A day on the town...

Last week 3 of us nurses went out with some of the translators (Jean and Mennasau) for a day on the town. It's so fun to go out with locals and get off the beaten path! One of the translator's dad's owns a hospital in town so we started by touring that. It was a pretty nice hospital compared to others in Africa. Here are a couple interesting facts:

-It costs $5 to be admitted

-It costs $16 to spend the night

-You have to go to the store in or nearby the hospital to buy all your supplies before you are admitted ( ex. IV fluids, tubing, syringes, antibiotics, dressings, sutures, bottles of ether for surgery etc.)

-If you do not pay up front or have money to do so you get no care....no exceptions.

-Many women die during pregnancy because of blood loss. The hospitals do not have much if any blood to give because there is still such a stigma with needles and HIV here. Even using sterile needles, people are too afraid to give blood.

It sure was an interesting experience as usual. The oporating room looked like something we would find in a museum, but it seems to work for them for surgeries.

After our tour, we walked around more by where one of the guys grew up. The guys took us to a typical hole in the wall restaruant on the side of the a street for some cassava and fish. It was AMAZING!...and no, none of us got sick:) They sure put some spicy sauces on there. I left most of mine on the side of the plate. One of the girls from Sweden ate all of hers and was sweating bullets for about 30 minutes. It was pretty funny. The guys got a big kick out of that!
This week they took us out again, and this time we checked out the christian radio station that Jean volunteers at. Apparently you can get it online too, but havent looked into that. It's 103.1 I think...out of Cotonou. Jean does a program on Friday nights. We then met up with Mennasau at the beach in a little bungalow and picked up food to eat. We spent the afternoon playing cars, relaxing, and playing in the waves a little bit.

Praise the Lord!

I just wanted to write a quick note to update ya'll. In my newsletter I had asked for prayer for one of the general surgeons here, Dr. Bruce, who had to go home at a moments notice because of possitlbe metastatic cancer. His whole family went home a few weeks ago and they did some tests right away. The spot they found here was nothing!!! Praise the Lord! There was no cancer found in him!!! They are now planning on returning back to the ship in a week! Thanks for the prayers...God is SO good and we are so excited he and his family are coming back! Just wanted to share the exciting news. Thanks again for all the prayer, support, letters, packages, and encouragement from back home! God is using you to help use me:)

Who doesn't love a little Bob Marley?

So picture this....you are sitting in a little amphitheater that is line on all sides by palm trees. As you look ahead you barely notice the band on stage against the breathtaking backdrop of palm trees against clear skies, smattered with a few fluffy white clouds, and sprinkled with bright shiny stars. A cool breeze and some amazing Bob Marley hits from the live band made last night amazing.
May 11 is the anniverasry of Bob Marley's death, and, as one of our translators said, "if you are African and speak english you have to love Bob Marley." The french cultural center here has a concert in commemoration of this day each year. A group of us girls from the ship went and really had no idea what to expect. We were just told there would be lots of people and live bands playing Bob Marley songs. Honestly, we all were thinking we need to stay together and be safe since any big groups in Africa can get out of hand at the blink of an eye. When we got to this venue though it was a really nice outdoor amphitheater and a wonderfully fun and relaxing night....just lots of people chilling and listening to some good music...and of course as the night went on everyone was on their feet dancing to the music. They even played some of Marley's songs in the local languages...very cool.
We were very sad we had to leave at 1015 to be back by our 1030pm curfew here on the ship. Howere I am happy we didn't leave any sooner or we would have missed the very important community health demonstration. In between bands a group of community health workers got on stage and had a wooden penis (the kind you can buy at the local craft market...not kidding) that they proceded to use to demonstrate how to put a condom on for HIV/ disease awareness. We all just stood there with our mouths open. It was pretty funny. Welcome to Africa.... You just never know what you're gonna get to experience!:) It really did not suprise me though, considering how open they are with public health. In Liberia too, you would see semi graphic billboards with a man raping a woman saying something about how rape is bad, or others about safe sex, or knowing you and your partner's HIV status. You sure wouln't see these posters, billboards, or demonstrations in the states...but it is good that they are so open with it here and really are working hard to educate people.
Anyway, it ended up being one of those random gems of a night that I will stay in my memory. I guess there are concerts on a pretty regular concert at the same place, so I'll have to make my way back again:)

Penjari...safari time!

I have to do some traveling before rainy season begins here shortly. This past weekend 10 of us went about 10 hrs. north to Penjari...game reserve. It started out with an 8 hr. bus ride in a coach type bus. I went armed with toilet paper...as the the bathroom stops consisted of the bus pulling over in between villages and everyone going into the bush to do their thing. Lunch was 15 minutes as ppl got off the bus and got fruit, bread, fufu on the side of the road by local vendors. On the way up there was a woman who had purchased one seat and had 2 babies and an 8 year old girl who stood next to the seat and helped with the little ones. I was amazed. Don't think I heard the babies cry once or the little girl complain.

We spent 2 days in the park on safari. All 10 of us were able to ride on top of the van. Our days consisted of going out with our guide from 6am-11...back to our 'hotel' on the reserve for sietsta then back out from 4-dark. Our room had no air and a fan that barely turned. Needless to say those were some HOT afternoons with no place to go for relief...except ordering a cold coke. Even the restaurant and reception were open air. Our room at night was 98 degrees F! Nothing like takin a sweat bath at night!
We were able to see elephants super up close as well as hippos, crocs, many species of deer and antelope, water buffalo, and wart hogs. It is quite a large park and at the northern tip there is a river that borders Burkina Faso...so one day we got to take little wooden canoes to the other side to a fishing...watched them smoke their fish and try some....so yummy!
I had to laugh when we were by the elephants...my friend Linda was freaking out when we stopped the van near them since we were so close. Then the next day the guide told us the male can attack if annoyed and shortly after saying this made this really loud sound to get their attention. She grabbed my arm and had some words to say about that...lol. But alas, no elephants charged us.

At one ponit we came across some stray goats that did not belong in the park so the guide and driver got the guys in our group to join them in capturing them. This was quite the amusing site...I suddenly felt like I was at the rodeo. And soon enough they brought the 2 goats back and put them through the window into the back of the van...I mean, naturally...lol. Then they wanted to bring them back with us 2 hours to Natatingu...2 goats with 10 of us..would have been hilarious...but then they had to leave them at the park.

On the way home to the village where we picked up the coach bus, we stopped at a waterfall. It had been raining this last day so we swam in the rain and stilled jumped off the cliffs. It was quite nice but the water was quite brown from all the run off from the rain...I really dont want to know what all was in that run off:) We also stopped by one of the old style huts where a 94 year old witch doctor lived. The amimals are on the bottom and the others live in the little domes on top. Each wife gets her own dome. It was quite facinating.