Today was the last day of monthly visits (until next month that is) for the incidence study. I went to help in the lab today, which was good because it was just me and Tolo (which meant I got to do more too). I labeled slides and filter papers, handed Tolo the supplies, made the thick smear and put the slides away. We were done pretty early though, but 1:30 or 11am because there were fewer kids scheduled for the last day. So Dembele took us on a tour of the hospital. Here the design seems to be that all the different departments are in separate buildings. First we went to the maternity center where women can get prenatal counseling from a “feme sage” and where they deliver about 15-20 babies per month. C-sections however must be delivered in the surgery center (we didn’t go in there though). For women who deliver by c-section there is a building for them to recover in and we met one such women who had delivered 9 days before but couldn’t leave yet because the baby was still too small (he was delivered prematurely because her membranes ruptured). After that we went into the main hospital where they had a few cases. We saw one elderly man who was there for severe anemia and had received 2 transfusions (when someone needs a transfusion there family is brought in to see who is a matching donor). We also saw two boys with viper bites. It was very sad because the younger boy (maybe 3 or 4 years old) had been taken to a traditional medicine doctor first and his parents waited 3 days before bringing him into the hospital, so the necrosis had set in and flies had lain eggs in the wound. I managed to embarrass myself by having a precipitous drop in blood pressure while we were watching them treat the wound (though I don’t think it was watching that bothered me so much as the little boys agonized screams. No one was comforting him and I wanted to hold him, but I wasn’t sure if that would be ok). Dembele took me back to the clinic and made me sit and take my blood pressure (I felt much better after walking outside) and it took me a bit to convince him that my blood pressure is normally low (he measured it at 96/60). After that we headed back to the house for lunch.
After lunch Badry told use to take it easy and hang out at the house because it’s Sunday and we should take at least a little break. We arranged to meet Tolo at 5pm to go for a walk around the town. Tolo came by to meet use and we walked over to meet Dembele. We walked though the residential parts of the town, we met a Fulani family (a different tribe distinguished by the fact that they live in reed huts instead of mud brick houses). We also went and checked out a new fancy hotel run by a Burkina woman (it was defiantly a fancy place; it had a restaurant, a conference room, a pool (quite a surprise), mini golf and even a pet tortoise. She gave us the grand tour. We continued on our way and even came across a wedding party (fête de marriage) and we watched the women dance for a bit. We continued into the commercial part of town and stopped by a few shops; one where apparently the “young people” by clothes (though I haven’t seen any girls here in the crazy night club ware being sold there), and another to by more credit for our phones. We also purchased a fruit that caught Liz’s attention from a woman selling them on the street (we tried it later and it was very bitter, though very interesting). We walked through almost the whole town except the administrative center. After walking through it all I guess I can agree that this is a city (albeit a small one, maybe the size of Annapolis proper).
We returned to the house as it was getting dark and commenced eating dinner (I was pretty hungry). Afterwards we taught Tolo and Dembele how to play Egyptian rat screw (if you don’t know the game don’t worry) and they picked it up pretty quick, though Tolo was an over eager slapper so it’s good we weren’t playing with penalties. We didn’t even finish a whole game (it wound up becoming rather long) before we were pooped and went to bed.
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