Our Time Was Short, But Will Stay With Us Forever - Farewell, Mongu!

Wow!...

It's hard to believe that the end is already here! Today was bittersweet... we said good-bye to many of the Zambian colleagues we have grown to love and HELLO to the last day of a four year journey. That's right folks... WE ARE OFFICIALLY BSN GRADUATES (cap, gowns, and degrees coming June 9th)!!!!!

Jumping for joy as we complete the final day of our nursing degree!

This week was an amazing way to end our adventure. I (Maggie) spent the week at Sefula Clinic, a rural clinic that provides essential services to approximately 10,000 people living on the Southern outskirts of Mongu. During the week I worked in their OPD (the first point of contact where each patient describes their chief complaint, has vital signs taken, and is triaged), malaria and HIV screening rooms (tests are done on every patient), family planning clinic, and the ART clinic. I also assisted the physician with clinical examinations. Precious, one of the amazing nurses at Sefula who has stolen all of our hearts, also made sure to include us whenever there was anything happening in the labour and delivery ward. We were able to welcome one little man into this world just moments after he was born in the car on route to the clinic. We also had the chance to palpate fetal position and listen with a fetoscope for fetal heart rates. Last week Erin described some of the challenges that Sefula Clinic have to face, particularly the lack of running water. Despite these challenges, I was blown away by the care that the staff at Sefula provide to each and every patient. THANK-YOU for sharing your knowledge with me Sefula staff!!!!

I (Erin) spent most of my final week back in the operating theatre. On Monday, I worked alongside others to clean the operating rooms. As I cleaned and wiped dried blood off the operating tables, I found myself thinking about the patients who previously had lay there. What was their story - why were they there?... Did they recover okay?... What burden did this surgery place upon their families?... I took a few silent moments to honour and provide well wishes to those who trusted their lives with the surgeon, anesthetist, and operating room nurses.... As the week  progressed I was able to assist my Zambian colleagues with implementing a new Surgical Safety Checklist. Throughout the various surgeries, it was great to see the nurses taking the initiative to start the checklists!!! I also was asked to be the scrub nurse during a few cases (one was an emergency!). I was surprised at how flexible the surgeons are here in Mongu. If they asked me for a surgical tool, and I did not have it on my field they would politely ask me to chose something that may work. In addition, they were very patient when I would have difficulty understanding their accents (sorry!)...

Our favourite day this week was Thursday. We both joined the group and travelled to an outreach clinic about one hour via bus outside of Mongu. This was our final day of the research data collection we have been doing, and over sixty participants were sitting in the sand awaiting our arrival!...Part way through the day, we were both asked to assist Alexa & Kristen hand out Days For Girls https://www.daysforgirls.org/ kits to a local grade 8/9 class. Along with the kits we provided teaching about reproductive health including: anatomy, hygiene, menstruation, and contraception. Although these are sensitive topics not commonly mentioned, and the girls were extremely shy at first, you could tell they were genuinely interested. We also answered questions they had such as "what is HIV?". We found this particular question surprising... In our minds, we assumed girls of this age-group who may potentially be sexually active would be well informed about HIV. Especially because the infection rate is very high in Zambia compared to back home. Sharing this information with them was a privilege for us because it is such an important topic!!... BUT, one of the best parts of our time with the class, was the cheer we sang as a group at the end. Our classmates had previously led a Days for Girls teaching session the prior week, where the cheer was well received. We figured it would be great to keep it going... You can picture the unity and strength of many young women yelling... "We are Women... We are STRONG... It's OKAY to say NO!... And we will ALWAYS PROTECT OURSELVES!!!'... followed by cheers of excitement, high fives, and fist pumps into the air! - click on the link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCqZZiVLG58&feature=youtu.be), or "play" on the video below to see!

Thanks to everyone who has followed us along our incredible journey in Mongu. There have been too many amazing and impacting moments to write about, but we look forward to sharing more with you in person when we are back in Canada! To our Zambian colleagues, thank you for spending the time to teach and assist us with our growth as nurses. We will remember how you graciously welcomed us in all settings. And to the Lewanika School of Nursing Students, thank you for working alongside us, becoming our friends, and showing us the flood plains!

Until then,

Erin and Maggie

On the road out of Mongu - farewell!