July 28th, 2011

The hospital is filling back up. But with 7,700 new patients to the clinic/hospital so far this year (they had over 10,000 new patients last year) that’s no surprise!  People come from everywhere, including all the surrounding countries.  I have no doubt that Mango hospital will be busy the minute they open their doors for the first time.  

Here are a couple of random culture/environmental things…

-Everyone carries everything on their head.  The most interesting things I have seen on people’s heads so far include: a crate of chickens, a sewing machine, a huge platter of bras.  It’s cute to watch the toddlers carry around their little buckets, balancing it with one hand.  These kids get really good at it at a young age (hence the reason it seems like 25% of the kids have umbilical hernias and the hospital does lots of inguinal hernia repairs!): I have seen lots of 7 or 8 year olds carrying huge bowls of bananas or bundles of branches through the jungle trails. Guaranteed I am not that strong or that tough! To fill up their huge water bowls (they’ve got to hold a good 12 gallons of water or more) they put it on the ground until it’s about half way full, then with the help of another person they lift it onto their head and then stand under the high faucet until they feel it reach the top of the bowl with their fingertips.  I have yet to see anyone dump all their water. (Amanda, can you imagine how wet we would be with all the laughing that would occur during this endeavor?!)

-All babies and most toddlers are carried around on someone’s back.  A lot of times it’s an older sister carrying a sibling that isn’t much smaller than them- the couple of days I have spent in villages there is at least one girl trying to keep up with the rest of the kids and play games with a baby bouncing around on her back asleep for hours.  It’s neat to watch the process of how they get the kid properly wrapped on their back, and then back off again. Even the kids that come into the clinic too sick to keep their head up somehow manage to make the moves that get themselves from their mom’s back to lap and then back up again. I’m sure these babies are born with an additional reflex that allows them to hold onto their mom with their legs and arms until they are tightly secured. 

-Greetings are very important.  Everyone says hello (bonjour) and asks how you are (como se va), and everyone replies, usually just by repeating the exact same words.  Even when a doctor on call gets an emergency phone call, they take the time to do the proper greeting before they get on with the subject of the crisis.  Do you know how difficult it can be to sincerely say hello and ask how someone is doing before they give you details on the kid seizing on the stretcher next to you?! Haha

-Being here is kind of like going back to the 1700’s.  They dig up all their farmland by hand, and cut everything with machetes.  They haven’t discovered using a scythe (spelling?) yet to make work more efficient.

-The wildlife here is pretty neat.  There are some awesome butterflies- so many different colors, shapes, sizes.  Plenty of other interesting bugs as well, but the abundant supply of ants have seemed to ruin my short-lived fascination in African insects.  Lots of interesting birds.  No big safari animals where I’m at, but there are supposedly some monkeys if I find the time to hike up a nearby mountain.  There is always buzzing and chirping, it sounds really cool at night.

-The climate changes within a two hour drive (about 30 miles) of any direction. Mountainous rainforest to flat grasslands and everything in between.  Because of this, the people and villages are very different wherever you go.