Little by little does the trick - a conversation with Doctors Africa volunteers
- achromiec11
- Mar 22
- 9 min read
Aleksandra Budkiewicz and Dominika Kondyjowska have been active in the Centrum Dobroczynności Lekarskiej Foundation for three years. Ola is a medical intern and Dominika is a 5th year medical student at the Jagiellonian University. In September 2022, they were together on a three-week medical mission in Tanzania. For Ola it was the first such trip and for Dominika the second - after a six-month break. They talked about their experiences.
How did your story with the Centrum Dobroczynności Lekarskiej Foundation begin?
Aleksandra Budkiewicz: I joined the Foundation over three years ago. I was inspired to do so by a friend who had previously been active in the Foundation. I liked the idea. What I liked most was that you can help people and, in addition, learn about other cultures. I have always been involved with the media team, and after some time I became its coordinator. During my time in quarantine, I was still running Doctor Home. At that time, we helped elderly people. We delivered lunches to them so they didn't have to go out to the shops, for example, where they could get infected. Ever since I can remember, I have been interested in volunteering for missions. Even as a teenager I used to say: "Mum, one day I will go on a mission", and she would reply: "Over my dead body, Ola", and all of a sudden it happened, but I made it happen and I have no regrets!
Dominika, and is your story similar?
Dominika Kondyjowska: Quite similar, because I also joined 3 years ago. I was in my second year at the time and I remember just knowing a lot about the Foundation from my older friends who had joined. The opportunity to go on a mission sounds very interesting - for us students - developmentally. It's volunteering, but nevertheless combined with some adventure, a unique chance to learn about the culture. Above all, to go outside our environment medically. I would describe my activities as 'grassroots work'. If something needs to be transported somewhere, printed, coordinated, I will volunteer. I met Ola and have been active in the media since the September mission. This year I am also involved in training for volunteers. We are planning trainings for both medical teams and general-social training on trips, trip ethics, African culture.
What emotions did you feel before you left?
A.B.: I was very, very stressed before the trip, but not because I was afraid of what I would find there. I was the coordinator of the trip, so I had to deal with organisational matters: documents, vaccinations, passport validity, flights. There was a lot of this stuff. I had to get information from different people and the thing that stressed me the most was that something would go wrong. I was thinking more about what was going to happen while we were there, but I also didn't know quite what to expect on the ground. What reassured me was that everyone I spoke to was very happy and said they wanted to go back there. So I figured it must be true that it actually was, and it was.
D.K.: This was my second mission and I was definitely going more calmly. There were a lot of unknowns for me before the first trip. The people I asked told me what it was like, but it was hard to imagine. The stress was generally related to the trip itself, the organisation, whether we would make it on the plane, because the journey is long though. There are a lot of moments where the plane can run away.
What were the stages of your journey? It started in Krakow and ended in Maganzo (Tanzania). In a place where, in fact, everything was just about to begin...
D.K.: We met in front of the Conference Center Faculty. There, was waiting for us a bus to take us (and our 12 suitcases) to the airport in Warsaw.
A.B.: Each of us had two huge suitcases. Most of the luggage was packed with medical equipment that we brought there. It was mainly dermatological creams, milk for premature babies, baby clothes, toys, glucometers - all sorts of equipment.
D.K.: In Warsaw we boarded the first plane to Qatar. From Qatar we transited to Kilimanjaro and from there to Mwanza. This is quite a big city, although not as big as the capital. It's still about a six-hour drive to on a fairly fast road, it has to be said. So it is still quite a long way. About 30 hours of travel, maybe a bit more.Maganzo
What was your day on mission like?
D.K.: We usually started at 8.00am with prayer in the chapel. This is a hospital (Maganzo Health Centre) run by the Elizabethan Sisters, so every day starts that way. Then we waited a while for the medical staff to go to check in and as they came in, we would go with them to check in with the patients, where we would help them examine these patients and listen to what it was like for them. They were also keen to get our advice on what it looks like here in Poland. How we would treat. We also (trying to do it in full respect for them and their knowledge) suggested treatment changes. Then - after an hour's briefing - we would go to the surgery where the specialist consultations took place. At 13.00 we all had a compulsory lunch, because there it is simply unacceptable and rude not to show up for lunch, so we necessarily always showed up there. We worked more or less until 16.00 or 18.00 - depending on the day. In the evening we had free time to ourselves. In emergencies we responded and stayed longer at the hospital. Fortunately, we were very close. It was 2 minutes to our 'Volunteer House' from the hospital. Unless you were already walking when it was dark and the Sisters were letting their defence dog out, then it took 10 minutes to get there, because you had to work out a plan on how to get out so you wouldn't let the dog out.
A.B.: And not to be bitten by it! We were mainly prepared for cardiology patients because we were going as ,, as cardiologists. On the other hand, it turned out on the first day that all patients would actually come to us, with all sorts of conditions. From urinary tract infections to injuries (there were also, of course, blood pressure problems, some chest pains - what we expected), but we also had to cater for pregnant patients, for example. I think we managed
How did you communicate with patients and hospital staff, did you have an interpreter?
D.K.: With each team worked a doctor or nurse. He was our interpreter, who also told us what the typical procedure was in their case. There were patients who spoke English and this sped up the visit considerably, because Swahili is a specific language. I learned from the Sisters that it is difficult to describe abstract concepts such as love. This language is characterised by the fact that you have to say a lot of words to say a short thought. Therefore, it often happened that the patient would speak for 5 minutes and the interpreter would summarise everything for us in one sentence.
