Happy Thanksgiving!

So I told you yesterday I would get back to you on the price of a cow. It is about 150000CFA or about 300-350 USD!...That is for a grown, milk producing cow. We can't wait to give mamma the money toinght! I will be going with another nurse to take her to the bus at 530am tomorrow. She knows someone in Parakou that she thinks will know where she lives and can direct her in the right direction. (She is the one on the right).

Wow! I can't believe it is Thanksgiving. We played some Christmas music on the word...felt strange, but did make it seem a little more holidayish! So I lied about Monday being my last ward day. I was pleasently suprised to get called into the ward today...although slightly sad I would miss my weekly 12k run(well, maybe sad is not quite the right word!)

We are down to 8 patients in the hosptial now. It was a wonderful morning of smiles, laughs, dressing changes, and praying with the patients. Although..we did have a new admit. Even though we did not agree..Dr. Gary decided to do a last minute surgery yesterday.



Sneetch has a hemibeakectomy -tumor from lower beak removed. He should recover ok. We had everyone round on him this morning including, Dr. Gary-surgeon, ward physician, ward supervisor, charge nurse, post-op nurse, wound care nurse, hospital administrator, counselor/discipler and ICU nurse. He was a hit with the other patients on the ward. His language is Bika though and we have not found a translator who speaks that dialect...so we are doing a lot of miming. We have someone who speaks sqwauka but it is not similar enough to translate. He will return to us in Togo for a flipper flap graft.

On a more serious note I had to say goodbye to Veronique, VVF pt, today. She had gone home and come back with an infection. She was always so smiley and joyful and learned quite a bit of english while here too. She still has an uproad battle, but sure goes at it with her chin up and a smile on her face!

Tonight is thanksgiving dinner. Jessica, my roomate, and I made pies and hand turkey invitations last night and transformed our usual sitting area in the dining room into a holiday table! We enjoyed yummy food with some good friends!

Just another day...

Monday was my last day on the ward as a nurse:( The ward closes Friday. Yesterday consisted of lots of scrubbing, cleaning, moving, packing, scanning charts, and of course dancing in between! Funny how a little bit of music and good friends can make ANY job enjoyable! Here are a few pictures interesting happenings of Tues. Nov. 24th.


Even the kids from the hospitality center joined in to help. No child labor laws here right?..:)

The quote of the day is from Danae in central supplies when Ali and I went to get some baby formula. As we were leaving she says, "Oh, and by the way, if you are going to need that cow, let me know and I'll donate." Oh the random things you hear around here. One of the mamma's on the ward had sold her land and cow for medical help for her cleft lip baby after her village disowned her. Her baby had surgery but she has no money and actually does not know where her village is to get back. So today Ali's we were going to try to figure out the price of a cow so we can take up a collection for her. Ther verdict is still out...but I will keep you updated!

Are We Sinking?In the afternoon the laundry room and ward kitchen flooded...about 4-6 inches deep of water...so much it went over the lip at the doorway and was traveling down the hall past xray and towards central supply. So in a matter of minutes there was quite the commotion on deck 3.


At dinner time I found out that a tanker 18 miles off of our coast was attacked by pirates in the afternoon. The chief engineer was killed before the pirates got scared off. The tanker is from Monrovia and now in our port. I have been praying for them...what a traumatic experience! There is a news article about it on bbc: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8376715.stm. Guess it is pretty bad along the coast on either side of us. Don't think we will have a problem though as we don't have too much precious cargo. And I think the pirates would be in for a rude awakening when they got on and realized how many crew are on board!