Today I woke up with a headache, but wanted to be able to go on Big Rounds, so I got up and went to Morning Handover anyway. At Morning Handover, Marcel announced that he wanted to meet with the upper level staffers after the meeting to discuss some things. Dr. Erdi also announced that at 10h00 all the expat staff needed to go to a meeting in Makeni with a government official. By 9h30 when they still had not started Big Rounds, my headache was bad enough that I decided to come back to the house, take a pain killer, and have a nap.
It was extra hot today, and so it was hard to rest but eventually I was able to fall asleep for a short bit and woke up feeling much better. Abi has a friend who’s a tailor and asked her to come to the hospital to show us what she can make, take some measurements, and make some cloths for us. Gay, Danielle, Ashley, and Taylor all got pieces made. While the tailor was here, one of the shopkeepers that Gay bought fabric from yesterday showed up to tell her that she’s made a mistake in paying for the fabric, that she had charged her for one lappa when she bought two. She wanted Gay to either give back one lappa, or pay for the second one. Gay seemed about to say, ‘It was your mistake, it’s not my fault, the transaction is done,” but I could tell by Abi’s body language and what she was saying that it’s common practice to be very honest and make the transaction fair. Gay decided to just give one lappa back, but the shopkeeper got upset and said that she should pay for the second lappa instead, AND give her money for her transport because she came all the way out to find her. Gay told her no, and that she would be back to her shop to buy more so the shopkeeper would make more money from her later, and she seemed to accept that.
In the afternoon Taylor, Danielle, Ashley and I went down to the TFC to start filming clips for our videos we’re making for the hospital. We got some great clips of the woman who teaches family planning classes on Wednesdays, and we got some clips of them all singing and dancing.
After getting some good clips of that, we decided to film our Dental Hygiene video. Musa helped us out a lot, he was our interpreter, and would say the lines in Creole and Timone after we said them in English. It sounds so cool when he says the lines! We all couldn’t stop smiling and giggling. A few of the boys who follow me around we following us and watching us, so we decided to have a scene with them holding different posters of dental hygiene we have and pretending to brush their teeth. We also got Mary, one of our friends who is a patient here, to brush her teeth while we said lines, and then we let her keep the toothbrush and mini-toothpaste, so we also got a clip of her putting it in a “clean, dry place” while not using it.
In the late afternoon we just relaxed and read, and Alie, the wood carver I know, came over to show us his things. I was very happy to see him, because I was about to call him and tell him to come later this week and what he should bring. I told him I’m leaving next week, and he told me he would make me something special. I told him I didn’t have any money for it, and he said, “No, no! I make for you no charge!” I’m very excited to see it what it is! After dinner we played some cards and relaxed together.
This post is dedicated to a child who died of malaria in the night.
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