5 July 2012
Hey all!
It’s an Independence Day celebration for Malawi and America this week! Kathleen and I plan on doing it big while we’re away from our families.
It was a weird Monday without Jocelyn around…everything got done as usual, but it still felt like we were one person short.
On Tuesday we went to the AMAZING Shoprite…they had barbeque sauce, mustard, ground beef, sausages…all of the foods and condiments I thought were scarce to come by have been a 15 minute walk away from the hospital all this time! Kathleen and I were planning on going all out for the 4th of July.
Kathleen fell ill that evening so I went to Bible study on my own. When I got back to Kabula I brought her the news that nearly everyone at Bible study was going to be at the lake this weekend so she would get to see them before they left Blantyre!
The next morning Kathleen thought she was doing better but had to go back to the lodge shortly after arriving to work. I did the usual morning meeting, CPAP check-ups, data-entry, and other tasks of the day…it was an okay day, but it didn’t feel as productive because there was nothing I found that needed fixing.
On Wednesday Kathleen and I had an EPIC INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION!!! I think we hyped this 4th of July celebration up so much over the past few days we had people at the hospital telling us about the celebration that was happening at Kabula lodge that Americans were having!
We cooked a super big feast; chili and cheese hot dogs, “freedom fries”, and apple crumble pie…it was all so good and so worth the extra money spent on groceries. During the cook time we colored American flags with 3 of our British friends and the 6-year-old grandson of the lodge owner, and while we ate dinner we watched an episode of Modern Family…what could be more patriotic! Normally after we watch a movie or a TV show everyone else is pooped and I’m wishing I had a night-owl friend…but tonight, I was slipping fast into a food coma.
The mortality morning meeting was held on today instead of Friday since it was also Malawi’s Independence Day this week. Again, I was at work by myself since Kathleen was still a bit ill. The morning felt awfully wrong, I felt down; something about having a mortality meeting and hearing different cases where children die just doesn’t get my gears pumped. I think it affected me more so today because Kathleen was not here; so before I started anything off in my work-day I prayed.
After doing the morning CPAP checks, Chrissy (one of the CPAP nurses) gave me an available CPAP machine to test! This meant that I could try out the new Labview program I had been working on that would self-collect 1 minute of data in 5 minute intervals for 2 hours (instead of me doing this manually and risking the chance of me forgetting to collect data or wasting valuable work time). Unfortunately during the 2 hour test Chrissy came by the closet to pick up the machine a patient in Special Care Ward needed it.
I’m super glad my Thursday picked up…can’t wait to set off towards the lake during for the 3 day weekend!!!
With love,
Bridget
Things that were new to me:
Making chili
Things I wish I had:
NIV version of the Bible
A second stomach so I could eat more of this chili!
More of Kathleen’s AMAZING apple-crumble pie
For my parents—I promise I’m eating:
For breakfast: Toast, jam, eggs / and Toast, jam, banana in oatmeal
For lunch: chicken pie (Cure Café) / croissant (Cure Café) / PB&J with banana sandwich
For dinner: chili and cheese hot dogs, “freedom fries”, and apple crumble pie / hot dogs and sausages (bible study) / dinner at the McGrath’s house (bible study)