Today was very slow at the clinic today because of the rain.
We are in the rainy season right now so it rains almost every night but this
was the first time it rained during the day since I’ve been here. The lab tech
Mr. Timotay asked me if I wanted to watch him do tests so I went around the
wards and watched him draw blood from different patients. It’s a little more
aggressive than I’m used to because they collect blood from the vein in the
hand. The lab is a small room no bigger than 10x8. He sits at a table against
the far wall and pricks the patients one by one and puts their blood on a glass
sample and piece of paper that he later uses to figure out HB level. Mr.
Timotay puts the blood stained paper behind a color wheel to decide which level
the patient is at. They also use a hematocrit centrifuge machine to test if the
patient is pregnant or for malaria. A majority of the patients were coming in
for malaria testing I believe. On the window side there is a long table where
the lab assistant works recording results and analyzing the blood through a
microscope. The blood is cleaned in a sink with a special dye then wiped with
the same gauze pad. There is a wooden box with a light bulb that flashes a bit
to dry and clean the glass slides. I left the clinic around 2 but before I
could make it home about 15 school kids were asking me to give them my watch,
shoes, backpack, water bottle, and everything else. Madame Esther told me that
these kids don’t actually want anything you have they just like that a white
person gave it to them. The rest of the day I just recorded my observations
from the clinic and took a nap. The doxy gives me a constant dull headache so I
can’t wait until I can stop taking these.
XOXO
Natalie
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