A.B.: Yes! (laughs) Sometimes when a patient would come in and start telling our interpreter what was going on, he would start making these gestures (Ola points to different parts of the body at this point), I would think: "what a terrible illness", and then our interpreter would say: "sometimes his hand hurts". It helped us a lot that in Tanzania all medical records are kept in English. All hospital discharges, information sheets from appointments - it's all in English, because they study medicine in that language, so we were able to communicate with them very easily.
What is the main purpose of your trips?
D.K.: I think in line with the idea that little by little does the trick, we go there and try to leave as much knowledge as possible. Because the fact that we go there for a while, do, say, 100-200 consultations, will change the lives of some percentage among those people. So we try to educate the staff, take the time, do the training so that they themselves make these changes, improve the quality of care. That is the real change.
From your observations - are Tanzanians keen to learn from you?
D.K.: Definitely yes. They are introducing more and more, they are willing to listen to us. at the medical mission in I was twice - in March and September - and I can see that the staff have changed a lot. Especially the neonatal staff there, who are already heavily specialised in the care of young children. I think Dr Starzec could tell you even more about that. Being there, we tried to behave with respect for their culture. Everything we did, we tried to speak very softly. I really liked how Dr Starzec at the briefings would say, for example: "I'm sorry Doctor, I don't know how you do it, but we would still keep that patient". I think they were very respectful that we didn't tell them what to do, but we respectfully suggested that you could treat a little differently and tried to make changes in small steps
A.B.: Of course, most of the important decisions were made by the specialists with whom we were in teams. We, as students, only helped them, but for us it was a great opportunity to be so 'one-on-one' with a specialist, where at university we don't really have that opportunity. The experienced doctors treated us as an equal part of the team, so it was great.
What memory is particularly memorable for you?
A.B.: The local market. This view... on stalls made of straw, made of wood, there were tons of avocados, bananas, some already stale sardines scattered around. There were a lot of stalls with different dishes, bowls, clothes. But also, unfortunately, with potions for various illnesses. It was an interesting experience. There, everyone is haggling, shouting. I can hear it even now.
D.K.: For me the interesting experience was the mass, which is a great show there. The children danced beautifully. After a couple of hours, when the service was over, we met some of the hospital staff who invited us to their home. And this is, from what I understand, one of the greatest honours Tanzanians can show us: to invite us home. So it was very nice for us, and we probably all blushed at the time, as Costa, or the ward nurse invited us, or Maduhu, the anaesthetist there, who adopted a child with a disability after the death of Mama Sarah, who ran the orphanage.
A.B.: I was also full of admiration for our Dr Alex, who we worked with. He was probably one of three doctors who had finished a five-year medical degree. There are no specialties there, so he was a doctor for really everything and he could treat a pregnant woman with an infection, he could treat chronic hypertension, he could cut out a 20-kg tumour in a teenage girl. He performs surgical procedures and is often responsible for all the procedures there, but when there are no procedures, he accepts normally in the outpatient clinic and everyone goes to him. Here, very selected patients with a particular illness go to see the specialist. If such a patient came to a GP in Poland, they would often be sent to a specialist, and Dr Alex has no one to send them to. He actually has to cure everyone, or at least try to do so.
You went there to educate others, and what did you learn about yourself?
D.K.: For example, that I am quite a sensitive person who experiences patients' stories. In giving bad information to a patient, my biggest fear is that if they start crying, I will too. But when you put it in the context of life in Africa, there are a lot of things you can understand - certain decisions of patients and the fact that sometimes there is no good way out.
Probably not everyone can go on a mission - what character traits are useful in Africa?
A.B.: Definitely openness, because we cannot just act as we would in Poland. We have to be able to adapt to what we find there. It is also important to have empathy, to understand their situation. Try to get into their skin. Be aware that they often don't have enough money... they have to choose whether to pay for their grandmother's medicine or give their child lunch. This is difficult.
D.K.: I agree. I think humility is very important. When you go on a mission, it's very easy to lose yourself. You think you're going there and you're doing the unthinkable, you're educating the staff, changingyou're the world, you come back with a sense of pride and satisfaction, and that's not how it should be. You should go with humility. With the idea that you want to help as much as possible, but you should still be aware that you won't be able to fully know their culture, you may not understand their beliefs, but you have to respect them.
Would you like to return there?
D.K.: Yes... this culture, the colours, visually it's a beautiful country and the people are beautiful too. They have something about them that you can just look at them. Apart from that, it's a very rewarding job, especially when you arrive there and it turns out that someone is suffering from an illness that can be cured 'just like that', or you just take a little longer on an antibiotic and suddenly everything disappears. Volunteering is also addictive and if you're going to be addicted, it's to something like this!
A.B.: I would definitely like to come back too. It is something so different. It's hard to even describe it. Africa, despite its many problems, has something attractive about it. It's the places and the people. They make you want to return there. The Sisters are also very hospitable, they treat us very well there and help us with everything. The doctors we work with are also willing to cooperate. The staff are very nice and want to learn from us. They are willing to come to training sessions, sometimes more than an hour late (laughs), but the staff are positive towards us. The gratitude of even one patient shows me that it was worth going!
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