Skills and Trade Fair

It has been a long time since I have written. And I’m sorry about that. Life isn’t all Henna Parties and new dresses. The day-to-day cares of life have taken up most of my time. And they’re not really what I want to write about in this blog because they’re pretty much the same troubles you get in the States, like house maintenance or paperwork. Most of these issues have already been taken care of, so now I have more time to write.

My work in the hospital has changed yet again. I’m now helping count medications in storage and keeping track of their expiration dates. I’m also giving physical exams to university students who are attending UniMak. They are all required to get blood work and chest X-rays. I mostly write down information like their name, age, and address. Sister Nora has said she wants me to also teach the nursing student more about checking newly admitted patients Glascow Coma Scales. For those of you who don’t know, it basically checks your level of consciousness.

While my work has changed, the hospital has pretty much been the same except for one thing. Dr. Veronica came back! She’s the diabetes doctor from the UK I wrote about in a previous blog. This time she brought a whole team of diabetes specialists from the UK to help her address the diabetes issues here in Sierra Leone. I was so impressed by them. They invited me to lunch and told me about their plans. They set up a clinic here in Makeni and later in a village in the bush. They went to a radio station and talked about diabetes and the clinic they had. They came to the hospital and gave lectures to the staff about diabetes management. It’s wonderful to see people from all over the world coming to Sierra Leone to help people with their expertise. 

Many of the expats here do similar programs that help educate and provide services to the country. My Italian neighbors at Stocco are part of an organization that helps with immigration so people can come and go from Sierra Leone safely. There are other expats that help establish wells for water or organize events to help fundraise for schools. The locals do events as well to help promote local businesses and create jobs. One of these events was called Trade and Skills Fair. It’s basically like a Farmer’s Market. They had local tailors, jewelers, woodcarvers, and farmers. There were people selling local handmade soaps and even a school for the deaf selling handmade bracelets and bags. Me and my expat friends went to go check it out. I bought some cashew honey from a local farm. Apparently, the bees at the farm only make honey from pollen they gather from cashew trees.

My expat friends and I are always up for an expedition to explore Makeni and any surrounding areas. Two weeks ago, many of us went on a hike to a waterfall. Since the rainy season is over, it’s safe to hike up the steeper hills. The waterfall was pretty close to a village, and we had to ask the locals permission to hike up there. They agreed and sent one of the men to guide us safely there. The view was fantastic. The waterfall was pretty too. I didn’t get the memo that we were going to swim in the waterfall and didn’t bring a bathing suit. So I watched and explored and took pictures while everyone else took a dip.  

Last week was Thanksgiving, so I invited all my expat friends to celebrate! I’m not much of a cook and my house is way too small to host a large dinner party, so we all got together at a restaurant we like called Fisherman’s. We all took turns around the table saying what we were grateful for. It was fun introducing something new to my friends. After dinner was finished, one of us had found a restaurant nearby that sells ACTUAL ICECREAM! I couldn’t believe it! The restaurant had a generator that kept the freezer going during blackouts! It was sooooo good!

 

According to the locals, it has gotten very cold. When the rainy season ends, winds from the northern part of Africa start blowing southward and it becomes very dry and chilly. A freezing 75 degrees Fahrenheit. I’m the most comfortable I’ve been since coming here. Everyone else is wearing fur-lined winter coats and Uggs. I’m in my tank top and flip flops. Christmas is coming soon. I wonder how people celebrate here. I’ll keep you guys posted. God bless!

 

P.S. I saw a monkey the other day! A local was keeping it as a pet! I took a photo and left and when I was walking back home, I saw people trying to find it because it had gotten loose! Be free monkey! Hopefully no one tries to eat you!

Work and Play

 

My duties at the hospital have changed over the last couple of weeks. Since my Krio has slowly been getting better, I’ve begun interviewing patients for their medical histories. When a patient is admitted into the hospital, we need to know many things about them, such as allergies, whether they’ve been in the hospital before or not, their family medical history, stuff like that. Some people speak English, many speak Krio, and some only speak the local tribal languages. My Krio lets me understand and be understood more. I’ve also begun teaching the student nurses about how to take medical histories and doing head-to-toe assessments. I’ve taught student nurses before back in the States, so it was nice to do something I’m familiar with.

