Day 2 in the Phlebotomy Lab

Sophie and I ran the entire lab yesterday with another Tanzanian intern named Hussan. I guess they weren’t joking when they said we would be doing it by ourselves! We went to the lab an hour early to make sure everything was set up, and good thing we did because we had to go all over the hospital to restock our supplies before patients showed up. After organizing our supplies, Sophie and I started taking blood. It was a really tough day though…about every third person had small veins that were almost impossible to find. It’s very difficult to find veins on dark, dehydrated skin. Good practice for us though. We also started to get more comfortable with some of the tests like malaria, blood glucose levels, HIV, full blood pictures, and who to give them to afterwards. I would say the majority of test are for CD4+ which is an indicator of HIV and AIDS and for malaria. Oh, and I drew blood from an inmate while the security guard was waiting at the door. He thought Sophie and I were pretty entertaining but I tried to keep my distance…what a scary looking man! Meanwhile, the line was starting to build outside, as it always does between 11am and 6pm. The nurses were sad to see us leave yesterday and I think they really need our help so we are thinking about working a double today. It’s a good feeling to know you are actually needed and appreciated at the hospital. 

 Drawing Blood :D

After the hospital, six of us went to an orphanage in the afternoon to plant trees with the kiddos. They were singing and dancing in a circle as we pulled up… “teacher is a police man, teacher is a police man. Open the door and get inside.” That song is still stuck in my head! The kids loved our company and hung all over us like monkeys. It was also very sad to see the conditions they were living in. Very small rooms with absolutely no mattresses or anything to sleep on. They had one soccer ball that looked like it was from the 1800’s and who knows if they had a change of clothes L It really broke my heart. You just feel for those little kiddos and wish you could do more to help. Hopefully we’ll be able to visit them again sometime in the next couple of weeks. 

Two of my favorite little babes from the Orphanage

Just Singin' and Dancin' away. What cuties!

 

That’s all for now folks. We are about to take on this raining morning with more stories from the hospital. Have a wonderful day (I guess night of sleep in America right now) Cheers from the other side of the world! Xoxo

P.S. I’ll add more pictures this afternoon.