Nacho Festival

Thursday, September 26

I feel like my reports have started to be repetitive.  The truth is that the days here are sprinkled with interesting sites, new people, and learning.  But here in Nkhoma, there is a routine just like anywhere else. Morning report brought news of two more patients that had passed away.  In addition, another child involved in the accident last Friday has passed away. The chaplain met with us at the close of morning report to talk about trauma.  The grief that resides here sometimes is palpable. The people who live here and do this work day after day are incredibly resilient.

Ward round went smoothly today.  We have a few cases that burden me just because I know the prognosis is so poor and so little can be done.  However, today there were good meetings with families to make reasonable plans. It doesn’t change the outcomes for these children but I find a comfortable death a home to be a far more compassionate plan than your family sitting uncomfortably at a hospital while death comes slowly and an impossible debt builds up.

We did not have new admissions in the morning and we even had time to work on hospital projects and presentations all of us are working on.  

I did not mention that we have had much cooler temperatures the last few days but we have not had any power.  I am tired as the extreme darkness and noises of Africa make sleep elusive for me. Today, many of the nurses who were off duty were in the NICU for the warmth and to charge their phones.  Some things are very universal. We are at the point were the lack of power is now causing water issues as the pumps are needed to move the water. Tonight water is stopping so that the hospital will still have water.

Lunch was spent telling stories of the morning.  A lady passed away on the medical ward after a lengthy resuscitation.  A few of the students were involved and this was their first time to be involved in a code or give CPR.  They were a little rattled. We also continued with preparations for our Nacho festival tonight. We have discussed food often with the nurses and had decided we would introduce the Malawians to nachos and queso.  This is also Lisa and Rinske’s last week, so it is their going away party as well.

The afternoon was easy and fast.  We had plenty of time to do review rounds and only had one new admission.  I had time to prepare for a presentation I will give next week, slide show and all. The video is of the ward around three o’clock medication time. Just a window into the noise. Back at the inn, Lisanne and Marjoline chopped tomatoes and onions, shredded cheese, and toasted the rest of the tortillas.

At around 4:45, we started making the nachos.  A few showed on time, but most were on Malawian time.  Sam even came by for a while. The nachos turned out well. We used the generator for a while to do the cooking.  We also had queso and guacamole. By the end,we had a good group and they enjoyed singing and dancing. We have a guitar here and that was fun as well.  The Nacho Festival was a brilliant success! It was great to end the day with laughter hanging in the air.