to lunch and then met up with two other Cornell students that are here for the summer not with the global health program, Will and Chris. Chris is originally from Zambia so he comes home every summer to see his family and work at the hotel his family owns. It was great to see other people from Cornell!

On Monday we met up again with the medical students and began our 3rd week of the community medicine rotation. This week our objective is to analyze 2 different clinics in Lusaka, giving a preliminary community diagnosis of the township surrounding the clinic through the data we collect at the clinics. Upon arrival at the first clinic, Chipata Health Centre, we separated into two groups and began with a tour of the clinic. This clinic was much bigger than the rural clinic where we worked in last week. There was also hundreds of people waiting to be seen, very different from the 15 or so that were waiting at the clinic last week. We found out on the tour that only 1 doctor works at this facility, everyone else are either clinical officers (similar to Physician Assistant's in the US) or nurses. There must have been over 300 people in the waiting area and sitting outside.
My job at the clinic was to draw a complete diagram of the rooms inside, so I  began walking around with Lupia, one of the med students. We drew a rough sketch of all of the buildings and then wandered through all the rooms drawing out what each room was used for. In one small room in the back of the clinic there were about 100 women with infants in a winding line around the room waiting for immunizations. One nurse was at the front of the line immunizing each infant as they reached the front of the line. We talked to the nurse and found out that every Monday is a "Under 5 Immunization" day where all of the women from the villages around that area come in to get their children immunized. I was very impressed, this is what I call a step in the right direction!

The Chipata Health Centre that we were at all day Monday.

Ignoring me in this picture...this is the room for the Under 5 Immunizations.

Glad to see some family planning information out there.

Main door to the clinic.

This was the lab for the clinic. Only one lab technician is on staff and they aren't able to perform some of the most basic lab tests because of lack in supplies. They only have one microscope..for my small biology lab class at Cornell we have around 30 microscopes...discrepancies at it's most obvious.

My group at the Chipata Health Centre.

The front of the clinic.

Being with the med students all the time here has really made me feel like a medical student! I'm pretty sure that everyone thinks that Chris and I are medical students because we are always wearing our white coats and hanging around the other medical students. I'm definitely not complaining though, I love it! Yesterday we met a medical student from Cambridge University in the UK, he was so excited to meet us and I think he just assumed we were also medical students when we said we went to Cornell. He told us that he is on an internal medicine and pediatrics elective for the rest of the summer here, so I'm sure we'll definitely see him around.

In our free time away from the medical school and hospital, we all have been reading a lot, playing cards pretty much every night and going by the grocery store often. We all take turns cooking dinner and doing the dishes. After dinner each night we all tend to sit around the table talking for many hours after that, we call it our "family dinners." 

The rest of this week, Chris and I will be working on researching our case study on lead poisoning more. Tomorrow we are going by the Immigration Office to renew our business visas.

That is all for now!

Jenn