[June 11, 2010]
Everything is still pretty surreal. I walk outside and – Hello! – there’s a cow in my front yard. (That has only happened once, but I’m sure there are more surprises to come…) Straight ahead is a picturesque grassland, to the left is, well, the cow, but also the main hospital entrance, and to the right is a path leading to the village market. I can’t believe I’m here.
St. Gabriel’s is unlike any hospital I’ve ever set foot in. The main entrance is a simple one – one set of double doors that passersby open and close manually, leading to one main corridor with offshoots into the different wards. Between those ward entrances, though, are quaint little patches of grass, where you will constantly find patients or family members taking in the fine weather.
All throughout the day, workers are wiping down the floors – perhaps trying to clean off the red dirt that still drifts in. I feel bad when I walk by, trekking in more red dirt from the road, but I’ve come to accept that red dirt is everywhere in Malawi… No getting rid of it any time soon!
In the past few days, I’ve still been trying to orient myself to the hospital nurses, doctors, and personnel, as well as the facilities. I’m happy to say that with each day, I feel more and more settled in. In addition to pill counting, our BTB group of 4 has also made visits to many different wards, introducing ourselves and trying our best to be helpful. We’ve counted pills, organized patient records, conversed with different hospital personnel, and even attended a ward meeting.
The ward meeting we attended was for the Palliative Care department. Although they didn’t have a set agenda for the day, what I thought was interesting was that the department head, Matilda, asked each nurse or support group volunteer to share their recent experiences and challenges. Of course, some individuals were more outspoken than others. But when one doctor named Aileen (who is here doing half a year of residency) brought up a patient that had recently passed, she asked everyone to share a sentiment or two on his/her experience with the patient. I thought that was pretty moving and wondered if hospitals or hospices in the States had similar protocol among their departments.
As for project progress, I’m excited to announce that we’ve already had another meeting with Matilda, a previous community healthcare outreach worker who has been one of the frequent users of the CHO backpacks sent over by Elizabeth Nesbit last summer. While we await the return of the leader of the community healthcare worker program (Alex, who is still away in another city Blantyre for training), Matilda acquainted us with the CHO backpack and program and explained the various types of outreach volunteers. Our conversation served almost as a sort of “market research” for our Microenterprise Seminar program, which we will definitely need to tweak (with Alex’s help) in order to cater to our special demographic of CHO volunteers. I feel like we’re off to a great start.