Day 61

Tuesday

So I didn't really want to go to the Theatre because I wanted to hang out with the guys in the ward and do dressings. It was fortunate because I got to do a lot: a debridement of a hand Dr. Hatten would have been proud of AND lanced a humongous abscess on a dude's wrist. I had to pop it. It was huge and exploded. So nasty. So epically nasty. After dressings, the other staff disappeared (one locked herself in the female general ward where there's a TV and soaps) so I was the one left in the ward office to wash up the tools and chart. I walked in and Blaise (who came to get a chart for theatre) just looked at me and said “you've got a new patient” and left. So I followed the man outside where a group was around a taxi and a naked man with a bloody bed sheet over his legs and bloody shirts around his head, was propped up in the back seat. The man said “he was in an accident...” I went back inside to get a wheelchair or stretcher (and someone to help me carry the dude, he had at least 100lbs on me) and like I said everyone was gone. I went to get the nurse from inside the female ward and she said “Don't tell me, tell somebody else. I don't want to work today.” (facepalm) So, in the least bitchy way possibly I told her that, unfortunately she was a nurse and she was AT her job so she HAD to work today. I got a wheelchair and had the men that brought the patient to help me put him into it while CeCe looked for the head nurse. They put him on a bed frame outside the lab and I started assessing him while the others got a thermometer, BP cuff and also the receptionist so they could start tallying the intake bill. He had a closed fracture of the tibia and fibula in his left leg, closed fracture of the radius and ulna in his right arm proximal to his hand, dislocated left shoulder, deep lacerations above his right eye, a few inches past his hair line, and along the saggital and coronal sutures of his skull. His left eye was black and swollen shut, he was bleeding from his nose and he was shallow breathing and trying to go to sleep. So...you obviously wanted to address the head wound first right? Well, after presenting the intake bill, I mean. Anyway, they told him it was alright for him to go to sleep (wrong) while they sorted stuff out. Nicole took his BP which was 72/58. I had to ask around for a flashlight to check his if his pupil would constrict...it didn't. He started out knowing his name and age and could repeat my name, but the more he wanted to sleep the less he knew. The family freaked when they saw the bill and wanted to take him to Bamenda which is an overnight drive. He would be miserable or not make it if we let him go, so I tried to intervene and said let us get him stable so that he can travel and settle the bill later and they agreed. So I kept him awake until the guys from the Theatre came with a stretcher, then we brought him back and sutured his head, cleaned him up, put braces on his arm and leg and started an IV. Last I heard they were shooting IVDs and trying to keep him over night to make sure his BP increases and he really is stable before trying to go to Bamenda. Either way, it was pretty exciting and frustrating because he was obviously severely concussed (at least) but nobody knew not to let him sleep or to check his eyes or to keep his head straight....When I explained why I checked his eyes it clicked FINALLY. I mean, he was on the back of a motorcycle that was hit by a passenger bus. Why is the intake bill the priority? I know money is important and you need it to get by anywhere you go, especially in medicine. But when a man is bleeding all over your waiting room and has obvious head trauma...at least take him back to a room where he can receive basic First Aid before talking money.

I took photos with my patients yesterday, had them printed and wrote little notes to each one on the backs of the photos. You'd have thought Christmas came early when I handed them out, and Pa Ndumbe (who has become like a spokesman for the ward when it comes to addressing me because he speaks pidgin, French and English) told me everyone was so thrilled and happy and (secretly they knew our picture was the best) and even people from the other parts of the hospital came to see the pictures. But they didn't know what to say because I'd spent too much money on them. It cost me 150cfa per photo. That's one text message per photo. I printed out 5. Let's do the math..5x150=750cfa and then convert: 515cfa= $1 so...750/515= $1.45. And that's “too much money” yet they're having to pay MILLIONS of francs just to get health care. I had to be completely honest and told them that they were being silly and that they had given me so much more than I could ever repay. It was the least I could do to give them a tiny little photo. Seriously, it's the people who have the least that give the most and those who have the most that are never satisfied. The nurses ask me to bring them nice things and if I'm bringing presents when I leave and when they can get my outfits but the patients are grateful to the point of almost tears over a dinky bracelet and a photo.

Day 62

Wednesday

The motorcycle patient left yesterday evening because his family could not afford to stay. They took him to Bamenda. I hope he made it. At least the doctor and nurses were able to stitch him up and get him somewhat stable before they transported him.

