Le Blog by Le Grand Cru

We had an actual account for Le Grand Cru, but Facebook thinks we’re spamming when we add all our new friends. So we created a “Like” page. Please join us as we continue our journey. We want you all along for the ride!

If you could also pass the word along to your other friends, that would be great! We want to get at least 1500 members by the end of the year. We have a little over 1400 members in our actual account (which we will be deleting). So stay in touch with this new page and help us reach our goal!!!

Facebook url is: Le Grand Cru Group Page

Week 6 into the mission trip of our friend Matt Matiko.

I took it easy this weekend, still recovering from the ‘hike’ I had my favorite dish in Cameroon so far, which was ‘corn chaff’, a corn/bean soup. I still haven’t acquired a taste for too many other traditional foods, as many tend to incorporate a bitter, leafy plant substance. The plantains are served just about every way possible and are a phenomenal staple. Unlike the food I’m eating, the patients I see are widely varied. Don’t get me wrong though, I still see a ton of malaria, but have seen some interesting cases. Most patients speak English, but there still is a sizeable ‘language barrier’. One patient I was convinced was telling me he was vomiting blood, was actually not vomiting at all, but instead simply having fevers. I found this out after admitting the patient and treating accordingly, only to have the nurse later inform me of the misunderstanding. Sure enough, his malaria test was positive. I saw two cases of a rare skin disease called ‘Yaws’ that I miraculously found info on from a super-handy book entitled ‘Common Skin Diseases in Africa’. Well, we will see if those patients get better first before confirming that diagnosis. I’ve even seen some emergency/trauma cases.

Most notably, a 5-year-old girl was brought to us after being hit by a car. A German volunteer found her and said she was trapped underneath the tire of the car. That alone was enough cause for concern. The girl actually looked pretty good, was able to talk, move all her limbs, and only complained of mild headache. She had no obvious signs of fractures or external bleeding, but she had become more lethargic and sleepy. The only thing I could find was looking at her eyes; they were massively swollen and slowly beginning to fill with blood. I was very worried about this as I thought there might be bleeding in her brain, let alone internally. I figured it would be best for her to be transported to Duoala, an hour away, so she could receive proper imaging to assess bleeding. The German volunteer happily agreed to take her, and I wondered if I would see her again. Many hours later, they returned with the results of her tests. Incredibly, they were all negative! They found no broken bones, ruptured organs, or bleeding anywhere in this girls body. By this time, her eyes had completely filled with blood, but she was feeling better. I was able to get in touch with an eye doctor from the states, Dr. Peter J. Krall, who reassured me that the blood accumulating in her eyes can be minimal after trauma, and should go away with time. We kept her overnight for observation, and the next day she was discharged home. Truly a miracle that she made it unscathed, or maybe I just overreacted with panic…either way I was happy to uphold the number one thing on my ‘must-do’ list, and not kill anyone.

Our friend Matt is currently in Cameroon, Africa as the main doctor at a small town hospital. He has been giving us updates once a week about his journey and experiences. This is week 5.

Thanksgiving turned out to be quite the event here. Most of the volunteers got together and made an amazing potluck dinner. I even found some canned turkey that I fried up. We also had mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, stuffing, chicken, macaroni casserole, green bean casserole, brownies, cookies, and sweet potato pie. It was definitely the best meal I’ve had here in Cameroon. After dinner, people hung around and played Cranium, which by the way is very difficult to play with people from different countries. To make the holiday a complete success, I ate way too much food, and got to talk with my family. Read More

Our friend Matt is currently in Cameroon, Africa as the main doctor at a small town hospital. He has been giving us updates once a week about his journey and experiences.

