First impressions
Tonga soa, welcome!
My name is Lisa and I am gynecologist currently spending a few months in
Madagaskar to volunteer in a small clinic in Ambovo with an organization called
Mobile Hilfe Madagaskar. I have a
wonderful team and a kind boss I work with at the Donauklinik Neu-Ulm that have
enabled me to take some time off from my job to do this project. For more
information on the organization and
the work that is done here you can visit the website and their facebook
profle here:
It
has been a wish for a while to do such a project and so I will try to share a
little piece of my experience here from time to time. I work with local midwives and some general doctors as
well as other volunteers to take care of the patients that come here. My main job is in the obstetric department, acting
as a guide to the midwives, being present at critical phases of the birthing
process and indicating when a c-section is necessary round the clock in
collaboration with the program director and midwife Tanja Hock. Another part of my time here will be spent
doing teaching. Today for an example I
spent my morning doing antenatal care and teaching local doctors to do ultrasounds
in early pregnancy for determining the pregnancy age. The first case was a great teaching
experience, twins in the 12th week!
So my two students each had an opportunity to measure the different
parameters on one baby each while I explained basics of ultrasound and how to
optimize measurements. The first
c-section this week I had the opportunity to do with a fellow colleague who is
here for one more week. The world is
indeed a small place, we studied together in Ulm beginning in 2008! Everything went well and mom Voahirana and
baby Tojo weighing just 2120g are healthy.
Those of you thinking oh my goodness how small, I can assure you that though
small, most of the babies born here are not very big. For my collegues, we don’t use Viewpoint here
but I guess they would all be well under the 5th percentile.
I am
living in a residence just across the street from the hospital called Villa
Kunterbunt. Any of you familiar with Pippi Longstocking may recall this is the
name given to the house Villa Villekulla that she shares with a horse and Mr.
Nilson, a monkey. My room assignment
shares the name with the monkey 😊. We are currently 11
volunteers working in different areas as midwives, doctors, social workers, and
mechanics. In the evenings we sit
together and have dinner. Lunches during the week are cooked by staff at the
hospital over an open fire and consists always of rice plus variations of
vegetable and meat. I am looking forward
to the time here and am just getting into the swing of things. Until then here are some impressions from the
beginning. Enjoy!
On my way to work with the hospital in the background
Impressions in Antananarivo
Work and play
Bird of paradise
Rice field around the clinic
Aeriel view over Madagaskar
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