Nigeria

The first week of August Gelane, Andres (2 other PAC doctors) and I went to Nigeria with Hospitals for Humanity (a US based NGO which conducts medical missions in Nigeria and Haiti).  It was an eye opening experience.  Nigeria is the largest country in Africa with over 150 million people, quite a contrast to Botswana with only 1.8 million.  We were in Lagos and working primarily with the community of Makoko (a water based community where people live in the water in raised "houses."  We stayed in a hotel and security was very tight.

Security at the hotel was a bit different than what we are used to back home in Bots (our security guard in Botswana carries a cattle prod).  Armed guards came with us each morning in our van, though I think a lot of that was to make us feel better since we did not witness any altercations of any kind.

  

Each morning our van was escorted by the traffic cops (Lastma) this was mostly to help us get through the unbelievable stand-still traffic.  These guys were pros, riding motorcycles while looking backwards and weaving in and out of traffic to clear the way for us.

We were working with the local state government which organizes medical missions throughout Lagos.  So we got the chance to work with several Nigerian doctors (mostly those who had recently finished medical school and hadn't yet done a residency).  But they were very good at their jobs. Our "clinic" for the week was the local primary school.  We had no place for labs or other tests, only our clinical judgments were used! Each day the patients waited under tents until their number was called.  Over the course of the week we saw around 10,000 patients (between the eye screen, mobile dental truck, and medical doctors)!

Wonder what the school looked like before the renovation, scary thought.













 

One day the door to our classroom was locked and no one could find the key so one of the workers removed a pane of class and helped one of the children who was waiting to be seen climb through and come around to open the door

Gelane was a local TV celebrity as she was interviewed by the local news crews who came to report on the medical mission being carried out

Gelane and an adorable baby!

The best slogan ever!  It was on all their porta-potties and their truck which carted them around the city.

Learning the Nigerian dance steps at the BBQ following the week long mission.  My teacher (one of the local doctors) then asked me to teach her the traditional American dance, but I was not really sure what that was.  I explained that we don't really have one, do we?

Five children sharing the one drink which was left over after the BBQ.  No complaining or pushing occurred they all just shared it and were so happy to have it.

The whole Hospitals for Humanity group, mostly from the US, but there was a Nigerian doctor and nurse from the Northern part of the country where missions have been conducted before.

After the mission with the Lagos State Department of Health was over, we went to the water community where most of the people we had worked with during the week came from.  There were heavy rains that day (the only day it really rained was of course the one we were planning to spend on the water, despite the weather people saying >80% chance of rain for every day of the week!) The roads around the dock area were flooded.  Most people just drove right on through it, though it did cause problems for at least one car we witnessed.
The water community was like nothing I have ever seen.  Here is a video (I hope) of the trip back from the "school" where we saw patients.  I put school in quotes because it was a sorry excuse for a school, everything was broken, it was incredibly dark and every time people walked on the second floor dust flew on those of us seeing patients on the first floor, not a good place to learn...

There are so many more photos so here is the slideshow of the best 240 of them, including a few more videos ;)