Operating Theater and The Schools

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Day two of classes, and now we are starting to have individual (or smaller group) times in the operating theater, on rounds, at the schools, fixing oxygen concentrators or doing homework… The students in the operating theater this morning were exited to be able to see circumcisions, burn wounds, a woman having her tubes tied, and more circumcisions. Unlike in the US, most babies aren’t circumcised after birth, although one of the procedures the students saw today was on a baby. Instead, many of the procedures (and two that were done today) are on grown men. Recent research has shown that circumcised males have a lower rate of transmission of HIV, and in a country where HIV/AIDS is a major cause of death there has been a push to encourage circumcision of adult males.

Brandi getting ready for the operating theater

 

Caleb and Zak in the operating room. They observed two circumcisions.

Another group of students went to the local (public) primary school which has ~ 400 students enrolled in grades 1 – 9. Two notes on this: 1) The students enjoyed their time with the children, and had fun listening to the lessons, but they reported that one class had 50 students to one teacher (in a lower level class) and another class was left without a teacher (while the teacher was in a meeting) and were asked to work on an assignment. This isn’t terrible in and of itself, but does give an idea of how under-resourced the schools are here. 2) 400 students is a LOT for a little village in the African bush. The Headmaster told us that most of these students live with in a kilometer of the school. There is another, private, school not too far away that serves another 700 students who live within a 10 kilometer radius of the school. This is a HUGE number of children (and you may have noticed that there are many more children in pictures on the blog than adults. This is not just because kids are cute, but there really are many more of them). 

Annie, Keane, Stephne and Emily (and Brandi) at the school.

Annie having fun making funny faces with the school kids.

In class we were talking about population pyramids which represent the number of people who live in a region broken down by age. As you know the US has a big bulge in the population for the baby boomers, and then is relatively steady in population for lower ages (http://www.nationmaster.com/country/us/Age_distribution). In Zambia (http://www.nationmaster.com/country/za/Age_distribution) there is a huge ratio of children to adults, and very few elderly. This means that although there may not be that many adults or household in the African bush, there are LOTS of kids (we are hoping to get to know more of them during our home stays this weekend!).  Unfortunately this pattern of age distribution does not always translate into rapid population growth because the death rate is also very high in sub-Saharan Africa.

Keane being Keane with the kids.

Dan at School with the kids.

Thus we are all here to learn about Healthcare in the developing world! It has been very helpful to see Dr. Thuma’s perspective on the health problems faced by Zambians. We’ve been talking about what we can do to really make a difference in the lives of real people here in Macha. Certainly the 21 students won’t make much of a difference in two weeks on the spread of HIV in Africa. But we can focus on learning about the problems that are faced by people in this situation, and learn about what sorts of approaches have worked to make real change in the past. We can also show love to the people we are meeting and learning from while we are here. There have been many moments spent sharing a smile, showing our care for others, and sharing God’s love with those around us.  

Sunsets are quite the spectacle here!

Thanks to: Evan, Caleb, Preston, Caitlin, and Annie (and maybe others) for the photos today!