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Central African Republic
Central African Republic

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2 travelers at this place

  • Lisa's adventuresNursing in Bangui - CAR
    Day66

    The health education book

     December 1, 2016 in Central African Republic ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    This is my book, it's the basic story, the real one is in French and has questions for the nurse to ask the mothers. The book is about traditional medicine. Here they crush herbs and plants into a paste. They administer it orally, rectal, bathing the child with it or putting it in the skin. Sometimes they inject it which often results in an abscess. Usually the side affects are intoxication, enlarged liver and spleen and sepsis.

    Pg 1: this is Marie and her son God bless, he is two years old. God bless is sick so Marie's neighbours advise her to visit the traditional doctor.

    Pg 2: Marie takes their advice, the traditional doctor gives him something to drink and cuts his arms and puts a paste on them. It really hurts him.

    Pg 3: the next day God bless has a lot of pain in his abdomen, it's very swollen and his arms are also red and sore. Marie is really worried so she takes him to the hospital

    Pg 4: at the hospital the doctor does some tests and finds that God bless has malaria. He need to stay in hospital for a few days to treat his swollen abdomen caused by the traditional medicine

    Pg 5: Marie's younger child is now sick. Her neighbours give her the same advice: to visit the traditional doctor. Marie does not listen

    Pg 6: Marie takes her baby straight to the hospital. She sees the doctor who does some tests. Because Marie came to the hospital quickly Marie can do the treatment at home. It was also free.    Read more

    Wow! Did you draw this pictures?

    12/3/16Reply

    Claudia =)

    12/3/16Reply
     
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  • Lisa's adventuresNursing in Bangui - CAR
    Day8

    Bangui

     October 4, 2016 in Central African Republic ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Today was a reminder of where I am. It started as every other day = wake up at 6am, start at 7:40. Give medication and supplies to nursing staff, follow ward round, understand nothing of what is happening, panic that the job is too hard with the language difficulty, lunch. Teach the nurses to give parcetamol when the child has a fever, give nurses coartem for malaria, then the international pharmacist arrived.

    He waved and said we have to leave, so I went to the staff room to get my bag then all the international staff and a Muslim patient were transported to the clinic (I work at the paediactric complex, the clinic is a 2 min walk from the house). Apparently someone shot a national guard, then, I think, 2 Muslim were shot. I quick backstory: the fighting was between the Seleka – Muslims and the Anti-Balaka the Christian group, it stopped 1 year ago. The body of one of the people who was shot arrived at the hospital (paediatric complex). Apparently the security situation can change quickly here, so we were taken home just in case the fighting came to the hospital.

    Now we are all just chilling at home, drinking beer and trying to connect to the rubbish internet. Tomorrow they will tell us if we can return to work.    Read more

    Wow Lisa, take care buddy and try not to stress too much. You are amazing at what you do! We have faith in you :)

    10/6/16Reply
     
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  • Lisa's adventuresNursing in Bangui - CAR
    Day14

    week 2

     October 10, 2016 in Central African Republic ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    I'm finally getting the hang of it. But it's still challenging. We had a meeting today to reorganize the wards, and I need to change the way we give coartem (malaria med) and reorganize the doctors round, make sure the ward is clean. But I'm not supposed to do anything but tell the nurses what to do, which is hard when I see them already super busy.

    Today was exceptionally busy because the doctors round takes forever but I need 5 free beds. And one patient was imposible to canulate, so I had to ask everyone to try and in the end the orthopaedic surgeon put one in the bone. The kid really needed a blood transfusion. After my meeting I returned to a messy ward . Meds all over the table, beds not clean. And busy nurses. I also need to teach them when I have time. This morning I was able to show someone how to do a v loos pressure so that was good. And other I explained why we threw away the blood that had been out for hours and opened to infection. So small steps.

    I left a list of things to do to the night a
    Shift, it is a nice team on so I have hope that tomorrow i will arrive to a clean ward with clean patients.    Read more

     
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  • Lisa's adventuresNursing in Bangui - CAR
    Day10

    sickness and embarrassment

     October 6, 2016 in Central African Republic ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Yesterday I woke up and ran to the toilet, diarrhoea had arrived. It was inevitable, but earlier than I anticipated. At breakfast I was feeling really nauseous so decided to spent the morning at home. By lunch time I had a fever, headache, fatigue. So I went to the Emergency clinic with the international nurse Stephan. I have a urine sample and the guy who took my blood sample tied the glove so tight on my arm that I could not feel my arm anymore, I started to cry as it was so painful, especially with my headache and general shittyness. Then Stephan came to take me to the consultant room , and saw I was crying. 27 year old nurse crying over a simple needle, good one.

