Some adventures that come, you never would have guessed in a million years that you would be doing! For instance, I didn't expect to ever be in Africa, yet here I am. And I would never have expected I would live on a ship, yet here I am. And I never would have thought in a million years that I'd be trying to wash off a ship, yet there I was!
Thursday turned insane about 9:30am to 2pm! I had 5 patients, 4 of whom were being discharged. The eye patient and 3 of the 4 hernia repair patients were going home. One hernia patient was staying. Things were going smoothly and then I don't know what happened but I can hardly tell you how I spent the time between 9:30am and 2pm!!! Well, I managed to get all but one of my hernia patients to the group teaching on discharge instructions and care. The one that did not go, I went over everything with him twice--he apparently forgot everything we went over an hour ago!!! Meanwhile, my eye patient was ready to leave but kept insisting that he did not get the medication he needed at home. I ended up giving him a packet of Tylenol should he need it for pain. However, he continued to insist that he was missing a medication and could not leave yet. When I asked what he thought he was missing, he stated that it was a medicine for his blood. At first I wasn't sure what he was refering to until I realized that he had heard me teaching another patient (who had a history of a stroke) about his Aspirin regimen and thought that everybody needed it. After explaining that to him, he agreed that he was ready to leave! Because of the insanity, I asked another nurse to put together 4 take home packets for my hernia patients (the instructions in French for care and restrictions, bar of soap, a few extra guaze just in case, multivitamins, iron suppliment, and Ibuprofen for pain). She readily agreed and had them ready to go in no time. So I got their money out of the safe and added that and their follow-up appointment card to their bags, finished teaching them about the meds via a translator, and went around handing them their bag to take with them. As I was handing out the last bag, I realized the patient still had an IV infusing. It took me a minute, but my foggy brain finally realized that he had an IV going because he had not yet had surgery!!! I was trying to discharge a patient who was having his surgery later that day!!! Well, he was well prepared for his discharge the next day!!!
Friday was a bit crazy, as well, as we were trying to discharge about 5 patients by lunch time (I'll explain later about the African mindset on time!) and moving our last three patients on B ward down to D ward for the weekend. After completing all of that, another nurse and I and two disciplers took several patients up on deck 7 for some fresh air. While the adults did a devotional time with the disciplers, we got to play with the three little girls from the ward. Two are about 10-12 yr and the third is the older sister of one of our babies--she's about 3yr. I finally learned to count to 3 in French, so we used the seams in the metal floor as start and finish lines for our bike/scooter/John Deer tractor races! I had the youngest girl alternately on the push bike and John Deer and then just running. Her adorable smile split her face and her brown eyes wide and sparkling--she always has a look of mischeif in her eyes!!! She was sooo cute!!! After we'd worn her down a bit, I sat playing with her, tickling her...I'd look out of the corner of my eye at her and wiggle my finger for her to come over here and she would exagerate the movements as she mimicked me back! She would turn her head way to the side and tilt it towards me while looking out of the corner of her eye, then pump her little arms, one over the other towards herself, motioning me to come or waving fists for a fight... I'm not sure which!!! It was just too cute!!! She also chattered away the whole time though I have no idea what she was saying!
Then came the washing the ship part. Warning! If you are easily grossed out, please skip this section and continue reading with the next paragraph!!! When our time out on deck was finished, the other nurse and one of the disciplers started back downstairs with everyone, but one of the patients suddenly felt sick and was quickly motioned over to the side of the ship where he promptly lost everything he had had in him! One of the long-term ladies was close by the door and came to help us. I sent the second discipler for a pan from the hospital so that we could make if "safely" back downstairs. However, the wind was blowing lightly and umm...let's just say it didn't make it all the way down (about 3-4 stories) to the water. I was really hoping that since we were having a ship's holiday (I'll explain that later), nobody would be in their cabins on that side and especially no one gazing out their portholes just at that moment!!! Well, his stomach settled some, the discipler came back with a pan, and the other nurse came back up to check on us and agreed to take him back down for me. I, however, had to somehow rinse off the side of the ship. Though there are normally engineers and deck hands around deck 7 during the day to ask for help from, because of the holiday,no one seemed to be around that day. There was a rolled up hose under the stairs so I started unrolling that but the spigot I needed to connect it to was already connected to a pipe going up the side to the pool area of deck 8. As I was contemplating how important the pipe and connection was and whether or not I could disconnect it to hook up the hose, one of the long-term men came down from deck 8 and readily connected the hose for me! So with my now-connected hose, I leaned over the railing, aimed the nozel and waited for the stream of water to pick up pressure...but it stayed at about 1/2 the strength of an average garden hose and nozel! I did alright rinsing off the railing in front of me and the side of the two decks directly below me but the wind was blowing and it was proving difficult to get the rest. Leaning out and lowering the hose about 3-4 feet, trying to aim it in the generally right direction while trying to guess how far over the wind would take it, I started giggling at the whole situation and really hoping that no one in the cabins was suffering from the unusual show!!! Since the wind wasn't helping me too much, I prayed that God would change the direction of the wind so that no one would suffer having that on or near their window and the deck hands would not have to go down on Monday to scrub it off! And He did--He turned the wind just enough to finish rinsing everything off the side of the ship! And THAT is how I washed a ship!!!
