Today was my first day on the wards. I was just shadowing another American medical student, but quickly became overwhelmed. I think no amount of preparation or "third world experience" could've prepared me for the smell of disease permeating the hospital. I feel guilty for being able to walk in and walk out, to make jokes, to eat warm food when there is epic suffering going on. But I quite easily do those things, here and in the states. There was a woman with pellagra, niacin deficiency, that we learned about sort of in passing, but that none of the American students and residents have ever seen because all of our food has been fortified. There was a man likely breathing his last breaths in a crowded room with no family around. I saw him, only to be shown what a patient's breathing looks like when they are eminently dying (a teaching point I think is useful, but awful at the same time). Joe had told me that many patients have to share beds, but to see two women wasting away in a small twin bed was horrifying.We met up with the Kenyan student friend of Joe's and co-investigator today. He was wonderful to get to know, showed us his room in the student hostel, and took us out for a coke in downtown Eldoret. He describes being a medical student as a privilege, but acknowledges that many students often forget this fact. I told him it was the same scenario in the U.S. He also gave Joe his only hat, as the mid-day sun on the equator proved a scalp-burning force.
We had dinner with an economics professor from Columbia. He seemed to think that the stimulus package and caps on executive pay were okay, with no net positive or negative. I wished I had any knowledge on the matter.
www.daylife.com/
- Anne
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