Greetings from Kaberamaido!
so we are here sitting back at the divine mercy guest house in Kaberamaido, its about 8:20 pm here. its me (Brigid), ken, and lyndsi, having cokes and watching the tv and using the computer.
Today was the busiet day every!! jane had said on the radio last week that our clinic would be open today, monday, of course we were assuming we would have a nurse and perminant doctor by now, but we have neither. So i went up to the clinic and there were literally over 50 people sitting on the ground, on the side of the building and all in the hallways of the building. I was so overwhelmed, i didn't know what to do. I only knew the basic things like how to treat malaria and fever, cold, flue, parasites, stuff like that, I have learned here and I can diagnoss it and prescribe the right medicine, but these people had tumors, swellling ankles that explode, oh the leaprosy lady came back again. Wow so anyway we called a nurse to come for the day to help me, I started seeing people until she arrived. All of the people think that because I am white I know everything and becuase I am in the medical clinlic and i am white I must be a smart doctor. Even the nurse kept calling me docotor and asking me how I would like to treat them, I was finally like listen lady I am a student I am here to observe, learn and help out, not treat people with leaprosy!! As you can tell by my tone I was a little stressed about the situation. I used the doctors office and saw one person at a time. it was mostly children the whole time. We went all morning and afternoon and did not even make a dent in the amount of people waiting, they just kept coming, it even got a bit closteraphobic! The nurse that came was not as good as the other nurse, she did not teach me as much as the nurse that had stolen things, but at least she wasn't a thief. so finally at about 4pm we told them we were finished for the day and that they should wait and come back next monday. we are suppsed to have a perminant doctor by then, we better I don't think I can handle another day of that. If perhaps I were more educated in the medical feild it would have been easier, but still I think even a doctor would have been over whlemed by the the amount of people. the temperature in the hallway was over 100 degress from so many people breathing and coughing. even the nurse said she though the whole town showed up to get treatment.
so after my break I went back up to the clinilc and ken and i put the printers into there rooms. We have all the computers set and ready in there rooms and networked together. let me tell you about that first. we did that yetsterday. We attached the four base plates (security plates) to the four desks in the four different rooms. So all the laptops are now in there perminant postition, secured down to the desk. we also hired a carpenter to bolt down the desks, so the desks are secure also. The carpenter did the networking as well. Ken came back from kamplala yesterday with the longer network cables and the carpenter and him wired the two buildings with them. All four compters are now running on the same network, one thing that is done is done on all the otehr computers. its really kinda cool! I am happy it worked out like that. So anyway today we put the printers in. They are secured down to the desks as well. There is one in the doctors office with the laptop and one in the main office with the laptop.
Everything is going well. the only problem is that in the one building the ground outlets don't work, we are having an electritian come and fix it tommroow. Once that is back on line then all the comptuer and printers will be running perfectly! Next step is to start teaching the staff how to use them. they are so eager. even the kids keep asking, will you teach me brigid! I can't wait to start, but we really need a doctor to treat the patients so that I can type the information in for things to run smoothly. there is still a lot of work to do but we have plenty of time.
Lyndsi went to visit the kids who go to boarding school all day so she wasn't here to help either. She said they were wonderful kids who are very intelligent. She went with Jane to find out what they need and make sure they are happy and healthy. She teaches them English every Tuesday and Thursday now too. The kids here are awesome and so talented and smart!
Well, we are happy and safe and wish you all the best, and hope to see you here in Africa to experience this for yourselves some day!
Brigid and Lyndsi
Today was the busiet day every!! jane had said on the radio last week that our clinic would be open today, monday, of course we were assuming we would have a nurse and perminant doctor by now, but we have neither. So i went up to the clinic and there were literally over 50 people sitting on the ground, on the side of the building and all in the hallways of the building. I was so overwhelmed, i didn't know what to do. I only knew the basic things like how to treat malaria and fever, cold, flue, parasites, stuff like that, I have learned here and I can diagnoss it and prescribe the right medicine, but these people had tumors, swellling ankles that explode, oh the leaprosy lady came back again. Wow so anyway we called a nurse to come for the day to help me, I started seeing people until she arrived. All of the people think that because I am white I know everything and becuase I am in the medical clinlic and i am white I must be a smart doctor. Even the nurse kept calling me docotor and asking me how I would like to treat them, I was finally like listen lady I am a student I am here to observe, learn and help out, not treat people with leaprosy!! As you can tell by my tone I was a little stressed about the situation. I used the doctors office and saw one person at a time. it was mostly children the whole time. We went all morning and afternoon and did not even make a dent in the amount of people waiting, they just kept coming, it even got a bit closteraphobic! The nurse that came was not as good as the other nurse, she did not teach me as much as the nurse that had stolen things, but at least she wasn't a thief. so finally at about 4pm we told them we were finished for the day and that they should wait and come back next monday. we are suppsed to have a perminant doctor by then, we better I don't think I can handle another day of that. If perhaps I were more educated in the medical feild it would have been easier, but still I think even a doctor would have been over whlemed by the the amount of people. the temperature in the hallway was over 100 degress from so many people breathing and coughing. even the nurse said she though the whole town showed up to get treatment.
so after my break I went back up to the clinilc and ken and i put the printers into there rooms. We have all the computers set and ready in there rooms and networked together. let me tell you about that first. we did that yetsterday. We attached the four base plates (security plates) to the four desks in the four different rooms. So all the laptops are now in there perminant postition, secured down to the desk. we also hired a carpenter to bolt down the desks, so the desks are secure also. The carpenter did the networking as well. Ken came back from kamplala yesterday with the longer network cables and the carpenter and him wired the two buildings with them. All four compters are now running on the same network, one thing that is done is done on all the otehr computers. its really kinda cool! I am happy it worked out like that. So anyway today we put the printers in. They are secured down to the desks as well. There is one in the doctors office with the laptop and one in the main office with the laptop.
Everything is going well. the only problem is that in the one building the ground outlets don't work, we are having an electritian come and fix it tommroow. Once that is back on line then all the comptuer and printers will be running perfectly! Next step is to start teaching the staff how to use them. they are so eager. even the kids keep asking, will you teach me brigid! I can't wait to start, but we really need a doctor to treat the patients so that I can type the information in for things to run smoothly. there is still a lot of work to do but we have plenty of time.
Lyndsi went to visit the kids who go to boarding school all day so she wasn't here to help either. She said they were wonderful kids who are very intelligent. She went with Jane to find out what they need and make sure they are happy and healthy. She teaches them English every Tuesday and Thursday now too. The kids here are awesome and so talented and smart!
Well, we are happy and safe and wish you all the best, and hope to see you here in Africa to experience this for yourselves some day!
Brigid and Lyndsi
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