Second Week in Cameroon

Sabbath, September 11, 2010

Since it wasn’t pouring rain Sabbath morning, we walked to Church. It is about a mile, so we got to see that part of Buea from a new prospective. Aside from the hard wooden benches, I really enjoyed the Church service. I love listening to the Cameroonians sing; they make such a joyful noise! The sermon was given in English, and translated to French. Whenever the translator was stuck on a word, the speaker would turn to her and repeat what he had said, only several decibels louder.

The pastor said that it wasn’t good to have so many single young people in the church, so one Sabbath he is going to change that. He will line up all the single girls on one side, and all the guys on the other and make us choose a life partner. He said he would even officiate the ceremony right there. So I may not be coming home, it all depends on what my new husband will want to do.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Every Sunday morning, Colwell’s invite all the “white men” over for fresh coffee.  This week the only ones that showed up were Carolyn and I. But it was lovely just to have a cup of coffee.

Since it was a beautiful day, we decided it would be great weather for drying laundry. It took us about an hour, and lots of elbow grease, to get all of our clothes scrubbed, rinsed, and wrung out. Nine months of laundry and I will have arms like Jillian Michaels. Yay! We hung our clothes on the line out back, and by Wednesday, they were all dry and ready to fold.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

On Monday morning we opened the hospital for overnight observation. Cherilyn worked 8 am- 6 pm, and I worked from 6 pm to 8 am for the week. We didn’t really advertise the opening so it was a very quiet week. Our first patient, JL, came on Tuesday evening right before our shift change. When I first came in the hospital Cherilyn gave me a warning, “Be careful, you might end up married to this guy.” That was all she said. No explanation, no words of wisdom on how to avoid a wedding. Just, “you might marry him.” The first thing that came into my mind was, “wow! I’ve got to see this guy! He must be REALLY hot!” However, when his adorably plump mother breezed through the doors, I discovered the real reason for Cherilyn’s warning. His mother  wrapped me in a huge bear hug and with a mischievous grin, whispered in my ear, “that is your husband, you marry him,” then she spun me around and pointed at her son.  I smiled politely, not really sure how to respond to her proposal.

JL had malaria, so we hooked him up to an IV of Quinine, B complex, and electrolytes. The IVs here are very different from the way we do IVs in the US. They don’t have catheters on the needles. Instead, they push the needle all the way in the vein and leave it. Also, there is no such thing as saline locked. When they are done with one infusion, they take the needle out, even though they will have to start another infusion four hours later. I tried starting an IV on him, but the first try I blew the vein, and the second stick I just couldn’t find the vein. I was very discouraged.

Later that evening JL’s mother came back with a bowl of what looked like pudding and plopped it down on the nurse’s station desk. “….Hot…?” She asked me. I had no idea what she wanted, so I pointed her to the other nurse who spoke French. She left, but was back soon, “Can you hot?” Now I had an idea what she wanted but I wasn’t sure how to accomplish it. She left again and returned shortly with Lea in tow. Lea explained to me that she wanted me to take it back to my apartment and heat it up for her. When I returned it, she gave me a hug and thanked me profusely.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

This week we had Bible study on the hospital breeze way so that all the nurses could attend. It was a nice time of relaxing, singing, and talking about God. I really enjoyed it. There were five Americans there, so we tried to teach everyone else the song, “Sing Hallelujah”. It was probably one of the funniest renditions of the song I’ve ever heard. I don’t think the locals were terribly impressed with our singing abilities, either.

Shortly after Bible study, JL was ready to check out. His mom came to take him home. She came over to the desk where Cherilyn and I were, thanked us for all we had done, and blew us kisses on her way out. She was such a cute little lady!

 Sabbath, September 18, 2010

Last night Cherilyn came up to the hospital and we had a sleepover! She read me some really funny books, while we listened to the church across the street make a joyful noise until well past midnight. Cherilyn, Dr. Trixy, and I stayed here today to watch the hospital, while everyone else went to the district get together in Dbantja (Not really sure on the spelling). We only had one patient come for an IV injection. I got the IV on the first try! I was so excited when I saw the flash back. Trixy came over for lunch and brought fresh pineapple and frozen bananas for dessert. Later we went out to the yard and picked some guava and sugarcane for our mid day snack. The sugarcane was absolutely delicious! Also, quite an adventure to eat.