Med Evac

. I started having pain in my lower right side and it wasn’t going away. It went on for like three or four days and kept getting worse. Finally when I could no longer move without being in pain I called the doctor in Bamako. I explained my symptoms and she said that she wanted me on a bus the next day, this wasn’t possible because of my transportation issues. When I told her I couldn’t make it the next day she said that she didn’t want to call it a medical emergency but I needed to get down to Bamako as soon as possible. This isn’t exactly what you want to hear when you still have a day to wait and then a 12ish hour bus ride ahead of you. So the day of the bus trip I set out at 6:30 and arrive in BKO at about 5. I call Dr. Dawn and even though its Friday and after 5 she is waiting for me at the office. She checks me out and give me some pain killers to make it more bearable. She also schedules appointments for me the next day. Once again even though it is a Saturday she spends the whole day with me going from appointment to appointment. This is where I want to say that she is an amazing Doctor as well as a person to take her day off to cart me around from place to place and always thinking of what is best for me and doing anything she could to make it as comfortable for me as possible. The first place we went to get a ultrasound the doctor wasn’t in so we had to go to the backup place. Now I understand why this wasn’t her first choice of places to go. When we went in to the room there were mosquitoes everywhere and they had me lie on a dirty table with no sheet or paper on it and proceeded to administer the ultrasound. The Doctor was very capable but the facilities weren’t the best. This is were we found out that I had a hernia and that it didn’t need immediate surgery. We then went to another doctor to get another opinion and he agreed that I needed surgery but it wasn’t an emergency. So this is when I knew I was getting medically evacuated. I figured I would go to Washington because another volunteer who had a hernia went there to get her surgery. Also at this point the pain medication was working so I was in virtually no pain. Then it was a waiting game Dr. Dawn had to talk to the heads in Washington to see where I would be evacuated to and that couldn’t happen to Monday. She talked to them on Monday and then on Tuesday night I was on my way to South Africa.

My flight left BKO at 11:30 PM for Dakar. Security is pretty much a joke at the airport. I not sure if it is because I am a Peace Corps volunteer and have a government passport but at all of the airports I was able to fly through security especially in Dakar. I arrived in Dakar at about 1 AM and was told that I couldn’t check in till 430 because my flight didn’t leave till 630, but when I talked with them a little more and showed them my passport then checked me in at 2 and I didn’t have to go through the security screening. So I was at the terminal and slept on the benches for a few hours the whole time being bitten by mosquitoes. The Flight to SA was great. It was not nearly full so I had a few seats to myself so I could lie down and sleep most of the time. Also I was served two meals and they were better then any I have had in Mali. I arrived in SA around 430 PM and breezed through customs and there was a driver there waiting to take me from the airport on Johannesburg to Pretoria where the PC puts up the med evac people at a guesthouse. The guesthouse its really nice and everything is taken care of for us. Every morning we get picked up at the house and taken to the PC office to take care of business or see the doctor if we have to. There are two malls within walking distance of the guesthouse as well as a park/bird sanctuary. The food is amazing. You can get anything here that you could possible want and everyone speaks English. It is weird that there are so many white people that aren’t tourists.
Also while I have been down here I have learned much more about apartheid. There is a very weird dynamic between racial groups here. It seems that people stick with their own races. They live in separate neighborhoods and hang out in separate places. Even when leaving the mall it seems that they don’t leave in the same manor. All the white people have money and have cars while the black people all walk and take public transport. I am used to this from living in Mali but here there is an equal split in the numbers and there still seems to be a great separation. Talking with the other PC people that are here they feel the same way and are almost more comfortable living the life of the black people. Taking the public transportation and walking places. Even the interactions on the street are different. The white people here all speak and Afrikaner language and try to talk to me in that language. Then they speak English when they realize I don’t speak it that or they speak Dutch. All of the white people in the hospital would start talking to me in another language, but the black people would just speak to me in English and were overall nicer. Talking to PC people from SA that have been here a long time they still don’t understand the whole dynamic. It is just a weird situation. It seems that all the black people are working in the service industries and will have a young white manager.
At all times there were at least 7 people in the guest house from the Peace Corps, form all different parts of Africa with all different kinds of injuries or sicknesses. One person came to get her teeth fixed and was only there one week while others will be there for up to 45 days. It was interesting to hear how different things are outside of West Africa. There are places in Africa that get snow and ice at the higher elevations. Now I am on my way back home after a quick two weeks.