Moriah and I went to Bamenda (city in the northwest) this weekend, thanks to our Peace Corps friends, Heather and Ben, letting us tag along. The only drawback was the 8-hour bus ride it took to get there. Once the bus, more like a van, was full of passengers, I surveyed the scene, leaned over to Heather and said “there’s a good chance this will be the worst experience of my life.” I was squished into sitting between 2 seats, as we crammed 5 people into a 4-seat row, enduring the elements of backpack in my lap, not exactly ‘paved’ roads, suffocating humidity, and the incessant pestering of vendors at every checkpoint. As I’m contemplating my doom, Heather turns to me and says “we’re lucky, this bus is really nice, usually there’s chickens at our feet.” Given the expectations, the voyage wasn’t that bad, and I survived without significant trauma.

While in Bamenda, which is a much larger city than Buea, I shopped for local handicrafts, sipped a latte macchiato, and ate my first, and last, fried grasshopper (tasted like a Lay’s potato chip). The return ride home was just as miserable as the first. The only cause for smile along the way, and laughter amongst our whole bus, was being passed by a van of middle-aged women that felt inclined to blow many kisses my direction…

For those that know me, I am very terrified of snakes. But now I think that can be broadened to reptiles. It took me a good hour, after much planning, not to mention panic, to figure a way to remove a lizard from my room. I first tried to let our cat, Milo, take care of it but she just batted it around the room, causing it to get lost under my bed. I was then able to tease it out and trap it under a bucket. At that point, Cherilyn had seen enough, grabbed the lizard and threw it outside. Pretty embarrassing, I know…

I’m not exactly looking forward to returning to work this week, but enjoy many of the interesting patients I see. Recently had a patient who developed a rash on his whole scalp and neck, that was oozing with pus, just days after getting his hair cut at a local barbershop. And I was thinking about getting my haircut here! He was found to be HIV positive, but responded well to the medications and the rash resolved. Had another lady that knew she was HIV positive, but never received any treatment, because she lost her husband to HIV a year ago and was prepared to die herself. She came to our clinic with symptoms of a common disease associated with HIV that is treatable. After talking with her for a while, she promised me she would seek treatment at the main hospital, which provides free therapy for patients with HIV. Unfortunately, most of the interesting cases I see get sent to the main hospital as they have more resources/capabilities. Fortunately, I have been able to remain healthy and in good spirits. Hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving and eat lots of food for me.

So my time here hasn’t been all work and no play. I was finally able to organize a game of soccer yesterday, and I can now cross that off my list of requirements for the trip. My advice for anyone travelling to Africa is to bring a soccer ball. Most days, I am able to tour the local streets, sample some ‘street’ food, and meet some local people. Not sure how I stick out so much, but I seem to get yelled/laughed at a lot. If anyone wants to get my attention, they just yell ‘white man’ and it’s pretty obvious whom it’s directed at. Just today, a lady was making fun of me for how I was eating my ice cream. Is there a proper way to eat ice cream? Some of my other favorite treats I find on the sidewalk have been ‘soya’ (similar to tri-tip beef), roasted corn, and spaghetti noodle omelettes. Haven’t gotten sick yet… We buy most of our food on market days, which is twice a week and an absolute madhouse. I’ve worked out an agreement with Cherilyn and Moriah, that they do the cooking and I wash the dishes. Because of this, I swear they feel inclined to use every plate, pot, and utensil in the house! But I have zero complaints with the meals they provide. Lots of rice, beans, spaghetti, and vegetable stir-fry. Some notable concoctions have been fried plantain chips with gaucomole, and french toast with peanut butter and bananas.

This weekend, I went to Limbe, which is a popular vacation spot on the ocean. Unfortunately, the weather was rainy most of the day, but I still had a great time swimming in the waves. We even ate pizza for dinner while watching gorillas at the Wildlife Center.
The scenery here is beautiful. It’s very tropical, and thus extremely humid which makes working up a sweat pretty easy. It is the dry season, but still rains every few days, with occasional intense thunderstorms that awaken me at night. It often takes days for clothes to line dry outside; I think I still have socks that are damp from being washed 2 weeks ago. Every few days, us fellow ‘white’ folk try to get together and go on a long walk to explore around. I have met many awesome people volunteering their time here for charitable organizations like Reach Out! and Peace Corps.

