Day 44

Sunday

Kids are funny. Apparently Friday afternoon Elena was outside on the porch smoking when a group of kids ran up asking “Please fah stickahs!” and demanding she snap them. One girl had her sister on her hip (these girls were about 5 and the kid was maybe 18 months) who was scared of white people and cried every time her sister holding her got close to Elena. I went outside and helped her take photos and rescue her camera from their excited little fingers. Neither of us had “stickahs” or “bloons,” so I gave them some empty water bottles from my room. Kids love water bottles here! It's easy to understand: they don't buy water bottles, they drink from the tap and use old bottles to store the water. Re-using the bottles causes them to get old, crinkly and dirty, so giving a kid their very own, new bottle is cool! Plus, they're fun to play with because you can hit them on stuff and make noise, talk them, chew on them, kick them, etc. They were stupid pumped to get bottles! It kind of reminded me of being so excited to play in cardboard boxes when I was a kid.

Today was a slow, boring day. Everyone but Nathan and I went out.

Upside to that: my winning percentage on Solitaire increased by 8%.

I also cleaned my bathroom. Donning exam gloves, I scooped up some freshly fallen rain water and my bottle of bleach and set to work scrubbing my sink, surrounding wall and toilet. It's nowhere near my first world OCD standards, but by my Cameroonian standards it's totally sanitary. That carried over into the rest of the house and I soon caught myself sweeping my room and the common room and opening all the windows to let the wind from the rain in and air out the house. It was nice to have the chilly, damp fresh air fill the house.
That occupied maybe 1.5 hours.

The rest of the day I was pretty lazy and read....or obviously played an embarrassing amount of Solitiare. My excuse for being sleepy (not that you need one here) was the rain coupled with staying up late last night listening to my neighbors. They have been working the past two weeks on building a drum and must have finished it yesterday because last night they were having some type of party. I could hear the drum and many, many voices singing what I'm assuming was native songs. It was so cool! I was tempted to go over....but it'd have been rude and it's not like I could just sneak up: I'd stick out like a sore thumb.

Nick is sick again. He apparently stopped taking his medicine the doctor gave him because he said they were making him feel worse. If he's not well soon, he and Lara will probably move their flight up and leave. I hope Lara comes to St. Luke's with me tomorrow, or else they will both have spent more time at home sick than doing the project they came here to do. I feel so bad for them!

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to talk to the doctor about putting my “husband” on some antibiotics to clear up the infection that's set in in his leg (what I'm afraid is osteomyelitis). Maybe he'll be able to get his surgery before I leave. Cross your fingers, thumbs pressed?

Nathan gave me the Harry Potter disc tonight at dinner, so it looks like my personal Potterthon starts....now.

Day 45

Monday

Today is definitely a Monday. You know, one of those days where you just feel...blah.

I went to work alone because Nick is sick again and Lara was taking care of him. She showed up a bit later and worked in the female ward. We lost one of our long-term female patients yesterday. She apparently began vomiting Saturday and ate Amelia grass (traditional medicine says that helps with gastritis) and on Sunday she was not with herself, attempted to escape and later expired. I did talk with Dr. C about my “husband's” leg and he put him on two antibiotics. My goal is to get him in the Theatre before I leave. I've been doing a light debridement on his leg and it's started closing in on the places where there is little or no discharge. If we can just get the discharge to stop his leg can be operated on. We're also looking to plaster and discharge another patient next week. Then Dr. Palle should be back next weekend and the new patients will flow in. Charles looks amazing and was practically giddy today. They've added the wound from the meal grinder to my independent dressings list. I feel like I've come a long way from being corrected about everything to having a dressing list made each morning and being allowed to do things just like any other staff member. I do rounds, requisite supplies, run tests, record results, mix & administer medications, chart, dress wounds and talk to the doctor or the patient's families about the status of the patient and make suggestions about their situations all independently. It's a lot of responsibility, but I like it and even more....I'm proud of myself for being able to handle it and do it right. I've realized I've learned to listen --not only just to instructions (though I'm sure my momma is giving a big “FINALLY” to that one), I've learned to listen to the patients and my instinct as well!