    Urine and blood tests were negative, I still needed to give a stool sample. They started me on an antibiotic and paracetamol. I slept most of the afternoon, and woke up around 6:30 when i decided to have some dinner. I quickly went to the toilet again, managed to perfectly capture my stool sample. Then another wave of nausea hit, this time it felt like it was actually going to turn into vomit. I grabbed the bin, but then I realised I'm not going to vomit, I'm going to faint. I was not going to pass out in a locked bathroom, so I semi-conciously got of the toilet and tried to go outside to get some help. I stacked it on the stairs, apparently i managed to let out a 'help me'. The logistician saw me and asked if I wanted help, I said yes and then fainted.

    I woke up in my bed, with my room full of people. It's a good thing living with doctors, nurses and anaesthetists! They put in a cannula, damn they hurt! It's still in and still hurts! I received 500ml of Hartmanns, for dehydration. They were all really lovely. I told them I managed to get a stool sample, that it was in the bathroom, but apparently it ended up in the garden. A quick test later and I have no parasites, but heaps of bacteria.

    I also stacked it pretty bad so my knee really hurts :( I'm having another day of today. Generally feel better, still have diarrhoea and nausea so I'm trying to eat and drink more.    Read more

     
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  • Lisa's adventuresNursing in Bangui - CAR
    Day27

    One week trapped at home

     October 23, 2016 in Central African Republic ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    I'm so bored.

    We get daily updates about the situation and the security. We are allowed to walk between the two house with a guard, it's only 50m maybe. The community were furious, thinking we practice witchcraft or voodoo. The negative attitudes have also been felt with other NGO's and they have also reduced their curfew.

    It's weird for me as I have not seen much at all. I just get updates of what is going on, but am left in this little bubble of maison B, so its pretty surreal. While walking to the other house one day I heard a passer by say ' je deteste les gens des emergency' which means I hate the people of emergency.

    We have stopped all operations for 1 week now. After about 2 days all the drugs and medical supplies were gone, which means the mums need to go to an external pharmacy to buy everything, and it's not cheap. Imagine if your kid was on amoxicilline IV 4 times a day. You need 4 vials, 4 syringes, 4 diluents, 4 needles. That's just one drug for one day, and assuming the kid already has a cannula. It's challenging for me as more kids might unnecessarily die due to our absence and lack of free supplies. But we can't give them our keys to the cupboard where a few more supplies are because we don't just give out drugs we educate and empower local staff. It's also a method to get the government to appreciate our presence more. - it is also unsafe.

    We had almost all the national staff visit us which was lovely but tiring. They miss us and it was a great show of solidarity. They did almost drink all our beer though :)

    Apparently on Monday the community are having a protest against the U.N. blue helmets. So we are hoping to recommence activities on Wednesday if it calms down back to the general level of dislike.

    At home I have drawn, played guitar, watched movies, hung out with my team, we did a mini salsa night which was fun. Made cakes. But it's also really hard. I feel trapped. The Italians are lovely but rarely switch to English or French when I'm there, so I don't understand anything most of the time. I feel bad asking them to switch, they seem like they are having a great time and I don't like forcing people to speak English when I'm there. Although I need to.

    Also everyone here smokes, I did not expect that at all. So after three weeks now my throat kills this morning. I'm pretty sensitive to it so can't hang out too long. And there are also a few people that smoke weed. I used to be fine being around people smoking weed but now I can't stand it and go to room straight away. I think i partially blame it for turning my lovely caring boyfriend into a selfish arrogant one that came home at 4am every night. Too many bad memories with it. And actually, I've never had a good experience with it.

    Now I have so much time I'm also starting to get a bit stressed again about finding a job after this.

    To top it of the internet is even worse with everyone using it and this morning we don't have any water.

    Please tell me about your lives and the outside world! And if you write a comment, don't forget your name :)    Read more

    Well, that sounds pretty lame. But at the same time I guess expected for where you are. How long are you there for? You can always come be my personal nurse :) Bring lots of IV bags.

    10/23/16Reply

    Love Holly

    10/23/16Reply

    Mark here. I rode Jess' dad's Harley to Katoomba today. My finger were numb and my whole body hurt. It was totally bitchin' riding a Harley into the mountains though. So there's that...

    10/23/16Reply
    6 more comments
     
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  • Lisa's adventuresNursing in Bangui - CAR
    Day42

    3 weeks at home

     November 7, 2016 in Central African Republic ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    I can't believe it's been three weeks already.

