Hospital Visits

By Sara:

While practicing Swahili by reading the book of Ruth in the Bible (in Swahili), Anthony and I came upon our new favorite phrase "usiku wa manane" which means "in the middle of the night" (the time when Boaz woke up and wow! a woman was lying at his feet!).

Part of living at Berea College has, to our surprise, required taking students to the hospital "usiku wa manane".  Obviously, this is not a fun part of our work.  But we thought you might be interested to hear why we are taking students to the hospital and what it is like to be at a hospital here.

When people go to the hospital in the US, it is usually for some extreme reason because, if you get sick with a cold or the flu or have a headache, you probably have some tylanol or cold medicine or something in your cabinet at home (or you can just drive over to the store to buy it).  So you take that, drink some broth, and rest until you get better.  Here, however, most people don't keep any kinds of medicine at home (or have a personal vehicle), so if you get sick and need medicine, you need to go get it somewhere else, which is more work than it would be in the US.

Sometimes, we take students to the hospital for migraines or stomach pain or because they think they might have malaria.  According to the students, one always feels worse lying in bed at night, which is why that's when they usually decide they need to go to the hospital.

When we go to the government hospital, sometimes there isn't a doctor on duty.  Once, I went with a student and we had to wait around while someone searched out a doctor.  Other times, the student decides they want to go to a private clinic (which is more expensive, but usually has a doctor on duty).  Regardless of where you go, the first thing you do is pay the consultation fee.  Then, you wait until a doctor is available.  Then, you go in to see the doctor.  If they decide you need a blood test or injection, they write a note that you need it, you go back to the cashier and pay for it, then wait until you get called to actually get the test done.  After they give some kind of diagnosis, the doctor might prescribe some drugs, which may be available to buy there at the hospital, or we might have to take a detour to a pharmacy on the way home so the student can buy them. (As a side note, you don't actually need a prescription to buy drugs at a pharmacy - you just need to know which ones you need.)  Other students always come along with us and the sick student; those healthy ones take care of paying for different things so the sick student can sit instead of having to go back and forth all over the hospital.

Hospitals are just no fun wherever you are in the world.