We arrived at the hospital yesterday morning to find the
Keller’s Container had arrived up from the coast… but still no sign of Dembo!
The morning simply flew by as we watched box after box of long awaited and much
needed supplies of drugs, dressings and equipment were offloaded to be
carefully inventoried by the head of security, Jowel ,and either sent to
Pharmarcy, Theatres or “Main Store”. This last repository always gives me cause
for concern ( although not as much as “The container”… The simple reason being,
that it is overseen and guarded by a fearsome “Head of Stores” who allows none
to enter save his worker bees and I have a deep suspicion that lurking within
it’s cavernous interior lies countless piles of a whole list of things that are
being denied to wards and departments within the hospital simply because
nobody, not even the “Head of Stores” knows they exist!
Sulayman was very pleased to find several of the boxes were labelled
with not only “Surgical Theatres” but also Sulayman Ceesay” as these along with
2 brand new ex Swiss Army operating tables, surgical instruments, theatre “greens”
and a brand new Patient Monitor which he had specifically asked Dr & Mrs
Keller for, were taken by us straight into the new Theatre Suite. We discovered
two small problems with the tables, firstly there was a part of the cushion
missing from each and secondly there were no instructions! LOL . It took us a
while to fathom out where all the bits went but eventually we had two fully
functional operating tables all rigged up and ready to go. The timing of the
container arrival really couldn’t have been better. By the time we had cleared
away the debris it was pushing on for 2pm so tired, hungry and above all very
thirsty we headed over to the house for a late lunch.
Sitting quietly going through my schedule of jobs after
lunch whilst Chris and Jeanette headed back to sort more shelves, my phone
rang; It was Sulayman. He had been out to the village by the hospital’s farm
project a week or so back to circumcise about 20 of the village boys and had
been asked to return to see them “come out”. They are all put together in 1
large hut after circumcision to live and pray together until they are brought
back into the village as young men.
Without a doubt the high spot for me was the 10 mile ride to
the village which after the first mile of asphalt was bush track all the way;
mainly with just a covering of sand but with a couple of sections of rocky,
slightly technical bits and a lot of deep soft sand that had us slaloming
around like champion skiers. There was no doubt at all as to the better sand rider,
Sulayman simply left me in his dust, with his feet plated firmly on the pegs
and just went with the flow. Whilst I was to be seen with legs flailing wildly
and steering following in a similar vein trying desperately to stay aboard; I
don’t think I’ll enter the Daker then !!!
Back at the house Tanya had just had a very tiring and
frustrating day, having lost a baby during a caesarean section, and was feeling
a bit low. Unfortunately it is still the case that no matter how hard you try,
infant mortality is still a fact of life that has to be faced almost daily in
Bansang as in many other parts of Africa. All we can do is our level best to
ensure that it is kept to a minimum and continue working to reduce it year on
year. Since Anita’s involvement at Bansang infant mortality has dropped
dramatically and with new facilities,
staff , volunteers and equipment continually filtering through, it will hopefully continue
to do so.
This morning I have a further meeting with Moro our new
builder to clarify a couple more points and request a couple more estimates. I
need to try to ensure that with Dembo still absenting himself, Bunja knows what is required of him and his team by
the time I return from the coast on Wednesday evening with our plumber Nick. Then
I will try to get a couple more rooms of the theatre suite cleaned… No rest for
the wicked HaHaHa! I must confess that I’m not looking forward to spending two
days in the vehicle travelling to the coast and back; I’d rather be here
keeping things on track, but I’ve promised Sulayman that I will go to the Uni
with him to help sort the degree course that the Scooters in the Sahara Project
is going to fund for the next three years, so I guess I’ll have to go with the
flow…
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