Today the head nurse had to go to town for something important and left me in charge (wait, what?). We also had a student from the University of Buea Nursing School starting her internship today. Rather than place her under one of the other staff members, she was told to follow me. I covered for the head nurse, took over her dressings list, and had my own intern today! It was pretty cool.

The coolest part though, was when one of the staff told the intern she had big shoes to fill when I left because I'd “worked hard and done a good job.” I think I can label this trip a success. All I wanted to do was work hard and do good (help).

Amelie found a museum in Uptown Buea that had an elephant skull in it. Nathan and I asked her to show us today but it was closed, so we went to this adorable old church instead. It was built in 1934 and sits on top of a little hill. When we stood at it's doors and looked down at Buea Town we could see all the way to Limbe and the oceans. It was absolutely beautiful!

Speaking of Nathan, he gave me a going-away present today: the 'Unofficial Ginger Spice in my Pocket' book.

Did you know Ginger Spice was born in 1972?

Day 63

Thursday

Today I arrived at work and greeted the men in the general ward as usual. G3 has been much more responsive lately, he and G4 are always sitting up in bed when I arrive and it's like they compete over who greets me first. Then I went into the semiprivate ward to greet the elderly patients there. When I walked in, the amputee (who has seemed a bit out of his mind with age) was sitting upright in his bed telling the nurse doing rounds that he wanted the same treatment as he received yesterday by the one who had provided it. When I went to shake his hand and ask how he slept he said, “I was just telling them that the treatment I was given yesterday has made me feel like a completely new man. I want you to continue to do my treatments from now on. I feel completely new!” My heart exploded in my chest. This man was lucid and his kindness was just overwhelming! I assured him I would do his treatments today. During dressings he told me about his life and his family and would say “Yes, yes, this is getting much better” talking about his stump. Afterward I did the dressings for the other elderly patient who has the external fixtures in his leg. He had soiled his dressings and the whole thing had to be removed and redone. It was a hard job as the leg is heavy and the wounds are located in a place that is difficult to see and reach. The student was straining to hold the leg so I had to work fast, but in the end it was done properly. I wanted to make sure the metal fixtures were as clean as possible. After I finished dressings in the Semi-Private ward I did G4's dressing on his leg. This is the man, “my husband”, who has the osteomyelitis in his leg. His wounds look so good! He told me stories the whole time I worked about a traveling show that came to his hometown (Limbe) once that had elephants and lions. A little girl rode the elephant and a little boy could play with the lions and they would never bite him. He told me stories about a beached whale in Limbe and about his job as a mechanic on the boat for the company he worked for. He wants to walk on the beach again one day. G3 had never seen an elephant before, but a traveling show with tigers and lions came to his town too! And he told me about how they kept the animals in different metal caves so they didn't eat each other when they traveled from place to place.

After dressings I went to the Theatre and watched a hip replacement. It was crowded so when they were closing I returned to the ward to say goodbye before heading home. I did my own rounds like I normally do. I went to semi-private and talked to the men there, explaining that I'd be happy to care for them tomorrow but that I had to fly home Saturday. They looked genuinely sad. “But who will care about us when you go?” “Who will take such good care of me?” (daw) I assured the men and their wives that I would tell the rest of the nurses to make sure they were well cared for. I also told them that if they needed anything not to be afraid to go to the station and ask for it, they are important and they deserve to be given attention. The men in the general ward just said “Ah, we will miss you! Our Amelia is going...we will miss you!” I told G4 he better let me know the next time a whale showed up in Limbe. G3 said, “Oh we all have your contacts! We will be writing to you soon, Amelia!” G4 said, “Yes, Amelia! I will be the first to contact you. You just wait for my mail!”

I'm going to miss these guys.

