Medical week.

So I think that since last week was Shark Week, I am going to go ahead and call this week "Moroccan Medical Week". I was sick with the most terrible illness imaginable this week and have been doing medical related things ever since then. The night I got back to my village I went over to visit my counterpart. She was in the side room off of her main house with two moms and two little babies. In addition to being an all around bad-ass, my counterpart also works part-time at the Sbitar (clinic) in town and helps out families who have sick members. I was not aware of this awesome trait until yesterday. When I enter the room she immedately starts talking to me like I am her head nurse, ordering me to get things and help out. Just as some background, I have ZERO training in first aid. When I was in 8th grade my mom made me take a babysitting class after school where I learned the most basic first aid ever and have had no training since then. Regardless of this fact, I start fetching things, fanning children and replacing cold rags. Both of the babies that were there were running high fevers and my counterpart was trying to break them. The coolest part was the combination of traditional medicines and more modern techniques.

Mind you, I am a huge advocate of modern medicine and given an option I would always use modern meds over traditional power and oil medications of the village but it was awesome to see it in action. Many of the more traditional techniques have been in use for probably a hundred years. I am sure there has not been a great deal of research on the effectiveness of ground up herbs, some other ground up red powder and oil on breaking a fever, maybe it is more placebo effect than anything, but there must be a reason they still use it, right? My scientific and logical mind just couldn't get enough of seeing real herbal medicene in action as an alternate to modern medicine.

The craziest thing about medical issues in my town is that we have a pretty good pharmacy in town with very well trained pharmacists and a sbitar (doctors clinic) that is FREE to villagers but yet the women still prefer the traditional powders and oils given by my counterpart and other village elders. I am really facinated by this fact since I grew up in a house where medical issues required a doctor's assitance and the most traditional medicine we used was chicken soup. This is a whole different medical world and I think it is worth some exploring.

The babies at my counterpart's house yesterday were little, one was less than a week old. I can't ever remember a time holding a baby so tiny. This baby was just barely a human and it was already sick. The poor little girl had her fingernails painted in henna and traditional tiny little bracelets on her arms and had a fever that was making her so sick. I helped fetch water, clean rags and even got to hold her for a minute while her mom rested. My counterpart fed both babies a mixture of ground herbs, some red powder which I didn't know what it was and olive oil and sent them on their way with a list of instructions for the mothers. I couldn't believe that the new mothers brought their babies to see my counterpart instead of going to the sbitar but I guess that shows how much faith they have in the traditional medicines she uses.

Today I went back over to my counterpart's house just to see my friends and the kids who had come back from Tiznit. There were two more little girls in the room, probably 3 or 4 with fevers as well. I am not sure what is going around, but I am careful to stay far away from it. I did a similar job today as yesterday, mostly just watching and fetching new water. This time my counterpart injected something into one of the little girls and again sent the worried mom's on their way. About an hour later a car pulls up outside of the Zawid (VERY uncommon) and a man runs out of his car with a little boy in his arms. We all run into the little room they use as a medical office and I found out that the little boy was asleep in his home and a scorpion stung him on his head. The dad was in a such a paniced state that he started crying.

The scorpions we have in my part of Morocco are generally not deadly if they sting adults. The sting gets trickier if the child is under 7 or 8. This little boy couldn't have been more than 3 years old. I immedately grab my "Where There Is No Doctor" book to look and see what it says to do, by my counterpart knows exactly what to do. She immedately opens up her med cabinet and gets to work injecting the anti venium into the wound. He immedately calms down. About 5 minutes earlier the pain the little boy was feeling was so strong that he actually threw up. After he calmed down she mixed up a combination of water, oil and ground up olive tree leaves, feeding it to the boy like a tea. This was by far the most frantic the "clinic" has been and frankly, I was quite afraid that the poor boy wasn't going to make it, he didn't look good. After the injections, the stinger was removed and the tea was drank, he immedately feel asleep. I am sure the pain was so great that his body just needed him to shut down for a little while. The crying father thanked my counterpart about a hundred times and took the little boy back to the car and drove away.

As a disclaimer, I know that some traditional medicienes do nothing more than make the person feel better. I am not an advocate either way and given the option, I will always choose the proven scientific method medicines that have been tested and retested but I think the traditional methods deserve some merit as well. I am not sure that the olive leaf tea actually made the boy feel better, but who are we to judge if it did. I will just assume it works until someone proves to me it doesn't.