The hospital in Stone Town is set just south-east from the old part of town, Shangani. As we (sara, mellisa and i), live right in Shangani its an easy walk every morning through the narrow alley ways and past the old sultan's palace. The eight hospital buildings are set right on the ocean, with cooling and odor eliminating breezes blowing through the long hallways of high-ceilinger wards all day. The Doctors and nurses we worked with this past first week have been amazing, inviting us to a wonderful ceremony for a USAID family planning intitiative and including sara in the women's clinic.

Between the OR, the pre-natal visits and the orthopedic and dermatology clinics we have seen a range of disease. 6 fingers and toes, fungal infections on every body part, elephantitis, strange rashes, Kaposi Sarcoma, rickets, HIV, all manner of STDs and pregnant women of every shape and size, usually in 3 layers of clothing, although the sun always shines and it hits 85 every noon.

The resources are somewhat limited but the physicians do what they can for every patient, incorporating local medicine (clove soap does brisk buisness at the derm clinic) with the available medications, including a number of antibiotis, ointments and vitamin supplements.

more later...