    There is still uncertainty. The surgeon's file should be closed soon, and someone from the main office in Milan will visit us on the 21st November to discuss with the relevant local authorities about our continued collaboration, then we should be able to open.

    The security is much better, we can go to the proper swimming pool and to lunch. It's so nice to be outside. I love driving around and looking out the window. Once I saw a guy wearing a beanie! Ridiculous.

    I have a new job now. I'm creating some public health promotion books. I just started today. I sat with two nurse and discussed which diseases they need, and they told me all about them. The first one will be about the use of traditional medicine, it's herbs and plants crushed into a powder or paste, then they either inject it into the muscle, mouth, bum, or cut the child to put it under the skin. This results in pain, enlarged liver and spleen, and sometimes death. I'll take pictures when it's finished. I like drawing and public health so it's a good job for me.

    I decided I'll stick it out. I said I would commit for six months, so I'm going to. Being able to go out makes it so much better, and I'm busy doing other work. I also found two people who like games!! Winning :)

    Mum sent a birthday present with me. .. so tempting to open in. It's a daily challenge to not touch it....    Read more

    Ooo what type of herbs and for what diseases?

    11/8/16Reply

    Love Holly

    11/8/16Reply

    Just open it!

    11/8/16Reply
     
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You might also know this place by the following names:

Central African Republic, Zentralafrikanische Republik, Republik Afrika Teungoh, Sentraal-Afrikaanse Republiek, Afrika Finimfin Man, የመካከለኛው አፍሪካ ሪፐብሊክ, Republica Centroafricana, Middel Affricanisc Cynewīse, جمهورية افريقيا الوسطى, ܩܘܛܢܝܘܬܐ ܕܐܦܪܝܩܐ ܡܨܥܝܬܐ, افريقيا الوسطى, República Centroafricana, Orta Afrika respublikası, Үҙәк Африка Республикаһы, Sentral na Aprikanong Republika, Цэнтральна-Афрыканская Рэспубліка, Централна Африканска Република, सेन्ट्रल अफ़्रीकी गणराज्य, Ripublik Aprika Tangah, Santarafiriki, মধ্য আফ্রিকান প্রজাতন্ত্র, དབུས་ཨ་ཧྥེ་རི་ཁན་རི་པཔ་ལིཀ།, মধ্য আফ্রিকা, Republik Kreizafrikan, Centralno Afrička Republika, Түб Африкын Бүгэдэ Найрамдаха Улас, República Centreafricana, Dṳ̆ng-hĭ Gê̤ṳng-huò-guók, Юккъерчу Африкин Республика, Republikang Sentral Aprikano, کۆماری ئەفریقای ناوەندی, Merkeziy Afrika, Středoafrická republika, Gweriniaeth Canol Affrica, Centralafrikanske Republik, Cumhuriyetê Afrikaya Miyanêne, Centralnoafriska republika, މެދުތެރޭ އެފްރިކާގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, Titina Afrika repɔblik nutome, Κεντρική Αφρικανική Δημοκρατία, Centr-Afrika Respubliko, Kesk Aafrika Vabariik, Afrika Erdiko Errepublika, Repúbrica Centroafricana, جمهوری آفریقای مرکزی, Ndenndaandi Santarafrik, Keski-Afrikan tasavalta, Miðafrikalýðveldið, Centrafrique, Rèpublica centrafriquêna, Sintraal-Afrikaanske Republyk, Poblacht na hAfraice Láir, Merkez Afrika Respublikası, Poblachd Meadhan Afraga, República Africana Central, સેંટ્રલ આફ્રિકન રીપબ્લિક, Pobblaght yn Affrick Veanagh, Jamhuriyar Afirka Ta Tsakiya, Chûng-fî Khiung-fò-koet, Srednjoafrička Republika, הרפובליקה המרכז־אפריקאית, सेंट्रल अफ़्रीकन रिपब्लिक, Repiblik santafrik, Közép-afrikai Köztársaság, Կենտրոնական Աֆրիկյան Հանրապետություն, Republica African Central, Republik Afrika Tengah, Republica Centralafrican, Republika ti Tengnga nga Aprika, Centrafrika, Mið-Afríkulýðveldið, Repubblica Centrafricana, 中央アフリカ共和国, Républik Afrika Tengah, ცენტრალური აფრიკის რესპუბლიკა, Oraylıq Afrika Respublikası, Tagduda n Tefriqt Talemmast, Repubilika ya Afelika ya Kati, Jamhuri ya Afrika ya Kati, Орталық Африка Республикасы, សាធារណរដ្ឋអាហ្វ្រិកកណ្ដាល, ಮಧ್ಯ ಆಫ್ರಿಕಾ ಗಣರಾಜ್ಯ, 중앙 아프리카 공화국, کۆماری ئەفریقای ناوەڕاست, Борбордук-Африка Республикасы, Res publica Africae Mediae, Repuvlika Sentroafrikana, Zentralafrikanesch Republik, Lipubulika eya Senturafiriki, Centraal Afrika, Repubbrica Çentro-Africann-a, Repüblica Centrafricana, Repibiki ya Afríka ya Káti, ສາທາລະນະລັດອັບຟຼິກກາກາງ, کومره ولات افریقا مینجاون, Centrinės Afrikos Respublika, Ditunga dya Afrika wa munkatshi, Centrālāfrikas Republika, 中非, Repoblika Ivon'Afrika, Republik Afrika Tangah, സെന്‍ട്രല്‍ ആഫ്രിക്കന്‍ റിപ്പബ്ലിക്, केंद्रीय अफ्रिकी प्रजासत्ताक, Покшал Африка Республика, Repubblika Afrikana Ċentrali, အလယ်ပိုင်း အာဖရိက ပြည်ထောင်စု, Ripubrikin Aprika Yugaga, Tlācatlahtohcāyōtl Tlahco Africa, Tiong-hui Kiōng-hô-kok, Den sentralafrikanske republikk, Zentraalafrikaansche Republik, केन्द्रीय अफ्रिकी गणतन्त्र, Centraal-Afrikaanse Republiek, Den sentralafrikanske republikken, Sentral Afrikani Republike, Naakaii Łizhinii Bikéyah Beʼałnííʼ, Republica Centraficana, Aafrikaa Giddu Galeessaa, ମଧ୍ୟ ଆଫ୍ରିକୀୟ ଗଣତନ୍ତ୍ର, Централон Африкæйы Республикæ, ਮੱਧ ਅਫਰੀਕੀ ਗਣਰਾਜ, Republika ning Central Aprika, केन्द्रीय अफ्रीका गणराज्य, Sentril Afrekan Repablik, Republika Środkowoafrykańska, Repùblica Sentrafrican-a, مڈلا افریقی لوک راج, د منځنی افريقا ولسمشريزه, República Centro-Africana, Chawpi Aphrika Ripuwlika, Republica Centralafricana, Repubulika ya Santarafurika, Republica Central Africană, ЦАР, Середнёафрицька републіка, Repubulika ya Santara Afurika, केन्द्रीय अफ्रीका गणराज्यम्, Киин Африка Өрөспүүбүлүкэтэ, Tzentràfrica, Ripubblica Centrafricana, Gaska-Afrihká dásseváldi, Ködörösêse tî Bêafrîka, Cėntrėnės Afrėkas Respoblėka, Stredoafrická republika, Srednjeafriška republika, Jamhuuriyadda Afrikada Dhexe, Republika e Afrikës Qendrore, Централна Афричка Република, Umkhatsi we-Afrikha, Zentroalafrikoanske Republik, Centralafrikanska republiken, Strzodkowoafrikańsko Republika, மத்திய ஆப்ரிக்கக் குடியரசு, మధ్యమ ఆఫ్రికా రిపబ్లిక్, Ҷумҳурии Африқои Марказӣ, สาธารณรัฐแอฟริกากลาง, Merkezi Afrika Respublikasy, Republika ng Gitnang Aprika, Lipapilika ʻAfilika Lotoloto, Orta Afrika Cumhuriyeti, Afrika Wale Xikarhi, Үзәк Африка Җөмһүрияте, ئوتتۇرا ئافرىقا جۇمھۇرىيىتى, Центральноафриканська Республіка, وسط افریقی جمہوریہ, Markaziy Afrika Respublikasi, Republica Sentrafricana, Keskafrikan Tazovaldkund, Cộng hòa Trung Phi, Zänoda-Frikop, Republika han Butnga nga Aprika, Réewum Diggu Afrig, Өр Априкин Орн, ცენტრალური აფრიკაშ რესპუბლიკა, צענטראל-אפריקאנישע רעפובליק, Orílẹ́ède Àrin gùngun Áfíríkà, 中非共和國, Cunghfeih Gunghozgoz, Centraol Afrikaonse Republiek, 中非共和国, i-Central African Republic

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