Today ended up being a little busier as I was able to discharge 2 more patients; however, I've been fighting a head cold for the last few days and was feeling really foggy-brained with a voice about 2 octaves lower than my usual and a constantly running nose. About lunch-time the charge nurse graciously excused me from the rest of my shift (a 12-hour today and tomarrow) and let me go "home"! I'm feeling a little better this evening but am hoping it's done soon! Everyone here has been passing around two versions of it for a while now--head cold and stomach bug. I'm happy just to have the head cold!
Okay...the African mindset on time...my grandmother was a missionary in Nairobi, Kenya for several years and explained that Africans have a very "now" kind of mindset--there is not much planning for the future or thought to what has already been done previously, as we in the western cultures are used to. We have our calendars and day planners filled with meetings, get-togethers, events, projects, etc. The Africans, being concerned with the now, do not plan more than a day or two in advance and have trouble understanding a list of instructions. To tell my patient that first I will take out their IV, then they they can get dressed, then they can use the phone to call family,... they will then get out of bed and call family. They tend to do whatever was last on the list and forget about the first two. There is also no concept of waiting or taking turns. However, they will share everything, no matter how little they have or how badly they need or want it. The book I talked about in an earlier blog, "Foreign to Familiar", explains that African culture is all about community--dependence on the group is encouraged, personal rights are readily given up in favor of the group's needs or desires, and you do not want to be rude to anyone (you do not want them to feel lonely or left out, so you greet everyone, you don't leave them by themself, and everyone is included in every conversation). They also do not want to disappoint anyone, especially a guest, so they will answer "yes" even if the answer is really "no". That is one thing about working through a translator that makes it nice--they will more readily answer "no" to another national than they would to me, a guest, because they do not want to disappoint me, so I get a clearer answer to my nursing questions! And because everyone is part of the conversation, you sometimes have confusion as with the man who thought that he needed the medicine for his blood before he could go home. They are also very "event oriented." We in the western culture are very conscientious of time and when given a time, try to arrive promptly or early because being late is rude to the other people involved. Here in Africa, the time given for an event is when they start to get ready for the event--getting dressed, packing, eating, etc. And that is where you hear about being on "African time!" And with the "now" and "event" mindset, trying to discharge several people at the same time gets very confusing. Each one wants to frequently remind you of what they still need before they go and each one wants it as soon as possible! You can imagine how confusing that gets! For instance, when discharging those 5 patients on Friday morning, two men requested a paper for their bosses saying that they couldn't work this week because of their surgeries. They will get an official letter at their one week follow-up appointment but needed something for this week. Well then, four of the five decided that they all needed that, as well, and frequently reminded the translator, the other nurse and myself of that need! But then, even though they were all ready to leave by 10:30am, they decided to stay and eat lunch then leave! So they sat around watching the movie that was playing and left right after lunch! I find it easiest to do everything one patient at a time and then to do or explain one task at a time. That way I know who I've already told what, they have everything they need and are ready to go, one at a time and it doesn't turn into another Thursday morning!!!
As for observing ship's holidays, becuase we are not all from the same culture or country, there are no public holidays to celebrate except for Christmas and Easter so we have ship's holidays--or a long weekend off every 6 weeks throughout the year--to give everyone a break. And this weekend is one of them. A large group of people went out Friday and come back today or tomarrow from camping on the beach! Others scatter to do all different sorts of shopping or site-seeing or just relax on-board.
So now that I've caught you up on the adventures of the last few days, I think I will go get my laundry and head back to bed! Enjoy whatever adventures God may send you today and don't forget to thank Him His little surprises!
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