 I needed to take some time away from the hospital this past week though. Since it’s nearing the end of the rainy season, the change in the weather has caused many people to catch colds. Me included. The temperature in the area hasn’t gotten colder like it does during our flu season. If anything, it’s gotten warmer. The high is about 89 degrees Fahrenheit. Despite that, it’s common to see people outside wearing puffy, fur lined snow jackets and beanies. The gate watchman even asked me for some boiled water to make some tea. Meanwhile I’m sweating, sneezing, and coughing, and achy all over. I didn’t leave my house for about a week. It was kind of nice just relaxing. Nighttime was always fun.

 There are a lot of thunderstorms right now and it’s fun to sit on my porch and watch the lightning dance through the sky. At sunset, sometimes the sky is a soft, cotton candy pink and the lightning is a bright, electric blue. Gorgeous.

 My health has gotten better, and I have been able to return to work. The weekend after I got better was especially fun. There’s a group of young people from Italy staying in the guest house here at Stocco. They’re a lively bunch. They’re always playing soccer or teaching Italian folk songs to the local children. On Sunday, they invited me to join them for mass and afterwards we all had lunch together. Most of them didn’t speak English so we had a hard time making conversation. But they played Christian music from Italy, and we had no problem understanding that we all liked that.

 Later that evening, I went to a “Henna” party. It’s basically like a bachelorette party. Another one of my coworkers is getting married! All the female staff at the hospital was invited. We all wore the same fabric, except the bride, and had dresses specially made by a tailor. My dress was the same as Deputy Matron Lamrana’s. She was the one who invited me. We held the party at the hospital. There was so much dancing. In the beginning of the party, we all formed a tunnel for the bride to dance through while we danced around her. Then we all sat at a picnic set up on the ground and watched the bride dance. She was holding something called a “calabash”.

 

When I asked what a calabash was, the women told me it’s the symbol of Africa and all brides received one.

“Ok, but what is it?” I asked.

 “It’s tradition,” the women told me.

 “I understand that, but what is a calabash?” I continued to ask.

 “It’s for cleaning,” they said.

 “Cleaning what?” I asked.

 “It’s to separate what is dirty and what is clean,” they responded.

 “I know what cleaning is,” I said. “But what is it that you clean with a calabash?”

 “Many things,” they said. “It’s to represent the role of the bride in her new household.”

After a while of this, I decided to consult Google. Google says a calabash is a hollowed out dried gourd that you can use to store food, collect water, clean food inside of or be used as a musical instrument. So, it’s basically a multipurpose bowl.

After the bride danced with the calabash, we started the games. I’ve been to a few bachelorette parties. There’s usually a common theme. And it’s just to make us all laugh. It’s all good fun. And it’s the same here in Sierra Leone. But they don’t have special shaped lollipops like they do in the States. What they do have are bananas. And one lady from every unit (not me) was elected by that unit to represent them in the “eating” of the banana. Each lady ate their banana with a lot of enthusiasm. I truly don’t know who won. The bride was supposed to select the winner. I didn’t catch who she chose. I was too busy laughing.

The next game was a competition to see who would represent the different tribes in a traditional dance. One member from each tribe would be selected to dance around the future bride in celebration of her future marriage. First was the Temne tribe. It’s the most common tribe here in Makeni. Next was Mende, then Limba, Fulla, Kono, Krio, Mandingo, Loko, and Soso. I represented tribe “Amerikin”. I was the only “Amerikin” there, so I didn’t have to compete. Once all the winners were chosen, each representative danced around the bride. Everyone was so thrilled that I danced. They didn’t even care that I wasn’t even any good. They were just happy to dance with me. It was such a fun night!

More Than One Fr. Gabriel

 

After living here for so many months, I thought miscommunication might not happen to me as much. And I was very wrong.

