Introduction and Traveling
Finally. Finally I am at Mbabane, Swaziland. After spending a day here, my life in America and what I have done in the recent past—my trip here, my week of little sleep (in order to finish my project)—seem far away and long ago. Swaziland is real; America, a dream. I think it is appropriate to start from the beginning, but I must warn whoever reading this that I am writing a blog for the first time.
I am on a ten-week internship in Africa. I will be spending 5 weeks in Mbabane, Swaziland to work in the BIPAI Center of Excellence and another 5 weeks at St.Gabriel’s Hospital in Malawi. My travel companion, Elizabeth or better known as Z, and I have brought with us three projects that we hope to introduce, implement, analyze and improve upon during our stay. One is what I have been working on in the past year: a neonatal jaundice phototherapy device, or for short, the bili-lights. The nickname fits because the device uses blue 470nm light from LEDs to breakdown the excess buildup of bilirubin in newborns’ blood. The bilirubin–a yellow component of hemoglobin decomposition–is the cause of the yellowing of skin in infants, a condition known as jaundice. If this fairly common condition is left untreated, kids will develop hearing loss and mental disabilities. I am hoping that the two 60-dollar models (compared to the current devices averaging over a few thousands a piece) I brought to Swaziland will find a need and true use here. The other two projects are the Diagnostic Lab-in-a-Backpack and its spin-off, the Community Health Worker Screening Kit (CHW kit). Both use backpacks to organize and store medical equipments traveling doctors need on their outreach trips to easily assess an individual’s health. The former provides doctors with helpful diagnostic tools–such as urine dipstick strips, a microscope and centrifuge—that are backed up by a solar-charged battery system. The latter is a backpack to support community health workers in basic checkup and assessment of local primary health.
The bili-lights, compounded by the fact that we have no access to the internet at our guesthouse, are the reason why I am blogging this late. Last week, before I left on Saturday, I made about twenty bili-lights that will travel with a few summer interns and myself to be tested across the Atlantic Ocean from Haiti to Malawi. I have gotten at most four hours of sleep these past few days, including the plane ride here, so I can’t wait to catch up on some solid rest in Mbabane. Despite my current state of sleepiness and the ominous pouring Houston rain on the day we left, our trip so far has been blissfully smooth and fun. We enjoyed a wonderful 12-hour layover in London that gave us ample time to take an impromptu walk around the famous city. Armed with only a map, our group of eight interns to Africa (we were together until South Africa) rode the subway that took us from Heathrow to the heart of London. Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and the Parliament stunned me with their intricate beauty and the heavy weight of history filled with blood, wars, and glory. However, it is the little things I noticed that fascinated me. There is a distinctive modern air of freedom in the city, seen immediately in its people, in their edgier, if not sometimes downright outrageous, fashion. Within a few minutes of strolling down the street, we saw a lady biking in her bra—definitely confirmed by the lacy and intimate design. Yet, a deep sense of classic activity untainted by the droll of television or the smog of cars was infused to the city. Bikes were a common type of transportation but so were roller skates, as I witnessed for the first time. Lush green parks popped up randomly in between blocks with couples and families settling busily in the shade, reading newspapers or sharing food beside the type of classic picnic baskets I have only seen in movies. (Picnic baskets rather than coolers!)
What made the plane trip truly light on my heart was that our luggage arrived safely with us to each transfer point; i.e. we landed in Swaziland with all our bags. (Luggage is renowned to be lost during inter-African airline transfers.) My luggage bag did have a suspicious tear at the bottom when I collected it at South Africa airport, but none of my things were lost. In fact, I was hugely surprised that we did not have to pay overweight charges on the 61 pounds bili-lights-and-CHW-screening-kit suitcase on South African Airline (SAA) flight to Swaziland. (We did for Continental.) According to SAA website, they should have charged 50 dollars per kg over, which meant that we would have paid around $300. I guess the reason our luggage did not get lost was that we actually saw the workers load each checked-in bag onto the plane. I think Z and I both held our breath with each lift of a bag as we hoped it was ours. We luckily had the right draw because whereas our suitcases were loaded, we saw five other bags being left on the docking station. What a small plane it was! My first time riding a propeller plane no less. Z and I actually sat next to the spinning propellers and shared a look of raised eyebrows. It turned out to be a noisy but smooth flight.
We landed in a small town near Mazini, the industrial center of Swaziland when the purple of twilight was given away to night. We were very glad an experienced taxi driver was sent to pick us up because we encountered a minor hiccup right away. The officials asked to search our black boxes that contained our projects before we checked out. Despite the note Z showed them declaring that the cases are free gifts to Baylor, the officials were reluctant to let us pass, relentlessly asking us for a complete list of the items in both cases. The taxi driver came to our rescue. After a few minutes of Siswati being exchanged, we came out with everything. On our 40 min car trip to Mbabane, we were presented with a beautiful, sparkling image of night view Swaziland. We were surrounded by towering mountains darker than the sky, illuminated only by the sparse twinkling of lighting from houses perched in darkness. I was surprised that there were still many people–many women in fact– walking on the side of the streets, carrying plastic bags of groceries. There were even small fruit stands still standing. I guess only foreigners get mugged. On the roads, especially on the highway, people were waving their hands to hail rides or the small public white buses. We arrived at Veiki’s guesthouse which is just a seven minutes walk down the street, up a hill from Baylor clinic. We each have our own room and share a bathroom. I feel very safe at the place; konwing that there is friendly guardsman and a serving maid situated at the front of the house each night. We immediately readied for bed because Dr. Stephanie Marton was picking us up at 7:30 in the morning on the next day.