On the way home a man on a motorbike pulled up next to me and said, “Whitemommy, please let me take you!” I insisted I'd rather walk and he said, “No, but I love you. We all....we all compete to see who can get whitemommy on our bikes but I see how you move and how you are and I love you.” (awkward) I told him I was married (thanks for the class ring, momma!) and then inspiration hit: Momma and Daddy gave me several pairs of protective glasses to wear in the Theatre so bones and blood didn't get in my eyes and to donate once I left. But they have some at SLM...I asked the motorbike driver if he had any glasses to wear that would keep the rain and the bugs out of his eyes and he said he did not. I asked if he would like some and he absolutely lit up. I gave him a pair and I thought he was going to fall over, he shook my hand and touched his elbow with his other hand (a sign of respect here, that's how you shake a chief, govt official or grand elder's hand) and thanked me over and over. I gave the rest to the rest of the clan when I got to the end of the road and they were pretty pumped too, but not as excited as he was. I saw him later putting credit on his phone and he was wearing them just to walk around town. He waved at me and pointed animatedly at his glasses, so proud of what he had. THAT'S where donations should go! It made my heart so happy to see someone else enjoying something so small so much.

I went to Belinda's to pick up the gifts I had made and they weren't quite finished yet. She'd also mixed up fabrics for two things, but it was an easy mistake to make. I gave her the excess fabric of the floral print that was supposed to be used to make a pair of pants to make a dress for her toddler Catty. She was so excited, “Wait, what? Are you sure you want to give that to Catty? Oh Auntie! You're so good to Catty she loves you all so much!” I also gave Catty the little African baby doll momma gave me for Christmas as a forget-me-not from her Auntie Whiteman. She looked at it so disbelievingly then clutched it to her chest. I ran up to Uptown to get some more fabric to correct the mistake (just popped into the charming, elderly man who sells native prints' shop for a minute) and when I returned an hour or so later, Catty was still carrying around the baby clutched to her chest. Belinda does the best she can, but she does not have much. She has been close to losing her shop many times and Catty has a few outfits to wear but not many. I wanted to give the little girl something nice. How could I go there so often and have things made for me and my friends and give her nothing when it would be so easy? It's not like I even had to make the dress! I just had to donate half a yard of fabric. (it's not like that would even wrap around my leg anyway)

The power has gone out and I haven't showered yet. I suppose I will brush my teeth, curl up for sleep and prepare to take my next-to-last frigid “shower” in the morning.

Day 65

Saturday

Yesterday I said goodbye to everyone at St. Luke's. The staff was very kind and gave me gifts of bracelets and liked the photo collage I made. Dave made me a certificate by hand and picked out two bracelets on his own that he gave me. He almost cried when I left, it was sweet. I cried like a baby when I said goodbye to the men in the General Ward, but they reassured me they'd be in contact very soon. I've just enjoyed them so much, it's hard to leave them behind! When I got back to the house, I picked up my things from Belinda (which turned out beautifully!) and she was so excited that she now had enough money to send Catty to Jamaindale next month. I gave her my email so she could keep me updated on Catty's progress through school.

I have finally finished packing everything into two suitcases (one suitcase has another inside it) and they weigh under the 50 pound limit, so we are good to go. I woke up this morning and returned my Top bottles to the bakery, added credit to my phone and bought some smiley crackers to eat at the airport since I'll miss dinner. When I came to breakfast, a group of Belgium volunteers were outside the house preparing to go to Mamfe and Mr. Orock was preparing to leave with them. After a hurried goodbye from him, we sat down to a breakfast of fried toast. Now I sit and wait. Dan is supposed to bring me a CD of popular African music today at lunch and after that Lawrence should be here with the bus to pick me up.

Today is just going to be a waiting game: Waiting for Lawrence to arrive, waiting the 2-3 hour drive to Douala, and waiting at the airport to board before finally heading to my next adventure.

It's going to be weird leaving this place and these people. It's like I just landed here and immediately fell into place and now I'm leaving like nothing happened at all. We just all fit into the family of volunteers together so easily, it's going to be weird extracting myself from it. I mean, I've lived with these people, shared every meal with these people, shared/celebrated water with these people, did laundry with these people and spent almost every waking moment with them too. It's going to be weird potentially never seeing them again.

I know my family is reading this. I also know they have been totally putting themselves out preparing for my arrival, and even though I haven't even gotten there yet I am so grateful for them. (Although, it was completely unnecessary I know it's pointless to tell you NOT to do it. You guys are awesome! I promise to eat and photograph everything.) I know I'm going to be too excited to speak the language I should know by now, so please be patient with me! Also, forgive me for how bad my clothes and luggage smell. No matter how hard I scrubbed them here they still soured after taking four or more days to dry.

Realized: I'll be home just in time for the Olympics.

I know I'll be chanting “USA! USA! USA!” with a whole lot more pride, now.

#winning