good and bad...

I am doing well- very busy - saw 44 patients today. The last few weeks have been crazy with some very sick patients. Unfortunately a few of them have not made it and died at the referral center- mainly due to malaria and anemia! Also a few malnutrition cases - a 1 1/2 year old girl, weighing 5 kg and severely dehydrated didn't make it after 4 days of hospitilization. Again, many of these conditions can be treated if the child reaches a health center sooner.

For some reason in the past week I have also seen more children with deformities (large tumors on their faces, scalp, cleft lips etc). People still seem to think that we can do everything that the ship could do. Well, I have to tell them that we can't. However, with the ship going to Liberia we have been able to schedule a few cases. One mom came with a 5 month old baby- born with no right eye and a cleft lip. She said her family thinks the child is bewitched and she is too ashamed to take him home. She almost begged me to write a note saying I was going to try to find help for the child. I look forward to meeting her again on Wednesday- so that I can tell her we have scheduled her child for surgery on the Anastasis mid November!

Another positive note- I diagnosed my first appendicitis here; a 5 year old boy with abdominal pain. The physical exam and lab work sure made me highly suspicious, so I referred to Emergency Center. A few days later the mom and child came back to the clinic. They said the ride out to emergency was pretty bad because the potholes sure made the boys belly hurt, however, they were seen right away at Emergency and the surgery was done within hours. A few days after that the surgeon confirmed that yes it was appendicitis.

As you can see there are good outcomes and bad outcomes. Plenty of things to deal with, be sad about and ponder upon, but also plenty of things to be thankful for!

Video clip...

I am sure many of you are curious as to what exactly I’m doing here.
Well, if you click on the following link, you might be able to get some footage on the clinic.
It might take some time, so have patience :)

http://www.lakomission.org/cms_exodus/images/stories/video/opc_aug_2005.wmv

Celebration time...

Today we registered the 1000th patient in the out patient clinic! Actually, we registered up until 1005 today, but the 1000th patient is definitely a milestone. It’s unbelievable that 4 months after the clinic’s opening we have seen so many children come to the clinic. And some have come back multiple times. Many children come from the Aberdeen area, but some come from as far as Kissy and Waterloo- quite a drive in the taxi (1 hour). It is a priviledge to be able to work in the clinic and help the children here in the Freetown area. As challenging as it can be at times, it is definitely rewarding as well.

Patient 999 was one of our ward patient’s daughter- who I diagnosed with malaria today. Patient 1001 was a boy from Freetown who I also diagnosed with malaria. (We had a lot of positive malaria tests today!) And patient 1000 was a boy from Lumley (near Aberdeen) who came with an ear infection. He is a Sierra Leonean boy but his family has been missionaries in the Gambia and moved back to Sierra Leone only two days ago.

One last reason to celebrate is that last Wednesday marked my 6 months of living in Sierra Leone! I can’t believe I have been here for 6 months already!

taken on our compound...

Latest update...

Many of you may wonder what life is like here. Is it different? Having been here for 5 months, some things do start to seem normal, however, life here is probably anything but ‘normal’, at least compared to life as most of us know it. Can you identify with the following daily happenings???

“Women washing their clothes by hand in front of their homes. Naked kids playing on the streets. Stand pipes along the road for people to collect water. Rusty broken down vehicles on the side of the street or turned over in ditches. A wall surrounding the compound. Street vendors everywhere. A child walking with a bucket of water on her head. Dogs barking throughout the night. Children bathing on the side of the road. Razor wire along the top of the wall. Huge piles of trash on the side of the road. Water filters in the kitchen. A gate with the following painted on it - ‘entrance, do not urinate here’. People digging through dumpsters to find items to sell or re-use. Laundry drying on the ground. Coming home to hear we need to conserve water as the tanks are almost empty. 20+ people trying to cram into a minivan. Guards patrolling the property. People walking around with live chickens in their hands. Enormous potholes on the red dirt roads. A panic button on my night stand so I can trigger the alarm system if necessary. The constant sound of the generator at night.”

If you want to read more about my life here in SL click on the following link for my latest newsletter…
http://lakomission.org/cms_exodus/images/stories/sandra/sandraaug2005.doc

To sleep or not to sleep...

I love sleeping, so I would choose ‘to sleep’ any day. However, circumstances here in Freetown often seem to opt for the option ‘not to sleep’; I either can’t get to sleep, or wake up multiple times throughout the night or wake up way too early. Noise pretty much is the cause of this, although the Lariam pills might help a hand! Let me explain in more detail where this noise comes from...

Our neighborhood is pretty lively with frequent soccer matches that take place on the soccer field, right next to our compound. I’m convinced that the whole neighborhood shows up for the game; it certainly sounds like everyone is out there with all of the music and cheering I hear. If there’s not a soccer match then there’s often a party - again with loud music, people talking through megaphones etc. This can last up until 3am! And if it’s not for the party, the dogs do their best to keep me awake- not only do they lie/sleep in the middle of the street while we are trying to drive up or down it during the day, but they manage to stay awake and bark throughout the night.

Then there’s noise that’s closer to home, right next door to me - my flat mate closing our very loud steel door as she goes to the kitchen (sometimes at 5am – mind you she does try to keep it quiet) or my parents doorbell announcing the arrival of the bread man or the guards who need more diesel for the generator. Speaking of the generator- that is another source of noise on our compound, but fortunately it’s not so close to my room. I do live close to the Hunter’s room however- and they happen to have a very noisy AC unit- so I hear the constant humming of their unit throughout the night. Then there are the guards that patrol the compound, with their walkie talkies on of course (volume on high)! Actually I wish at times that I would hear more from them- then at least I know they are awake.

And last but not least…the rain. Especially now that the rainy season is here the rain can get quite loud! And actually, if it’s the rain that wakes me up, I usually peek out of my window and am amazed at the amount of water that falls to the ground!

Birthday in SL

Yes, this past Saturday I celebrated my 28th birthday. The fun actually started on Friday morning when I walked to my office and noticed a fully decorated door- with balloons and a poster - my nurses and receptionist came in early to decorate. They later surprised me with a gift- a real African outfit! In the afternoon I decided to take them out for ice cream; there’s a local ice cream shop 5 minutes from the ACFC, with great home made ice cream (and it hasn’t made me sick yet!). On Saturday I woke up way too early- but couldn’t get back to sleep, so much for sleeping in. My parents spoiled me with various gifts- including yet another African outfit and a tie-dye skirt. Later in the morning Gisela, my parents and I went to Crown Bakery- a great bakery in town that I had not yet been too. We enjoyed a great brunch there. In the afternoon I spent time making cookies. It was a bit rainy- but not a problem since I wasn’t planning on going anywhere anyway. In the evening the New Steps gang came over and joined all of us at our team house for dessert. Gisela made me the most amazing chocolate cake! And my mom made a delicious apple pie. Plenty of sweet stuff to go around! It was a very enjoyable day. It felt very much like a birthday- and it was nice to once again have some family around to celebrate with. Thanks to all of you that remembered my b-day and made the day special!


birthday treats!

Laundry is an art...

Doing laundry can be an art and a challenge...fortunately we have a washer and dryer- and we have managed to figure out how to use the dryer without overheating the generator :) Doing laundry when we have national power can be interesting (during weekends)- national power can switch on, and then switch off again after an hour...and then an hour later come back on again- that means laundry can take a number of hours and a bunch of trips to the laundry room :) I am very thankful though that we have good facilities!