Weekly Reflection

 

It has since been over a week since the first group arrived at Ilula. Over the past week we have attended services, visited patients, and presented at the Ilula International Conference. I spent the first day at the hospital in the outpatient department or OPD working with Dr. Imelda and Dr. Jon. We were able to utilize newer Xray services to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of multiple patients. It is hard to imagine that patients used to have to travel over an hour to Iringa for Xray services. Tuesday morning, I was able to round with Dr. Miriam on the pediatric inpatient unit. On Wednesday we received a Swahili lesson from Joyce. I can now introduce myself, tell others where I am from and utilize common greetings. However, I am still working on counting! On Friday I was able to present on hypertension at the conference. My biggest hope is that I was able to provide useful and practical information that can be utilized to better patient care and patient outcomes. Even more exciting was getting pizza with the Ilula team following the conference! Today, we said goodbye to a few of our team members as they head back to the USA. We will miss them dearly and hope for safe travels back to Minnesota!

Maggie

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