 

Two Saturdays ago, in the middle of the night, I was sitting next to my window, watching Mamma Mia on my laptop with my headphones on, minding my own business and I hear a very loud, “Sally!” over the song Dancing Queen, and I turn and see Sister Peace staring down at me outside my window. I’ve never seen the movie, “The Nun”, but a nun staring down at you from the darkness is scary whether you’ve seen the movie or not. After I got my adrenaline back down to a normal level, she told me that Father Gabriel had invited us to go to the bush with him to attend mass at a village. I said I would love to go and she said she would meet me in the morning.

 

After I got ready for mass the next day, I saw Sister Peace getting into a vehicle and she yelled out, “Father Gabriel will pick you up and I’ll meet you there!” So I waited on my front porch and Father Gabriel drove by and waved at me and kept going. So I yelled out, “Father!” And he stopped, backed up and he said, “Kushe, Sally! Where are you going to mass today?” And I replied, "I thought I was going with you, Father. Sister Peace said you had invited me to go to the bush.” He said, “No I haven’t talked to her in a while. But you’re welcome to come with me.” So I got in his car and went with him. Turns out, Sister Peace wasn’t talking about the Father Gabriel who lives next door to me and has been teaching me Krio all this time. She was talking about another Father Gabriel who I have met maybe twice since coming to Sierra Leone. Here’s a helpful tip about Sierra Leone; Gabriel and Mohammed are very common names here, and you should clarify with people about which Mohammed or Gabiel they are talking about before you make assumptions.

 

That day, Father Gabriel took me and his assistant, Gabriel (like I said, it’s a common name), on an hour-long drive through the bush. The rainy season has made the roads even worse than during the dry season. It’s very easy to get stuck in the mud or get caught in a flash flood on the roads. Luckily, that didn’t happen to us. I actually think the miscommunication was a blessing in disguise. I love being out in the bush, surrounded by trees and foliage, seeing farms and people living surrounded by nature. It was as close to “touching grass” as I’ll ever get living here. We arrived in a small village called Mabinki (I think) and were greeted by children chanting “Fada! Fada! Fada!” They love it when Father Gabriel comes to the village for Sunday mass. Father Gabriel showed me around the village. He showed me the village lime and banana trees. 

We also discussed the difference between the African way of telling time and the Western way of telling time. According to Father Gabriel, Western time is all about being on time. But African time is all about the event itself. It doesn’t really matter if you get to an event on time or not, it’s about being able to get there on your own time. For example, let’s say you say you’re going to have a party at 3:00 on a Friday. People will show up on Friday, it just will be whenever they decide to show up.

 

The village church was so cute! I’d say it was the nicest looking church I had seen since coming here. The Cathedral is nice, inside and out, but this church has character. It was called the Church of the Holy Family. The paintings inside were by the same artist who I had admired in another village I went to with Father Luigi. Everyone was very happy to see a “Porto” at the service. The whole mass was done in Krio so I didn’t understand everything. After mass, Father Gabriel and Gabriel had some palm wine with the chief and the other elders of the village. I politely declined. I don’t really like the taste of alcohol and didn’t want any on an empty stomach. After we arrived back in Makeni, Father took me out to lunch at a restaurant he knew which was nice.

 

The Sunday after that, we had Thanksgiving! Apparently, the people here have a Thanksgiving too! I had no idea! It’s not like our Thanksgiving. I don’t think they have turkeys or cranberry sauce here (although they do have sweet potatoes). This Thanksgiving took place after mass at Conforti, which is the church that’s closest to my house in Stocco. When mass was finished, everybody went over to a community center next door. They had music turned up to the max on some speakers. Then a bunch of people started talking on the microphone. Hearing Krio spoken over a microphone is like trying to listen to the “old coot” from Blazing Saddles and understand what’s being said. It’s hard. After that, food and sodas were passed around. It was a bunch of different kinds of fried foods. The only thing I could identify was chips. I ate everything, I just had no idea what I ate. It was all good. I hope one day I’ll actually understand more about what’s going on around me. Until that day comes, I’ll just go with the flow and enjoy the experience.

