Outreach Clinic at Donnybrook

Today was a great day. We started back at the hospital where Meredith and Candice spent some time observing in the Pediatric ward and Jill spent some time in the High Care ward, which is similar to an ICU in the States. The pediatric unit was crowded with sick children and some parents there as well. They have a burn unit where four children were. Three of the four children were awaiting transfer to Edendale Hospital for skin grafts, however, due to the impact of the strike at Edendale and surrounding areas, they have been unable to transfer the children and were not sure when they would be able to. They played with the children who could and just provided some human touch to others who were orphaned. They were both moved by the time they spent with the children.

Jill was on a High Care ward that had the sickest patients in the hospital. It was interesting to compare this ward to a high care ward at home, seeing that this ward had no telemetry monitoring system, didn't have oxygen set up at every bedside and didn't even have IV pumps. What they did have was a dedicated staff that worked hard to care for their patients.

After spending time here, we took off with our new friends, Mr. Zuma and Cresentia and set out for a different outreach clinic, this one a little closer at Donnybrook. Today was cold and rainy and the clinic site was in an old building on the grounds of a Catholic monastery. This clinic was less established than the previous one, and we were collected vital signs and weights for over 53 clients. We started to pick up some Zulu (nearly every patient is only Zulu speaking) and had fun trying to speak with the clients. We were again amazed with the relationships Mr. Zuma had made with these clients and watched as he brought a quiet room to life with his charismatic personality. After a long day seeing patients and distributing medication we headed back to the B&B.

After a cold and rainy day we were elated to see a fire burning strong. We changed into warmer clothes, made some tea and settled by the fire to discuss the day. Then we were treated to another amazing dinner, put on by the B&B staff. We went to sleep excited for our final day in Creighton.

Jill