first day...

It’s five thirty, and I am home for the night. One of the staff wasn’t feeling very well, so I came home early with her. My first day of work is done.

It at 4 am when a massive storm woke me up to the sound of roaring. Hurricane-like winds were ripping over the roof above me as sheets of rain lashed the windows and flickers of lightening revealed millisecond images of outside. Back to sleep and then up at 6 to make the 7:10 transport to the clinic. The morning started with rounds with the ex-pat medical team to get report from the circulating nurses – all Sierra Leonean nationals. So I got a tour of the ward and quick introduction to the face of VVF. Nearly fifty women all with the look of hope mixed with fear, silently wishing every moment that this will work.

You see, not everyone who comes to the clinic walks away continent and dry. Many, in fact, will leave without finding success. Their fistula may be repaired (or it may not be), but the many other complications that follow such a traumatic injury leave them still severely incontinent. The question every morning: “Is she dry?” One can almost tell without asking which patients are dry, which are still wet, and which are awaiting surgery simply by their faces.

After a quick walk about the ward, we all came together in the children’s clinic attached to the Fistula Centre for a few moments of praise and prayer, staff and patients together. After that I teamed up with Helen, ringleader for the education and training programs we provide to the women recovering and waiting. After chatting for a bit about the program, her vision, etc., we got ready for the morning session: numeracy.

The first plan for the ACFC was to teach literacy for the women who came through the doors, but the reality is that it’s nearly impossible to teach several years of education in two weeks. Helen told me that it’s often a huge feat for these women to learn how to hold a pencil properly. So, she said, we start with numbers. After all, most of them are subsistence farmers so being able to add and subtract may very well be much more useful.

We counted on our fingers and practiced identifying numbers on flashcards. They all had it down pretty well. Then while Helen worked with them on a simple worksheet meant to develop fine motor skills for writing, I took about five girls over to the side. These girls had been identified as being literate, or at least had had some formal education. We worked on a worksheet in which they finished the following sentences:

My name is…
I come from…
I get this piss problem for…
I like this hospital because…
I want to….when I get home.

(by the way, we weren’t being vulgar with the whole piss thing – it’s quite a common word here. Harriet, the ex-pat nurse manager told me that the bladder is commonly called the “piss bag”)

The answers were remarkable. One girl who didn’t look any older than myself had been suffering from her fistula for ten years. Another, slightly older, fifteen. What did all of them want to do when they got home? Go back to school. “I want to continue to further my education,” one girl wrote. Her name is Jinnah, and she has stolen my heart. A large number of them want to be nurses, which also made me (and the nurses there) very happy. J

Then it was lunch time: cassava and rice. I didn’t actually eat it as I had brought some food from the house, but it certainly had an interesting smell. Helen said that she likes every lunch they serve at the Centre except for Monday’s, so I have a feeling I didn’t miss much. I suppose I should try it, though, before I go.

I spent the early part of the afternoon making up some simple booklets for the women to practice their numbers by writing and coloring. Then it was craft time. We made pom-poms, and all of the girls loved them. They ended up mostly as necklaces, although several found a clever way to fasten them into their hair. Absolutely amazing. J Fine-fine, I would say (which essentially means, “soooo good!” in Krio). Then they would smile or laugh. I love them all.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on getting some materials prepped for tomorrow. The girls are going to color in name tags to go above their beds - add some pizzazz to the wards and help them see better the letters in their names. Then it was nearly five o’clock, and I headed home!

A pretty fun-filled first day. Exciting and informative and interesting and engaging and challenging and so many things, really. I talked with Terri, my supervisor, for a bit during lunch, and we talked about getting to rotate about the Clinic this first week to get comfortable and adjusted and familiar with everything going on, then looking at going out to do follow-up stuff starting next week. So tomorrow, I’ll probably help Helen a bit, but I’m to shadow Harriet and see what her day looks like! I can’t wait…