Familiarity & Faith

 

As September comes, so does the first day of school in Sierra Leone. The Catholic Diocese does everything it can to promote education here in Makeni. They built most of the schools in the city and in the bush and continue to manage them to this day. They are also responsible for the University of Makeni. Every morning, I see students dressed in their uniforms with their skirts or slacks and ties, making their way up and down the streets. It reminds me of scenes from anime shows, except there are no cherry blossom petals floating around and no one is Japanese. Most children here go to the Catholic schools, whether they come from Chistian homes or Muslim homes, and are taught by priests or sisters. My dad and his siblings went to Catholic schools. I never had that experience. I was happy with public school, but it makes me wonder what that would have been like. As I see all these children rushing to school, it makes me think of home. Education was very important to my dad’s parents. They both immigrated from Nicaragua to the US and wanted all their children and grandchildren to receive good educations.

A lot of the local food here reminds me of the Nicaraguan food I grew up with, which was a lot of rice and beans and chicken and fried plantains. It’s comforting. My paternal grandmother passed away this Sunday. We called her Coco. She came to the States where she met my grandfather. They both had grown up in a country that didn’t let everyone get an education and wouldn’t let people speak freely. While they lived in the States, they brought their children up in the Catholic church. My Coco gave me my first rosary. She prayed for me and all my cousins every day. When she found out I was going to be a missionary in Africa, she was very worried about me and my safety. But she told me that she was very proud of me. She told me no one in our family had ever done anything like this. She gave me another rosary blessed by Pope Francis and told me, “God bless you, mi amor. I love you.” My mom taught me to follow God. My Gram taught me to love God. But my Coco taught me to love the Catholic faith and I’m so grateful she was my Coco. All three of those lessons will never leave me. Especially here on my mission when I need them the most. I pray I remember them the rest of the time I’m on my mission.

Expedition

 

Since it has begun to rain a little less often these days (and it is way less hot than it is in the dry season), I’ve started venturing out and taking longer walks, exploring the surrounding areas of Makeni on foot. Some days are absolutely overcast and gloomy, but some days I get nice sunny days with fluffy clouds dotted throughout the sky. It’s so good to feel the sun on my face! I even managed to get pictures of Stocco Road in the sunshine!

 

Usually before I set out, I’m greeted by Bobby. Bobby is one of the local dogs here at Stocco Compound. He is always so friendly. I’ve trained him not to jump on me anymore, but he sometimes forgets himself. He’s always so happy to see me out and about. I usually wander around the University of Makeni (Uni Mak). The grounds are well maintained and clean and I like seeing the different lecture halls. I took a picture of me there with Wusum Mountain in the background.

  

During one of my expeditions, I went to a dress shop that we always pass on the way to the hospital. I had always admired one of the custom-made dresses they had on display in the front, but it always looked too small for me to wear. However, when I got there, the owner insisted I try it on and oddly enough, it fit me perfectly! I wore to mass the next day! All the Sisters complimented me and told me I looked very “Africana”. It makes me feel like I’m from the 80s. I love it!

 

 

I’ve been trying to stay more active. The Wusum Hotel has a gym, and I sometimes go with my Italians neighbors. It’s very tempting to just stay in my house all the time and avoid the gym all together. When it was raining all the time I had a better excuse. But now, I’ve found it’s better to get out and about more. Yesterday we were invited by several of our expat friends to go on a hike up the Menna Hills. I thought for sure it was going to pour on us but it only sprinkled a little and it was refreshing. The view was nice from up there. We didn’t go the whole way up because the paths were too overgrown. 

 

But it was nice being able to see the town I’ve been living in from a new perspective. Makeni is much larger than I had thought. And it was nice sharing it with friends. Some locals even came and joined us with their two dogs. It was a fun day. I hope I can climb the other hills around here and get some practice before I try to climb Wusum Mountain. That’s going to be way more challenging.

