Relationship Building

Let it be known that I keep blogging by popular demand…I’m afraid of what will happen if I’m not faithful to blog. Today was a relatively busy day. The day started at 9am with nurse Lisa down at the hospital. Actually, I couldn’t find Lisa at first, so I used my broken French to figure out where she was. Lisa is really an incredible woman. She has a lot of energy and is very go-with-the-flow. As a teacher at the nursing school and also a nurse at the hospital, she is always running between buildings. I’ve termed Lisa the “gofer nurse” because she really runs all over the place. Lisa seems to keep some things (particularly the nursing students) in check…So we checked on a patient in the medicale (adult medicine ward), two in the pediatric ward, changed an IV and administered drugs to a patient in the surgery ward. There was a random patient who came back 10 days before his appointment, so we looked at his injury.

Later, Lisa and I took a trip over to the lab. In the two years since my last visit, the lab and pharmacy have been completely knocked down and rebuilt on another area of the hospital campus. We took a trip to the lab to get a patient’s lab results which turned out to be AMAZING because I got to see the brand new lab, which would be considered rudimentary in the U.S. I am always amazed at the vast difference between U.S. hospitals and Bongolo.

New Lab:


Me & the lab guys:

We went over to one of the warehouses to grab some meds for a patient and I stopped in to say hi to Imba. I met Imba on my last trip. He speaks Spanish and is actually from Guinea.

Lisa proudly showed me the new morgue. Ok, it’s a morgue, so it is not THAT exciting, but it is quite a step from the old morgue. The old x-ray room is currently the temporary morgue. Lisa and I went to another warehouse to evaluate medical supplies. Hopefully, within the next week, I can clean up stuff and organize it so that we actually know what we have. The warehouse is absolutely disgusting and thus not a good place for medical supplies.

Morgue:

All in all, I had an awesome morning with Lisa at the hospital…its just kinda hard to remember everything at the end of the day!

Went back up Cardiac Hill to grab lunch and do some laundry. Got a phone call from Joanna…she told me that boxes from the container that had been shipped months ago had just arrived. I was recruited to help out Joanna with some unpacking and organizing. Love helping out because I always get to learn more about people and Gabonese culture through neat conversations. I was at the Thelander’s til about 3:20ish and then ran home to prepare stuff for my English lesson with Christine at 4pm. I put together a small powerpoint of pictures, so we would have subject matter to talk about and she would be able to ask questions.

I met Christine & petit Luc at her home at 4pm. We went for a walk and then Christine & petit Luc came back to my place and we talked more and looked at pictures.

Petit Luc (a.k.a. most adorable child ever) walking:

It was a great day of relationship building. I love spending time with Lisa especially at the hospital. Can’t wait to tackle my medical supplies project over the next few days… Had a great time with Joanna and then Christine & Luc. English lessons are a great too! I get to help Christine practice her English, but I also get to know her as an individual. What I have learned is that serving is so much more than doing a task, but it is the privilege of getting to know other people on a deeper level and also live out your faith.