Antelopes and Wildebeests and Leopards! Oh My!

So, we've arrived in Namibia, and what a fortiutous start we've had! First of all, our luggage arrived at the same time that we did. That was pretty exciting.
Monday was a national holiday, so we were lucky enough to go on a game drive with friends of the Browns, our hosts. We saw warthogs, ostriches, springbok, wildebeests, a herd of giraffes, and our favorite - the leopard! He is a rescued leopard that is quite friendly and as tame as any wild leopard is able to be. We both took a few (okay, very many) photos, and have attached a few at the end of this post.

Today was our first day at the hospital. We began the day with a tour of the entire hospital, from the Prem unit (i.e. NICU) to the 8th floor, which will be our home for the next 4 weeks. It's hard not to draw parallels between Katatura and Geisinger. The Prem unit had babies as small as 900g on oxy-hoods! One baby was on CPAP. If a baby needs to be intubated, they intubate and then use the NeoPuff to ventilate the baby until transport can arrive to take them to Central hospital, which is not too far away.

The 8th floor is divided into 8A and 8B. For now Tammy is on 8A, which has kids >2y to 13 years, and Sara is on 8B, which has patients less than 2 years old. Both units are full of interesting patients, though they can be a bit confusing - patients do not wear ID bands, nor do their charts stay at their bedsides. Rounds are a bit chaotic in that sense, with sisters (what they call the nurses) providing charts as the team moves from bedside to bedside. Quite a contrast with Epic, our electronic medical record system, and the ease of rounding which it provides.

We spend our mornings on the 8th floor and then afternoons in Katatura's version of Knapper Clinic, seeing walk-ins. Today was quite an introduction; between babies with reflux and kids with asthma we encountered a toddler with possible TB, a girl with developmental delay and a very frustrated family, and a child with a neck abscess. Unlike all the kids I saw on the floor with neck abscesses last month (who got CTs, IV antibiotics, and the occasional I&D), here we presumptively treated my patient with PO antibiotics and had him return to assess for tuberculosis in a week.

It's going to be a long and interesting month. We look forward to sharing more as the month continues. For now, here are those photos!