Guest blog: Dr Olivia VandeCasteele

Role: A visiting doctor from Belgium

Last year, on the 20th of november, my partner Cédric and I arrived in Berega, to stay there for two months. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9YBOYn10FA&list=UUcGPVMRnWyglSeIJ4sssvQg

Before I came to Berega,  I had just graduated as a General Practitioner and finished a degree in Tropical Medicine. Dr Sion Williams, who had been working here for a year, invited me to come and help in the hospital. 

In the beginning I was working together with Sion on the ward, particularly with women and children. After 2 weeks of adaptation I started working in the out-patient department where the 'clinical officers' examine and treat walk-in patients and decide who will be admitted in the hospital. 

These clinical officers are recruited either from nurse graduates or sometimes directly from secondary education – though often they will first have had to work for some year to find the money for their training. They spend 3 years in Clinical Officer training, which is mostly practical. I tried to learn how they work and tried to teach where appropriate (optimization of their clinical examination, broadening of their knowledge of differential diagnosis and antibiotics,…)

Although there were times when Sion and Abdallah had been the only medical staff here, during my stay we were working in the hospital with 3 European doctors, 2 Tanzanian doctors and 5 clinical officers! All the doctors and nurses are given a house on the compound . We were living with ‘the Europeans’ in a big house, with a huge kitchen and living room and several sleeping rooms:

In the evening we could go for a beer in the ‘pub’ – a small  hut in the village with an awning and chairs outside, that last year at last acquired electricity and a fridge!

Check out:

http://youtu.be/7XLrmd-qAGg

We bought our food in the little stalls in the village:

or at the weekly Monday market:

At weekends we rested, visited Morogoro and explored the surroundings of Berega. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDGP2GJRWuA&list=UUcGPVMRnWyglSeIJ4sssvQg

We were invited to a Christmas party at the orphanage, with a great meal and a lovely performance of African singing and dancing. (The hospital has its own orphanage ...) On the evening before Christmas we cooked our own meal and celebrated together at home.  On Christmas we were invited to join celebrations in the village.

Cédric, my partner, signed up to do some community work. He works as a chef, and taught children at the local school how to bake during their summer break. He gave driving lessons to local women in the village. He also worked with a charity in the village called ‘Hands for Africa’by trying to make soap from local products, produced on the farm, and by visiting families in the village in order to give the children a chance to get a scholarship at the local English language school.

It was difficult to leave Berega. Sometimes I feel guilty that I only stayed for 2 months, that I didn’t do more for the village. You could work here forever, because it feels like they will always need doctors. And you need to get to know them. 

If you read this and you are planning to go there, I truly advise you to do so!!