What A Weekend

Sunday morning, March 25, 2012  Day 16

Last night I was awoken three times. Once at 4am by the wails of a woman from the hospital. I could hear her screams piercing the silence of the still night like glass shattering from a brick. I drifted back off to sleep listening to her cry. Again, at 5am the Muslim chants began. I rolled over slightly trying to ignore them and pretend they didn’t exist. Although I love how faithful and devout the chanting its, I was determined not to let it ruin my sleep. A second scream broke out through the early morning again at 6am. I awoke and listened for a while. Was I dreaming? No, the chants were still there too. The wailing continued. Was it the same woman? Was it more family just now finding out? Did a different patient expire? It’s hard to sleep with so many thoughts running through my mind. The remainder of my sleep was restless at best. I sincerely hope and pray that Phillip’s blood donation was not in vain.

Sunday night, March 25, 2012 Day 16

What a way to spend a weekend! It absolutely did NOT last long enough! I guess with working half the day on Saturday, I feel like we try to cram a whole weekend in on Sunday. Which, by the way, is a pretty impressive feat considering we attend two church services and a typical African service last at least 2 hours.

There is a medical student that is visiting Kamakwie from San Francisco. Her father was from here so she still has a lot of family in Kamakwie. Dr. Asher even knows some of her relatives, so she attended rounds with us in the hospital on Friday. We recognized her with her brother this morning in church where they invited us to their aunt’s home for a family lunch with traditional African food. So…we actually had lunch with the Ashers’ around noon and then a “mid-afternoon snack” around 2pm. It was very interesting too because they served kasava leaves (a spinach type vegetable served over rice), which we’ve had before with the Ashers and Bud and Judy’s, but this time it was very different. I was informed that it’s always the same ingredients, which I’ve learned is most often the case with any meal. (Dr. Tom even tells a story of how he once got in trouble with the cook for suggesting she put fish in a dish that is traditionally cooked with chicken.) But some how, each person manages to make it taste a little differently. The food here is amazing though.

We spent a couple of hours conversing with Tira and her brother and meeting their family. She has an uncle who is in the government in SL. He was very instrumental in getting the Catholic church in Kamakwie (which I’m told is a fairly new development), and his dad (Tira’s grandfather) actually donated the land for the Catholic school! Her uncle was very nice and spoke very good English. He even taught us a few Krio phrases! He also invited us to go and visit him when we go to Freetown.

Our afternoon gathering ended with a rendezvous with Lorena and Meredith for a trip to visit our friend Mansu, the tailor. Yesterday I dropped off 2 lapas (precut yards of fabric)- one for me a dress and one for Phillip a shirt. I actually got a dress and a skirt out of the fabric, and Phillip’s shirt looks great on him. He looks like he’s ready for the beach- a natural tourist! I think he will definitely be able to wear it back home. Once Meredith and Lorena had collected their items, we began the walk back.

Along the way, a couple of the children called me by my name!! It’s very exciting because I usually get called “white”, “white woman”, or “Lorena”. As Tira explained to me, the children don’t see enough white people here to learn how to distinguish between our facial features- and I thought I was having the reverse problem, turns out I’m not the only one!!

Upon returning home, we cleaned up and had an African dinner at Judy’s house- Jalif Rice- my favorite so far! It’s a stew of chopped onions cooked in a tomato sauce with other spices and served over rice. (Like everything else African!)The onions make it taste sweet so it is very good!

After dinner Meredith stopped by on her walk home and we sat on the porch with she and Judy making red blood cells out of clay until dark. Tomorrow Phillip and I are speaking to the nursing students. He is going to talk about genetics and I am going to teach them about ABO blood groups and donor compatibility. I really hope it goes well and I don’t confuse them more! We will see how much of a language barrier there is! We’re both really excited to have this opportunity. It makes me realize how much I’ve missed teaching. I guess I get it honestly.

Dr. Tom informed us earlier that Philip’s patient was still stable after receiving her transfusion, so I’m still not sure what the wailing was about. Tomorrow I will have to go and check on my malaria patient. Hopefully he is doing better after his transfusion too, but I still want to check him for Sickle Cell Disease even though Dr. Tom says it’s not as prevalent here. We’ll have to wait and find out…