04 August 2008

Laundry Procrastination and my "sister"/patient

Saturday 2 August 2008

It’s Saturday afternoon, my uniforms are washed and I ran out of space in my room to hang the wet things to dry, so that gave me a good excuse for stopping after the whites. It’s a rainy afternoon in Kampala, and I’m hoping it stops by 5. Joanna called last night to ask if I wanted to join her and Brendan for dinner tonight. Who is Joanna, you say? I thought you’d never ask.

Monday afternoon, I’d just returned to the ward after my lunch break and was reading charts to learn a bit about the patients on the ward. The phone rings and the theatre assistant answers it and looks at me and says, “is your name, ‘hide’?” Well, it never had been until Uganda, but I answer to almost anything that starts with an ‘H’ or the long ‘I’ sound. “Yes.” She motions with her head to the phone. It was for me. I was more than just a bit perplexed but answered the phone and on the other end was the doc with the dry sense of humor that I’d worked with some up on the Medical ward. “Please come…” and the phone connection dropped…shoot, he’s gonna think I hung up on him…but he called back after a bit and thankfully he kept it simple “please come and meet me in OPD room 8” I repeated it back and confirmed that’s what he was asking and hung up. Had I been in the States I would have asked why and tried to find a little bit more out about what was ahead of me, but I have a hard enough time understanding Ugandans speaking English in person let alone over the phone, so I keep it short and sweet, ask questions later. The theatre assistant had to walk me to OPD 8 (one of the outpatient department exam rooms) and on the way I told her I had no idea why he wanted me in OPD. She was shocked that I didn’t know why I was going, “ah, this is terrible” she said. “Maybe you stay to make sure everything is okay?” I asked, and she agreed. She showed me to OPD 8, I knocked and opened the door to find 2 muzungus sitting there with the doc (whose name is John Bosco of all things). I immediately realized what this was about…one of the white people was sick and because I am also white, clearly we must be “sisters” and the doc thought that I’d make them more comfortable and that I could help them through the process at Rubaga, getting blood drawn, getting injections, paying the cashier at each step along the process, etc. I find out quickly that Brendan and Joanna are Americans on staff in Uganda with Navigators, and Joanna was sick so her coworker Brendan brought her to Rubaga. I was wondering how I was going to occupy my time until 5pm and I was glad for the opportunity to meet new people so I was happy to oblige dr. john bosco and help my “sister and brother” J It turned out that I spent the rest of the evening with them trying to get to the bottom of Joanna’s illness, seeing doctors and getting xrays done, etc. Turns out that Brendan is from Nebraska and friends with Keith Robinson who is a friend of my St. Louis roommate Mynda and a Memorial-ite…craziness. Joanna, she’s from Ohio evidently but I have yet to find out exactly where, she wasn’t much for conversation at the time. They were thankful for my help and healthcare recommendations and suggestions, and I was thankful for their company, as random as it was. I answered their cell phones as Brendan was driving and Joanna wasn’t really up to it, and in exchange they introduced me to Java’s (super snazzy gas station convenience store/café/wireless internet location combo). All in all it was a pretty fair exchange I think J

Anyways, that’s the story of Joanna and Brendan. Several nurses and doctors asked me how “my patient” was this week and I assured them she was improving as far as I knew.

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