Yesterday was day 2 without power and when the power goes out, so does the running water it seems. We get our water from 2 sources - we collect the rainwater (it rains in Africa frequently-Toto was right!) as well as from the ministry (the govt, not the church). The ministry fills our watertower every once in a while and we collect the rainwater off the roof gutters, which feed into underground wells that the villagers use to pump their water. To make the water safe for drinking, we boil it, but the stuff that comes out the sink is not safe for drinking. Luckily, we have had rain the last few days so water isn’t in short supply. It seems that the power in the guest house where I am staying is on a different circuit than the rest of the hospital because the hospital had regained its power yesterday while we still didn’t have any. When you have no power, your day essentially ends when it’s dark enough that you can’t see anything. Helen and David brought headlamps like miners wear, which are absolutely essential to have here. Today we were blessed with power and running water for a few hours, but it was too good to last and was off again after about 3 hours.
When I saw the power was on, I went into ultra nerd panic mode. I grabbed a surge strip, my wealth of electronic devices, voltage stepdown converters, adapters and managed to plug in every single electrical device I had and charge them all without a single fire before the power went out again. My cell phone has a full charge as well. I was so happy to hear Bethany’s voice yesterday. You can use Skype 2 Go to make calls to Kenya for about 33 cents a minute and you call from your cell phone - no PC needed! My number again is 0714 831 451. Using Skype to chat right now is not feasible with no really reliable power supply. I might stick to using the cyber café for now.
Yesterday we had another doctor join us for 10 days. He is a gynecologist named Patrick (not to be confused with amateur gynecologist/town rapist: African Patrick). Patrick is another elderly doctor like Dr. Hardison (the American doctor who runs this program). He had just flown up from Tanzania to spend 10 days at our hospital here. Patrick was shell shocked when he arrived, which surprised me because he came from the country just south of us. Sure, there were a ton of gyn patients we were holding just for him, it was humid and the sweltering jungle conditions can take their toll when there’s no A/C in miles, and no running water or electricity. The guy just came from Tanzania though, which is just south of Kenya and I don’t think it’s exactly 5th Avenue there either. I probably didn’t help the situation by telling him I was pickpocketed in this very spot the first day I was here, as we walked to the cyber cafe. At least I didn’t say all the monkeys have rabies and love the taste of leathery old flesh and Old Spice.
Patrick looks and sounds like feeble old man with a Boston/Irish accent. I asked him how long had he been out of Boston and turns out he never lived there. Patrick said his accent was actually Canadian Jamaican (One Love, Eh?). I told him I’ve never heard a CaJadian accent before, but it sure sounded a hell of a lot like Ted Kennedy’s accent. Anyway, we show Patrick around the hospital and he’s asking questions like, “Where are the gloves?”, “Where’s the alcohol hand foam?”, “Where’re the masks?”, “Where’re the toilets?” and we sort of laughed and told him we don’t have any of that stuff here.
On the way to the cyber café he asked me, “What do I do about going to the bathroom with no running water?” and I said “Just don’t do it”. “ That’s not an option”, he said. So, I told him he can use the buckets in the bathroom, which I assumed were for when the running water isn’t working. I later found that the real use of the buckets are for fetching clean water and dumping them in the toilet to help them flush.
I was in the ward and Dr. Hardison asked me to fetch Patrick to see a patient with infertility problems. I ran back to the Guest House and banged on Patrick’s door. I hear him struggle inside. He opens the door a crack and I see him squatting over a bucket with his pants around his ankles. His normally calm voice strained, “I need some time to myself!” and he closes the door. I run back to rounds and say “He looked occupied." Eventually Patrick comes up to us and says “I think I have diarrhea. I am going home”.
We were all pretty shocked. His ob/gyn experience would have proved invaluable considering the bloodbath of a c-section that happened the day prior and the numerous patients we have with gyn issues. He got on the phone and tried to get out that night, but all the flights were f
ull. He ended up having to spend the night here. Dinner was sort of awkward with the Hardison’s joining us - they, of course, being the same age as Patrick, but a whole lot more resistant to this type of environment. And they have 10 years of residency here to prove it. He said he had to leave because he had the runs, but the reality was he couldn’t handle this environment. He was gone before sun up on a plane back to the U.K., where they don’t have to poop in buckets while fending off angry monkeys.
CaJadian? That's damn funny. Too bad he left. Certainly does sound like you could have used him, but, uh, he may have been too occupied had he stayed.
ReplyDelete