Monday, Jan. 9

The moon was almost full last night and very bright. We are told that as the moon wanes, the stars will be even more brilliant—we will certainly spend some time star gazing. Did you know the Big Dipper hangs upside down here?

But today was a busy day, with not much time for thinking about the stars. Our nurses went this morning prepared to help and learn more in the

wards. For the most part, they went back to the wards they visited on Saturday. New patients had arrived; others had been discharged over the weekend. A young man who had been there on Saturday, in a coma, had passed away. Messiah nurses assisted with administering meds and taking vitals. Learning goes both ways as questions about procedures flow from our US nurses to the Zambians and back again.

Upon regrouping at lunch, some of the girls talked about how much of what they see here is so contrary to that which they have been taught. They are observing the practice of medical care under rural conditions with limited resources. At one point, they asked the doctor about administering pain meds to the boy who had had a broken femur and was being put into traction. The Zambian doctor told them that Americans worry too much about pain. Family members take care of many of the patients’ needs like feeding and cleaning—even cleaning up vomit when needed.

Wanda and Katie B. assisted in the delivery of two babies—only about 15 minutes apart!

The heat and the flies which are part of hospital life here are a little disconcerting, but I suspect within a few days of work in the wards, our nurses may not notice either so very much.

Two of the girls, Erica and Ashley, went on Outreach today, which meant traveling with Macha staff to offer prenatal and baby immunizations in a local village. They saw lots of mommas and their little ones, and there was someone along who could translate if necessary, the moms knew the routine and most of the work was done without a need for explanation. The nurses were out most of the day but seemed very energized by the experience.

Another six nurses and myself worked with Marlys in the Art Clinic. (Anti-Retroviral Therapy) The was a lot of catching up to do on some files of patients who had either transferred to another clinic, tested HIV-negative, or died. It can be a struggle to keep up with data entry and paper work for these workers and we made quite a bit of progress in just a few hours. Marlys was thrilled. It will make her work easier in the weeks ahead. Each week files are pulled a day ahead for clients who are coming in the next day. She said that Tuesday was going to be a relatively light day, although I thought the list looked long. Some days, she said, there are 3-4 pages of names of folks who will walk sometimes pretty long miles to get here for their meds.

When Marlys learned that today is Casey’s birthday she quickly offered to bake a chocolate cake to help us celebrate. We had given Casey a card and sang happy birthday to her at breakfast, but a surprise celebration in the evening was just the thing to end the day on a lovely note. We walked over to the Books’ house under the guise of having class there, but instead we sat and visited over cake, fresh mango, tea… and the cutest little kitten that kept us all entertained and laughing.

No one admitted to feeling homesick but we did compile a List of misses:
milk

My dog

Cheese

Chocolate

Veggies and salad