The low point of the week for me was definitely when I fried Bill and Trixy’s computer. Trying to watch a movie, I accidentally plugged it into the 220V slot, which ignited a huge spark causing a power outage. Won’t do that again. Most of my experiences here have been quite humbling so far. Whether it’s breaking a computer, losing my phone in a taxi only to get it back after much help from locals, or often not knowing what to do to help a patient. I’m trying to learn from these experiences with an open mind, knowing that God has blessed me in more ways than I deserve. As Bob Marley once said (whose biography I’m currently reading) “Everything in life has its purpose, find it’s reason.”

“Are you pregnant?” This has become my first question to just about every female patient that walks in the door. Mostly because pregnant patients scare me in general, as I have the least experience with them. And also because they tend to drop that bomb on me many minutes after I’ve been asking a plethora questions trying to uncover their symptoms. The last time I saw pregnant patients was as a 3rd year medical student, and I’m not quite sure how to follow them. My criteria for a healthy baby is “do you feel the baby kicking?” Needless to say, I’ve had to do my share of brushing up on obstetrics…

It costs 2000 francs (about $5) to be seen at our clinic. I’ve enjoyed seeing quite a wide variety of cases. A lot of upper respiratory infections, urinary tract infections, hypertension, joint pains, abdominal pains, sad case of child abuse, tons of skin rashes, as well as a puzzling epidemic of itching. However, the default diagnosis has definitely been malaria. It is very common here, and we test just about all patients for it. There is a quick and easy pamphlet here with treatment guidelines that I follow.

I’ve been lucky to have some awesome nurses to work with. Cherilyn and Moriah, nursing students from Union College, have generously volunteered 9 months to work here in Buea. They register patients, record vitals, give injections, clean/bandage wounds, and fill prescriptions. Most importantly, they provide much appreciated company, and are pretty good cooks as well. They also take turns sleeping every fourth night at the hospital, to keep us open 24 hours. Also sharing the nursing duties are Lea and Christiane, valuable locals with the most experience treating endemic diseases. I look to them often, as many of the medications here are named something unfamiliar. Maybe the biggest aid in clinic, has been the constant dance music blaring from the makeshift ‘Radio Shack’ across the street…

The first week is over, and to be honest, it was tough. Fortunately, after settling in a little bit, the culture shock is subsiding. I am slowly feeling more comfortable treating relatively new diseases, and taking cold showers. Thanks again for all your prayers and support!

-Matt

Matt Matiko is a friend of ours that will be in Africa for the next 7 weeks. We were able to help out a little to sponsor his trip and he will be writing a weekly summary of his trip while he is there. Read part 1 below.


After 3 days in the back of an airplane, 5 plastic meals, 12 episodes of The Wire, 1 night in Ethiopian hotel, and minimal sleep, I have arrived in Buea. Buea is located in the southwestern part of Cameroon (Africa), and will be my hometown for the next 7 weeks. Buea Seventh-Day Adventist Hospital has been functional for almost one year, thanks to the commitment of medical providers Bill and Trixy Colwell. However, their hard work has earned them a much-needed vacation back in the states. This is where I come in…I have volunteered to take over as ‘replacement physician’ for the next 7 weeks in their absence. As with most overseas adventures, I was not quite sure what to expect. This was only compounded by my minimal medical training and experience to date, let alone in the third-world. Being the only doctor at the hospital will be a challenge, but I’ve been told I’m ‘better than nothing’. Thankfully I have a few excellent nurses, both local and US volunteers, to guide me. Yesterday, my first night here, still damp from a shower, I get a knock on the door from one of the local nurses who informs me that a woman is here who is currently in labor! Through the jet lag and panic, I remembered being told that we were unable to perform deliveries here, and the woman was transferred to another hospital. I may have bit off more than I can chew, and will definitely need you to keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

I’d like to give a special thanks to my family, friends, Loma Linda University, and Le Grand Cru for supporting and making such a trip possible.