We are very fortunate in New Zealand. If we get really sick and need to go to hospital, we can usually drive for a very short time and one will be there for us. If we need to, we can even call an ambulance! We do not need to pay anything to be treated in our hospitals and the hospitals in New Zealand have plenty of excellent doctors and nurses to look after us. We also have lots of different medicines and machines the doctors can use to help us get the right treatment.
If you need to go to the hospital in the Congo, things are a lot more difficult. For starters there are not very many hospitals around so you may need to travel a very long way to find one. The government hospitals are not very good, so the best thing to do is to find one that is run by a church group. It is not so easy to travel on the roads here because most people do not have a car or even a motorbike. If people have anything at all to travel on, it will most likely be a bicycle.
If you need to go to the hospital in the Congo, things are a lot more difficult. For starters there are not very many hospitals around so you may need to travel a very long way to find one. The government hospitals are not very good, so the best thing to do is to find one that is run by a church group. It is not so easy to travel on the roads here because most people do not have a car or even a motorbike. If people have anything at all to travel on, it will most likely be a bicycle.
There are no bikes for children in the Congo.
Everyone must learn to ride on large adult bikes!
Everyone must learn to ride on large adult bikes!
If you manage to find a hospital, it will not be a big one with lots of doctors and nurses like we have in New Zealand. Hospitals in the Congo usually only have 2 or maybe three doctors, and only about the same number of nurses. These few people can be looking after a hundred people at the same time, so they are very busy.
In most cases, people who are brought to the hospital are looked after and fed by their family. Their family will camp out near the hospital or sometimes sleep on the floor in a large room with other families in the hospital. There they cook food on charcoal and go visit their sick family members whenever they can.
In most cases, people who are brought to the hospital are looked after and fed by their family. Their family will camp out near the hospital or sometimes sleep on the floor in a large room with other families in the hospital. There they cook food on charcoal and go visit their sick family members whenever they can.
The families of patients sleep and cook at the hospital
If the doctors need to operate they do not have enough medicines to make you go to sleep during the operation. You do not feel any pain though, because they give you an injection that takes the pain away. The doctors here in the church hospitals do a very good job, even though they do not have good equipment like X-Ray machines or ultrasounds.
Operating rooms are very simple and use solar lights
Rooms in the hospital are very dark and not very comfortable compared to our hospital rooms in New Zealand. The beds are not so good either, but at least patients can have somewhere to sleep that is better than sleeping on the ground.
Some beds are not very nice but it is better than sleeping on the floor!
So if you ever need to go to hospital, be very thankful that you live in a country like New Zealand where there are such good ones!
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