Monday (5/11):
Monday (from what I recall) was of no particular significance. We didn't really have anything going except for unpacking the Kelly's newly arrived container of things from America. So Monday included a mix of that, dishwashing, shopping for Amanda's birthday present and babysitting the kids during French lessons. I think that was basically it, I am sure there were a few more details, but I don't quite remember.
Tuesday (5/12):
On Tuesday, we travelled to Guevede which is approximately 30km NE of Bongolo. Elisa, Jean-Marie and Alec Rousch also came, so that was cool. The plan was to paint the disepensary in Guevede. However, it rained most of Tuesday morning, so we weren't quite sure if painting was still on the program. I think the ride there totalled close to 1.5 hrs. Because of all the rain, the roads (more like paths) were slick and muddy. We got stuck and slid around a bit. Once we got to the dispensary, we painted for about 4 hours until about 3pm or so. Many villagers came to watch us paint...I have quite a few pictures, but won't get to posting them until at least tomorrow.
***Above: Jean-Marie, Elisa & Alec Rousch painting at the dispensary.We came back from Guevede around 5ish and basically ate and did a few things until bed or at least that is how I recall the evening going.
Wednesday (5/13): AMANDA's BIRTHDAY!!!
The morning started with a DELICIOUS birthday breakfast cooked by Tim and the kids for Amanda. I was off to the hospital right after breakfast since I had to be there at 8:30am. I spent the morning with Dr. Deb, the pediatrician. If I counted correctly, the peds. ward has 22 beds divided over 11 rooms. I went on rounds with Dr. Deb in the morning, so she kindly summarized each case for me so I was aware of what was going on. There were quite a few sad cases...We took one little boy to the eye clinc, so the opthamologist could examine his protruding eye. While I was there, the opthamologist kindly asked if I would like to watch a cataract removal/lens insertion. It was very interesting, but eye surgery is definitely not for me!
After the hospital, I went back up to the Kelly's for lunch. After lunch, we (along with Lisa and the Rousch girls) headed off to the tailor to have our fabric made into ensembles, skirts, etc. Lisa did a FABULOUS job translating, so I am hopeful that I will get what I ordered. We'll see ;-)
Wednesday night was staff meeting at the Kelly's, so the kids and I watched Star Trek in the boy's room during the meeting. After the meeting we had cake, ice cream and presents in honor of Amanda's birthday.
Thursday (5/14):
Thursday and Friday, were BY FAR my most favorite days this week. What can I say? I love surgery. Dr. Keir & the residents kindly allowed me to observe multiple surgeries. I LOVED IT and drank in every single moment. I am trying to remember what I saw....
1) Laparoscopic proccedure...Lots of inflammatory cysts, NOT ovarian cysts. Result of PID.
2) Thyroidectomy
3) Removal of a MASSIVE (I truly mean massive; it was probably the size of a small child's head or a small soccer ball) mass.
[LUNCH BREAK]
4) Vaginal hysterectomy
After being in the OR, I came home, showered and the Jessica and I headed off to the Thelander's for dinner. Joanna made a DELICIOUS pizza and side salads/dishes. I will forever remember them! We had ice cream and star fruit crisp!!! It was all SO delicious. Words cannot describe. I absolutely sutffed myself....I think I consumed a total of 4 slices of pizza. We talked a bit and I played with Luke and Sarah who are absolutely adorable and were (at the time) super hyper.
I was so tired when I came home, I fell asleep on my bed without taking my contacts out or anything, so I woke up at 3am very confused. But, I fell back asleep and got up around 6:30am.
Friday (5/15): FORREST's BIRTHDAY!!!
Friday brought the excitement of another birthday in the Kelly family. I had to be at the hospital at 7:30am, so I barely saw anyone this morning.
The morning started with devotions in the chapel, then Dr. Keir let me sit in on his lecture to the residents about cleft lips and palates. Here are a few things I learned...I probably got a few things confused by now, but...
-Cleft lips and palates are a result of the malformation of muscles in three areas
-They are most commonly found in Asians and are least common amoung blacks.
-One should operate on children when they are 15-18 months old (I think I have dates mixed up) ...at this point you can operate on the soft palate and then re-operate on the hard palate later. The hard palate is operated on later, because the smaller the amount of incisions, the smaller the scarring, the better the result or something like that
-The soft palate is posterior, while the hard palate is anterior.
