June 9, 2010
We have come to the end of another couple weeks that have been both busy and
frustrating. so Samuel would not let
them drive the rest of the way to Kamakwie.JBud is putting in all new pipes for the water system;
the size pipes that were used before was too small and hard on the motors on
the pumps and several have been ruined. The problem is that when the new pipes
arrived from Freetown, they were the wrong ones….so Samuel, the accountant,
went back with them to get the correct pipes. They were supposed to arrive back
in Kamakwie one week ago Friday, then Saturday, then Sunday…they finally arrived
on Thursday morning. They had gotten to a village about 8 miles from Kamakwie
on Wednesday evening; however, it was dark, and they had no headlights on the
truck TISL (this is Sierra Leone)
They have had an ambulance for KWH for several years now which is designated
specifically for pregnant women and funded by Health Poverty Action. This NGO
has recently discontinued the funding so the hospital is struggling with how
much to charge the patients who use the ambulance. Most of the time it goes out
to villages to pick up women in labor who have either been in labor for a long
time or are having some obvious complications with their labors and unable to
walk in to the hospital. It serves a vital role for these women since many
would not survive either if they stayed at home or tried to walk to KWH. Even
as I’m writing this, there is a woman who came in 18 weeks pregnant and with
eclampsia; they believe they will have to do a C-Section to save the mother’s
live, but baby will be too small to live. While they have been dealing with
that mother, another came in with the ambulance who will also need a C-Section!
We are very grateful for the ambulance.
We have been teaching the students about maternity nursing this week, so most
of it has been fun. They do have two wards, and the mothers who deliver the
live babies are in one and those who have lost babies are in the other. Our
students got to see Dr. Karen this past week when she did ultrasounds on two
different ladies; of course, they loved that. Both the female students in our
class are very interested in becoming midwives which is a great need in Sierra
Leone since most normal deliveries are done by midwives.
The weather continues to be much cooler than before for which we are extremely
grateful. Even though we take a cold shower at night, my belief is that I can
deal with a 5 minute cold shower (we do make them short both because of
temperature and water supply) much better than several hours of very hot
weather!
Someone asked if we had a ministry in addition to our designated “jobs” we came
to do. I think both of us consider the “jobs” a ministry as well. Meredith and
I have many opportunities in the classroom to teach these young men and women
principles of godly living in a culture that has many taboos and beliefs rooted
in animism. We have had some very lively discussions about the relationships of
men and women and whether it’s sanctioned by God for men to beat their wives as
is believed by many. We have talked about ethical principles that nurses need
to practice as employees, e.g., is it OK to take medical supplies/meds from the
hospital without paying when you have a sick relative who might need it? Is it
OK to sleep on duty when one is tired? Is it really necessary for a nursing
assistant to clean beds, wards, etc. when spills occur (there is not janitorial
service to call on evenings, nights or week-ends)? We see these things
occurring and yet when asked, they will tell you they work at KWH for the glory
of God and not because of the pay…they do get paid less than the government
hospitals.
On a brighter note, Bud & I
leave Tuesday to go to Freetown, do some grocery shopping and then pick up our
kids on Wednesday Needles to say, we are
very excited…we only wish all of them could come! Till next time….
