It is HOT here today, woke up to a bright steamy day. I’m generally not a night shift admirer; however night shift here, is really Day shift time back home so it makes it easier to acclimate (there is a method to my madness). But, the downside is trying to sleep during the day in
THEM: “Yes, ma’am, no pro-blem ma’am” as they bow away nodding.
Oh no, they ring the room looking for their coworkers, and are in and out of the apartment, all afternoon.
The upside is waking up at 5:30p, having a coffee (Instant)(Nescafe) while you hear these birds, and watch the kids across the way playing kick ball.
Apparently in times past, people worried about, say, enough oats for their horses, or enough ice blocks for their frig. Nowadays people can have entire meltdowns (Me) because they left the cell phone charger behind. Camera’s, PDA’s, phones, and computers; they all need a cord to keep them charged, and combine that with the electricity being 220 DC (the smell of electrical burning has been a common smell in our apartment-TAMMY) and the outlet looks like absolutely nothing we have in the states (and remembering to bring THAT adapter and stepdown unit)….it’s not a pretty site. “Oooh can I borrow that cord, I forgot mine..” becomes a familiar phrase.
The honeymoon is over people, the excitement of arrival has worn off and the reality has set in. We have a full ICU, we’re running out of supplies, people are getting tired, even the Ugandan Nurses look beat. We have a ton of oh, blue clamps and plastic yellow stethoscopes for instance, but, one more set of blood tubing and NO sxn catheters (for the non-medical people, both are not good). But I learned from my misson mentor the great Betsy Tirado, to “adapt and overcome”, as we always do, we get creative. And we are.
Happy day all!
-Lynda
P.S. no pictures from me, I forgot my cord.
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