I talked to momma this weekend. We were discussing what I'm doing here, some advice on medical stuff and my medical school application. After I'd expressed my concern about one of the cases we have and explained what I understood about it, she made a comment that I'm not sure she knew the impact it had....or maybe she did. I honestly don't know how she meant it. The phrase, “You'd make a hell of a nurse” initially gave me that ugh-does-that-mean-you-don't-think-i'll-be-a-good-doctor feeling, but only for a few seconds until the statement actually hit me and I realized it was an incredible compliment...or that's how I took it anyway. If that was her offhand way of telling me that should be my backup plan because she doesn't think I'll make a doctor, well...I'm going to ignore that for now. But I doubt that's what she meant. My momma is a hell of a nurse so for her to say that...well, it means a lot. Thanks momma.

I went to put credit on my local phone and buy some gum (which is awful, but also menthol flavored and I have a slight suspicion it has nicotine or something in it because it's addictive...) and after being invited to a seminar on Sunday about feminine hygiene products and new powder you can add to your drinking water that will clear my Chlamydia, Syphilis and whatever else I have right up (Tupac's “Changes” playing the entire time) by the man that owns the stand I bought my gum from, the neighborhood kids decided to follow me home. Now I have about ten kids around my common room table coloring. One little boy, about two years old, loves to walk around and hold my hand. He's sitting in our rickety old hammock playing with a toy fire truck. It's kind of nice to give the kids somewhere to go even if it's only for a few minutes. Otherwise they're inside watching local soaps on TV or running around in the muddy streets.

Day 47

Wednesday

Happy birthday America!

As I am typing this, a little boy has his head stuck through the bars of my window watching me and somehow I don't find this odd anymore.

Today I woke up with the unmistakable signs of a cold. I have got to be the only person who comes to Africa and catches a cold. Oh hey Murphey! Whatever, as it is my national holiday I decided to skip work and go to Limbe to spend the day shopping for the people I love. Laura decided to accompany me and after making a quick stop at the white man supermarket to get more cough drops, we set off down the street to the bank. As I was busy putting away the cough drops I walked straight off into the gutter. Now, before you get your giggles out just yet let me set the scene for you: These gutters are no average, every day gutters built in normal cities oh no no. These are gutters built for a city that stands at an incline located halfway up Mount Cameroon. These are gutters built in a city that experiences whole seasons of rain. These are gutters built to carry gallons of rushing rain waters down said mountain during said months of continuous torrential downpours. These gutters are about 2.5 feet wide and 3.5 feet deep and covered with cement blocks that have occasional gaps where trucks have knocked the blocks away. I was walking along those blocks when I unknowingly walked directly into one of those gaps. You know that feeling in your stomach when you miss a step going down stairs? Try missing about four. I felt like Wiley Coyote after he'd walked into one of his own traps leading Road Runner off the cliff, momentarily suspended in midair waving a flag that read “Uh-oh!” I managed to catch my face before it hit the blocks that weren't missing with my hands. And after recovering my footing the way only my former years of pageantry could teach me (I had to learn how to tuck and roll in heels, my parents don't call me “Grace” for nothin') and checking my hair, I clambered as gracefully as one could considering I was above my waste in a cement hole in the sidewalk. As I limped down the hill to the bank with Laura who was kind enough not to laugh, (apparently I was the only one who found the situation hilarious...) I decided that tonight I will nurse a glass of wine along with my toe that is now missing a nail and the lovely goose-egg on my shin (sounds like a night at the Frat...).

We did make it to Limbe though! Unfortunately it was “Keep Limbe Clean” day. Which just means it was an excuse for none of the shops to open until noon while people hired by the city walked up and down the garbage strewn beach kicking the trash they were supposed to be picking up and checking their watches. We were able to buy the gifts we needed. As we were walking down the street we came across a stand where a young man was making jewelry. He was so proud of his work and with good reason: it was the most original I've seen yet! He explained how he made everything— even the beads. It wasn't until he asked what brought us to the area (Laura working in the orphanage and me in the hospital) that he told us he was also an orphan as a child. “I don't even like to call myself that, because I don't like the pity people give them!” He explained how that was just a part of his life that helped make him a better person and gave him his art and look how well he is doing now! He even said he visits the orphans and tells them not to get down on their situation but to use it to develop who they are. How cool is that?

Now I am home and I need to work on my application. In reality I want to curl up with the wine and the rest of Harry Potter 4...but med school is a billion times more important.

Random note:

I still want a goat.