Las Geel

It has been a while since I updated, so I am going to try to recap the past week to week and a half as concisely as possible.

On July 3rd, we had a North American celebration. July 3rd was selected so we could include Canada Day (July 1st) as well for Harrison and Lauren. We actually had quite a crowd of North Americans- Harrison and Lauren- from Canada, Dawn and Randi- the nurses from Chicago, Jim and Becky- couple from Washington here for only 4 days, Robert and Jennifer- doctor and English teacher living in Hargeisa but from California, Scotty, Mark, and Charity- some other Chicago peeps who work with an NGO here. We feasted on American junk food (from a 50 lb. suitcase brought by Dawn and Randi), drank non-alcoholic malted apple beverage (there is no alcohol in Somaliland so they just sell malted non-alcoholic beverages everywhere), and sat on the roof of Edna's hospital.




Our celebration was prematurely aborted when a post-date cesarean section began downstairs. The woman had been induced earlier in the day but with little progress and fetal distress, a c-section began at around 9:45pm. From the appearance of the baby at birth, it had been sitting in meconium for quite a while with its orangeish-yellow stained umbilical cord and nails. Randi and I were the first two downstairs due to the number of people in the hospital and the celebration on the roof. The baby came out not crying, moving, or breathing. The next thirty minutes were spent attempting to resuscitate this little baby girl. For the first time, I bagged a baby. By this time we had most of the North American medical people in the room. This baby went through multiple rounds of CPR and ventilation. People ended up running around to collect the wall suction from another area in the hospital to clear out some of the fluid in the baby's lungs (there is a single deep suction instrument that is transportable for the whole hospital). There is no intubation here. She died.

The following day, July 4th, we had two more babies die (one placental abruption and another IUD with unknown causes). Needless to say, it was a bit of a bad few days.

But, Edna did surprise us with a 4th of July cake. We didn't even know cakes existed here...but apparently she special requested it from the Maan Soor Hotel (Edna has been there everyday because she is vice-president of the Presidential advisory committee which is helping select all the new roles/people/set-up of the new government).

I promise this cake does really say, "Happy 4th of July."

It was a delicious cake (sort of like pound-cake)...especially since desserts are pretty lacking here.

On the 5th, we managed to embarrass half the dinner table by asking about dating in Somaliland. Oops. Randi kept asking Dr. Bashir why he is not married (he is 26 and unmarried without children...not the norm for Somaliland). After prying, she found out that the family of the girl he wanted to marry refused because they were already planning for her to marry someone else. :( Poor Dr. Bashir. Dr. Bashir told us that you can date in Somaliland by going out to dinner. However, a female student informed us the next day that only "bad" girls would do such a thing. To be considered a "good" girl you are not to give your phone number or go on dates with any men. I think we won't ask them about dating anymore.

I don't remember what happened on the 6th??

On July 7th, we went to a small village to work in their monthly clinic. Harrison, Dawn, Randi, and myself went. This was much more of what you might think of when you think of "African-style health care clinics." We basically went through an NGO, arrived at a small cement building, and had a suitcase of medicines provided.

Here is Harrison and Dawn examining a little boy:


It was an interesting experience. It was definitely frustrating in the sense that we made no long term impact. We were able to provide antibiotics for several people with gastroenteritis (bloody diarrhea and vomiting) from drinking unboiled water. However, we were providing no long-term help for the few patients we saw with arthritis, tachycardia, familial deafness, or hypertension. The most we could really do was see each patient and check their vitals and do a basic look-over. We did help a few people in the immediate by providing antibiotics, but really this community needs a long-term sanitation and water purification program to prevent most of the diseases we saw. Definitely a worthwhile experience to have, but makes me appreciate even more the importance of sustainability in global health care programs.

Later in the day, Dawn and I went with Edna to see her other farm. This one actually belongs to her brother. He is fixing up a little house on it and will retire here. We walked around and helped pick beets, onions, mandarins (we've been drinking mandarin juice ever since), and peppers.

Here we are in front of the mandarin tree!


On July 8th, I ate a hard-boiled egg. Eggs are not common here. That was the only important thing about the day.

On July 9th, we went out to lunch at the Ethiopian restaurant with Robert and Jennifer. Here are some baboons that were right outside.



Yesterday, we went to see Somaliland's one tourist attraction- Las Geel. Las Geel literally means "water camels." The site is where two rivers once merged making an ideal watering location for camel herders. These caves hold rock paintings. They think these caves have been around for thousands of years, and it is unknown what was used as the original "paint." It was a bit of a pain to climb around in full length skirts, flip-flops, and a scarf...but nobody fell down a rocky cliff. We actually had the whole place to ourselves...it turns out it was an Islamic holiday that nobody seemed to be celebrating except for the Ministry of Tourism, so we just sort of got free reign.

Las Geel from afar


One of the paintings:
View from the top:



Other than that...I've been helping out with English classes and tutoring individual students. I've also been proctoring exams...and yelling at students for cheating. All of them at the end of their exams write, "Good lucky teacher, Inshallah." I'm training Ibrahim to take over doing all the statistics once I leave...he is so organized compared to everyone else in the hospital, I'm excited he will be keeping the numbers! Still going on rounds most days and helping out around L&D. Dawn, Randi, and I have also been helping Lauren teach some of her neonatal courses. We spent one morning testing all the girls on neonatal resuscitation. Interestingly enough, they seem to have some difficulty determining an accurate heart rate on any baby using a stethoscope...which in turn makes neonatal resuscitation a bit interesting.

And tonight we watched the World Cup!! Viva Espana!