Mo Fire!

Bushfire is a much anticipated event every year. This is not only because of the great music that comes through Swaziland, but all the fresh faces, both known and unknown, that it brings. Each year, the ex-pat spare beds, couches and floors are full of friends/acquaintances from Mozambique, South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, etc. This year we hosted some of our Baylor colleagues from Lesotho. The concert itself only seems to be gaining in popularity. This year the line-up included the Parlotones, Freshly Ground, Lira, the Black Jacks, and, of course, Swazi's own Bholoja. This year I think I was so busy enjoying people and music that I forgot to take many pictures. I only have a few random pictures. Including a great one of Tini and our friend Shaun, who is doing a fulbright and volunteering for an organization called Young Heroes. Young Heroes was the recipient of some of the funds raised by Bushfire. It is a program operated by the country's National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDs (NERCHA) that supports orphaned and vulnerable children in the community with food, clothing, school fees, etc. It is a great program. Here is the web address if you are interested in learning more or donating: http://www.youngheroes.org.sz/.

All weekend they were selling these light up devil's ears. I love this picture...if only it were not blurry.
And that's all the pictures I have that are worth posting. I am still hoping to get a picture of the RFM contingent, Matt, Pinkett and myself. We had scheduled a clinic "meeting" Saturday evening. As I am sure you can guess it was quite productive. We finally concluded the meeting at the late night dance party in the crop circle created in the sugar cane fields.

I did have a pretty unforgettable experience unrelated to the concert on Saturday night. As Garrett and I were leaving the drinks tent, a woman grabbed my arm and said, "you're a doctor, right?" When I responded yes, she said, "you saved my baby's life last year in Hlatikhulu". I was speechless, but as she went on to explain the story it all came back to me. I was filling in for one of the other doctors in our satellite clinic, which is in a fairly rural area of Swaziland. I had just finished rounding on the children admitted in the hospital, when the nurses asked me if I could see a sick child who had just been admitted a few hours earlier. I got the history from mother of green vomiting (a not good sign of obstruction) for a day or so. When I examined the child, his abdomen was very distended and tense worrying me for a surgical issue. Upon further examination he had a large mass in his scrotal region. When asked, Mom said this had been there off and on since he was born, but had not gone down for the last couple of days. As you have all probably guessed without a doctor's training, the child had a congenital inguinal hernia. The problems though were caused because his bowel was caught in the hernia. This was causing his bowels to be obstructed, but more importantly was cutting off blood supply to his bowel, which could lead to death of the bowel. This is a surgical emergency. When I realized this, I called the doctor, who was actually supposed to be covering the ward, and explained that this baby needed surgery. The only option was to transfer the child to Mbabane government so the doctor came and completed the transfer. So in truth, I did not save the child. In fact, I did none of the work. I did not actually transfer the child or perform the surgery, but it felt pretty amazing to realize this mom truly believed I had. I have been thanked by patients before, but it was a whole different feeling to receive such positive feedback at a moment I was least expecting it. Based on Garrett's response to this event, I also realized that this might be ingenious pick-up strategy. I am still working on the details of how to plant seemingly random people throughout my life so they can pop out at opportune times to spout my virtues.

Swaziland expats spend 50 weeks a year waiting impatiently for bushfire to come again. By Sunday night, though, we have all realized it is good it is only once a year since we will need about 51 weeks to recover. I am not sure we could handle that much excitement in Swaziland all the time!