January has really been a busy time for us hosting visitors from Lubumbashi and Johannesburg. To start with, we had the Mikesell's with us for a week. He is a retired maxio-facial surgeon and is currently serving as the mission doctor. He and his wife came to Bujumbura to evaluate hospitals and clinics here and in Uvira so as to better know where to send a missionary or member of the Church should there be a medical problem. We spent the week of January 10th to January 17th with the Mikesell's, looking around the medical facilities and trying to get a sense of where the care is better.
These next 5 photos are of the University Hospital here in Bujumbura. Notice the crack in this wall goes all of the way through to the outside!
This kind of looks like a bandaid keeping the wall together! I don't think it's working! In reality it's probably something to measure the movement in this crack.
This room is the ultra-sound room.
Here you are looking down at an expansion joint which has definitely expanded! You can see through to the floor below. This joint also has opened up going up the wall.
This hospital is the best equipped one that we saw, having the most recent models of medical equipment. There is no CAT scan or MRI in Bujumbura or Uvira. Medical equipment is scarce, as is the personnel who know how to use it. So many needs here!
We looked at 6 hospitals/clinics in Bujumbura over a 2 1/2 day period. Then we took a 1 1/2 hour trip up the Ruzizi. The day was overcast and we saw very few hippos. The guide said it was too cold for them to come out of the water.
This hippo was in the water, and we scared him with our boat motor so he beelined for the shore and took off into the bushes.
This is a group of weaver birds and their nests. The nests are like little baskets that hang on the tree. The birds themselves are so colorful!
On Thursday, the 15th, we headed for Uvira to check out their medical facilities. On the road to Uvira again!
Here we are walking through one of the wards at the general hospital in Uvira, Congo.
The picture above and the picture below are where the families of the patients stay while their loved one is in the hospital. It's like camping out with a tin roof overhead.
The larger hospitals are usually compounds of several smaller buildings. Goats and chickens are usually seen on the premises.
These next 2 shots are of a smaller hospital in Uvira. Still goats and laundry in the yard.
We have basically decided that Burundi is not the place to be if you plan on being ill or are having a baby. At several of the clinics we visited, should you need a caesarian you can count on your nurse to do it for you. Why not, right?
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