-If the surgery is adequate, but the cosmetic result is not good (or as desired), one cannot operate again before 2 yrs.
-If the surgery is inadequate (the structural/muscle result is not good) and thus the cosmetic result is not good, one can operate sooner...I think it was 3 months.
After lecture, the residents took a quiz, then rounds began. We went through the surgery ward, pediatric ward, medical (adult) ward and the maternity ward to check up on patients who had had surgery. After I went with one of the residents and Dr. Keir to the Sal d' Urgences (I don't know how to spell this, but its the ER basically). We visited a few patients there.
After that, I went to see one of the nurses (yes, nurses do this) perform two hirnea surgeries. In between I used my pathetic French to make friends with the cleaning chick/scrub and the others in the room.
After the hirneas, I went up to the Kelly's for a quick lunch. I hurried back down to see two more procedures. One of the residents drained an abscess from one woman. I saw more pus (typical of an infection) than I ever want to see again in my life.
***Above: Rosaline (cleaning chick) & IAfter (are you noticing my constant use of the word "after" ???) that procedure, another resident conducted a debridement (yeah, look at that fancy medical term)...basically he removed the dead tissues from a man's leg.
Simultaneous to the above procedure, Dr. Keir began a laparoscopic procedure on an older man with a twisted colon. Obviously, a twisted colon is not a good thing because it prevents an individual from relieving one's bowels (please enjoy that phrase, I worked long and hard on correct terminology there). Many things went wrong during this because of a patient who wiggled and complained that he couldn't breathe (but really he was breathing better than most individuals). The suction didn't work and the power went out. Really, it was a grand time. Dr. Keir also extracted two worms from the man's colon. All in all it worked out well, but it was very frustrating.
All the surgeries were super interesting, and I am grateful to have been a part of it...I went hoem and showered, then we went to Barack Obama Cafe in town and had plantains, rice, french fries and chicken with Djino (grapefruit soda)...DELICIOUS!
After that we watched High School Musical since Elisa Rousch brought it from the U.S...Good times.
Saturday (5/16):
Saturday consisted of MULTIPLE trips to Lebamba. In conclusion Jessica & Jean-Marie got their hair braided. The maniac tailor finished all of our clothes (which totaled 5 ensembles, 4 skirts and 1 bag) in two days, so we picked those up. We did some random shopping and got gas, too.
***Above: Some of our beautiful clothes from the tailor.Later, we had dinner guests, so we hurriedly cooked dinner, ate it and then went to the Thelander's for Jessica's good-bye party. We all had so much fun and Joanna & Keir were pretty awesome and let all the young folks (the Rousch siblings, Jessica & I) stay till very late. The evening was full of delicious treats like brownies.
Sunday (5/17):
Sunday we travelled to Guevede. Church was fundamentally depressing. Singing was quiet and low-key in comparison with other Gabonese and African churches. People either slept of talked during the sermon.
***Above: The CMA church in Guevede.
Guevede is a village that once had quite a few CMA missionaries. There is even an old mission house. Now, there are few that are faithful and bother coming to church. I think there were 40 people there, but that is really only because foreigners (a.k.a., "the white people") came to church. The pastor told us that usually only 25 come to church. The church in Guevede used to be quite large. In fact, it was so large that they built a new church, which could easily seat 150 or more.
Anyways, it was a sad experience. We all decided that the pastor was discouraged and in great need of outside encouragement and support. The pastor and his wife invited us over for lunch. We ate porcupine, manioc, plantains and bananas with Djino. Did the porcupine taste like chicken? No, although it was DELICIOUS. The porcupine kind of tasted like pulled-pork.
Because Guevede is in the middle of the jungle and quite a distance from other larger villages, we took another pastor (also a sub-chief) and his wife back to Bongolo with us since he is experiencing hyper-tension (or so we understood).
The rest of Sunday was spent relaxing. I napped (typical), read, played Clue and read more. Later, I went over to Lisa and Jessica's. We chatted until I saw a mouse running around their kitchen-living room area. Lisa and Jessica attempted to set mouse traps. Lisa baited them with peanut butter. The disadvantage to this, is that although you may catch the mouse, you will be invaded by Gabonese ants, which we all know from an earlier post are FEROCIOUS.
***Above: Lisa attempts to set a mouse trap.So after our trap-setting adventure I said good-bye to Jessica who left this (Mon.) AM. Then, I went to bed.
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