Medicine without empathy

Yesterday a neighborhood kid threw a rock at our host brother of sorts, Adam. He was hit on the side of the head and it drew blood. In Zanzibar you can not receive treatment for assault injuries or other crime related conditions until you file a police report and receive permission from the police. Zaineb apparently once tried to take someone who has very badly beaten to the hospital only to be turned away and told to go to the police station first for a permission slip.

So Zaineb and Adam had to go the police station and file a report before getting a permission slip to go to the hospital. Luckily it did not seem like Adam was in much pain and there was not very much blood at all. After dinner we all went to the private hospital in town where after a brief wait Adam was treated.

The nurse used a scalpel blade to shave away the hair around the punctures while chatting away about how Zaineb was teaching us to cook and other sundry topics. Meanwhile Adam is crying from the rough job and because he has a huge fear of needles. After the wounds were exposed there was some discussion of stitches as Adam grew more and more hysterical. The nurses never really looked at him or tried to reassure him that needles don't really hurt badly or to try and calm him down. Annie and I held his hand and told him stories of when we'd been afraid of needles and how they really aren't that bad (Annie has may stories in the genre), but we were alone in our efforts.

In the end he did not receive stitches and I don't think he needs them, the wounds are deep but only about the diameter of a no. 2 pencil or smaller. They should close by themselves and be fine if they stay clean.

So much goes into providing high quality medical care and empathy is one facact of high quality care. Probably there is a hierarchy of needs in medical care with technical technique, clean facilities and new needles being more basic then empathy. They had everything but empathy.

Catching a Dalla Dalla in Stone Town

Before we left Indiana I bought a digital audio recorder, a Zoom H2. It has four built-in mikes and makes fairly high quality stereo recordings. We made a recording of the ambient noises in the market while we were waiting for a dalla-dalla ride home to Mbweni from Stone Town. The 509 Dalla-dalla to Chukwani goes through Mbweni, you can here the caller soliciting riders for Chukwani as well as music from the tape seller and other sounds of the lively outdoor market:

http://www.archive.org/details/CatchingADallaDallaInStoneTown

We'll be making more recordings as time passes.