New Intensive Care Unit

 

Holy Spirit Hospital has just opened a brand-new Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Sister Julianna had been trying to open one for so long and right when she leaves, it becomes ready to use! It’s not like our ICUs in the States. It’s closer to what we have in general admission wards. They have monitors and IV pumps and oxygen that can be plugged into the wall where it is attached to oxygen tanks in a separate building. Usually, patients don’t have monitors or IV pumps to deliver medication and if they need oxygen, it comes from a machine that relies on electricity. Many of the nurses here have never worked with machines like that and don’t have the proper training. So, I have been spending a lot of time on the new ICU helping set up monitors. I really need to teach more people about how the settings on a monitor for a child are very different than the settings for an adult. I also need to reinforce the need to not allow bubbles in the IV line. Even one tiny bubble can set off the IV machine. They also have a baby incubator in the ICU. They have no plans at the hospital to use it any time soon, but I want to ask if I can check it out to see if it works like the ones we have in the States and teach some nurses how to use it in case the need ever comes up. I can see myself spending most of my time in the ICU, but I am primarily a pediatric nurse and while I don’t just work with children while I’m in Sierra Leone, I feel I should spend some time on the general pediatric ward as well as the ICU.

 

The other day I had a chance to use my knowledge of medical machines and pediatric nursing care. In the morning while doing rounds, I saw a child with increased respirations and labored breathing. I knew the signs that the baby would soon exhaust itself and wouldn’t be able to keep up breathing like that. I began doing what we do in the States and had the baby sit up and I made what we call a nest so she could sleep while sitting up. I also placed a shoulder roll under her shoulders to help open her airway. Dr. Turay saw what I was doing and examined her for himself. He recommended the child be sent to ICU. Now I should explain, ICU is much more expensive than the general ward and the family has to be consulted first, so they are aware of the cost and to be sure if they have the money available. It took a while to figure that out, but eventually we moved her to the ICU. I taught the younger nurses who were there about the difference between pediatric and adult monitor settings, but I don’t think the understood my broken Krio. I also taught them about positioning that helps with the baby’s breathing. Besides teaching, I was also trying to advocate for the baby to get the proper medications to help open her airway. What she really needed was a dose of albuterol from a nebulizer. But it took so long to find all the parts for a nebulizer and then when I finally assembled one, it turns out the hospital didn’t even carry albuterol, so we had to wait until we could send someone to buy some at another pharmacy.

 

If there are two things the hospital here truly needs, it’s more resources and better communication. Maybe one day when I’m back home I’ll set up a fundraiser to help with acquiring more resources for Holy Spirit Hospital. And maybe one day I’ll figure out some kind of class where I can teach methods of communication. Until then, I’ll just keep doing my best helping where I can and teaching where I can.

A Great Day

Today was a great day! It not only kept me busy, but I got to do things I’ve never done before. First thing after rounds, the doctor asked me to do a one-on-one talk with a patient because she seemed very anxious with so many people in the room with her. Me and another nurse who could help me understand the patient’s Krio better sat with her and I asked her some questions. She had been having nightmares for several years and every time afterwards she would have chest and stomach pains, dizziness, and start vomiting. All of this is a sign of anxiety or a panic attack Back in the States, I had many young people who would be experiencing anxiety in the hospital setting, so I would teach them some methods on how to manage that anxiety. It doesn’t make it go away completely, but it at least helps. She seemed grateful when I taught her.

 

We also had an emergency code on the inpatient unit. That wasn’t a good thing that happened, but the good part was I felt like I knew what to do and how to help in a code situation. The patient was fine; they just fell on the way to the bathroom. But I knew what interventions we had to perform.

 

The best part of today was I successfully placed an IV today without the help of an ultrasound! I used the patient’s anatomy to find a vein! It was awesome! I gave patients their medications and monitored them afterwards, I charted everything. I finally felt like today was a productive day and that I’m finally able to start helping more at the hospital!

 

I’ve also been having a lot of fun hanging out with the ex-pats that live around here. We had a nice dinner together and the person who hosted it was able to make brownies and managed to find some chocolate ice cream. We couldn’t believe it! Everyone started cheering when our host brought out the treats. It had been so long since we had been able to have ice cream! The day after that, we all got together again with some of the locals we know around the area and had a game night! We played Uno and Codenames and had a great time! I keep forgetting to take pictures of these events, but I keep having too much fun to stop and think about getting out my phone. I feel like I’m making so many wonderful memories here and meeting so many interesting and nice and kind people from all over the world! I’m so happy to be back in Sierra Leone!