Environment, Healthcare, end of internship, final project, travel to the North

Sorry it has been a few weeks since I have posted anything....

Two weeks ago, the focus of our development class was on healthcare. We visited two hospitals in Windhoek: the state run "Central Hospital" and the private "Roman Catholic Hospital." It was interesting to see and compare both hospitals. Usually, I think of Catholic institutions as working with poorer people. However, in this case, poorer people typically go to the much cheaper state hosiptals.

The university in Namibia has recently started a medical school to start training medical personnel in the country for the first time (previous they had to study abroad--often in South Africa). The state hospitals (and private hospitals) are relatively well-equiped. However, when we were there, one of the fancy imaging machines was broken--unfortunately, replacement parts for high-tech medical equipment are not made in the country, so they have to be shipped in from elsewhere. Also, there is no one in the country who is trained to fix these kinds of machines, so they have to be flown in from South Africa or Europe.

It was also interesting to see the lack of medical privacy in the hospitals we visited. In one case, we were led through the ICU and told in detail about the conditions patients were being treated for. I doubt that in the United States a hospital would be willing to lead around a group of college students and do that!

The next week we discussed environmental issues, and I wrote a paper about the connection between environmental issues and economic development in Namibia. Some interesting tidbits: global warming is expected to cause some scary things in Namibia including increased desertification, less rain, and higher intensities of rain when it does rain (which leads to flooding). Apparently, there is enough vegitation in Namibia few little enough cars and industry that Namibia actually takes more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere than it puts in, at least in some years. However, Namibia will feel some of the worst effects of climate change.

Interestingly, the increased focus on burning less fossil fuel around the world has increased interest in nuclear energy and increased prices for uranium, which is heavily mined in Namibia. So, at least in that way, Namibia can benefit a bit, even though it is being hurt in other ways.

This was our last week of classes and internships. I finished working at the afterschool progam, and handed over the math study guide which I had been writing at their request. It covers arithmetic, fraction/decimals/percents, and algebra....about 70 pages total.

We also presented our final projects this week. One group made a board game about the education system in Namibia, one group talked about the relationship between food security, nutrition, and HIV/AIDS, and I made a giant flowchart showing the interdependence of various issues in Namibia.

This week, we will be traveling to the Northern part of the country and doing a two-day rural homestay, and visiting the game reserve. Then we'll leave next Sunday to fly back to the US!