Week over

I worked in the hospital most of the week.  The ward is getting busier and busier :)  Some patients stay for a few days, others a week or two depending on their procedure.  Yesterday I had my first ICU patient, though really more of a "step down" patient at home, but it was the most familiar nursing I have done since I have been here and that was very nice.  This was a young lady, we don't really know her age, but probably around 20 years old... she basically had no jaw bone resulting in TMJ, so she has been unable to open her mouth much past 3/4 inch most of her life.  Her weight is 35kg, 77lbs.  She had a reconstructed jaw with grafting from her ribs.  I took over and she was on a morphine drip, but otherwise very stable just needed some help figuring out how to swallow to get her off IV fluids and IV pain meds to oral.  She is from Guinea and only speaks a village language so we were doing three way interpretation as another girl from her village spoke their dialect and French and there is a French and English speaking man also on the unit.  By the end of my shift she was moving over to the regular ward, drinking fluid through a small 10mL syringe to the back of her throat. 

I am off over the weekend and work most of next week.  Last night a friend that works on the ship had his birthday.  He is from Ghana and quite a few of us went to a local bar and danced and danced and danced.  Two of my cabin mates, Dusti and Katie (both who sadly leave this week!), went along and they all had fun teaching us white girls how to African dance.  I believe we surprised them with our amazing moves, breaking their conception that white girls can't dance ;)

Between work shifts I have made it off ship a few times this week... I often follow a similar route through town to an open food market.  I have made friends with a girl named Flora and her family and like to go say hello and visit her.  I usually bring someone along with me and as we make our way gather a following of children, all wanting to hold our hands or give us five... huge smiles and "what your name...?" repeatedly asked.  I have pictures of the market.  It's beautiful and filthy... I stepped over a dead rat last week, but there are rows of dried chilis and dried beans, fresh kasava leaf (their green staple crop... tastes like rich grass), large bowls and bags of various rice and grain, fish with flies swarming all around, chicken feet and pig fat, palm oil for cooking... each seller of fine goods soliciting patrons to make a days end.  On the way home I look for my 90 year old friend... I don't remember his name but he sits on a bench in front of his home, his children and grandchildren and great grandchildren, of which he can not put a number to, live on the street in his home or neighboring homes.  The average life expectancy of a male in Sierra Leone is 35... this friend is a rarity... oh the stories he must have of his land, his city, his street and all that has changed over the years.