Welp! I’m here at Nkoaranga Lutheran Hospital! It has been
an exhausting two days.
On Thursday, we were literally plopped at our hospital.
Like… Bus dropped us off and peaced the hell out of there. Raelyn and I put our
Swahili to good use, introduced ourselves to a few hospital staff members,
found our accommodations, hunted down the keys to our new “office/workshop,”
and bought some food for the week (we are cooking for ourselves this month!).
It was pretty overwhelming, no one here tells us what to do or where to go.
Also, few people speak English!
As for our accommodations… We are a little confused. EWH is
expecting us to live in a the guest house with other volunteers, however it
seems the house is currently full and we are living in a much smaller house much
higher up the hill with Mama Neema, a matron in the hospital’s General Ward, and
her daughter Irene, who works in the Maternity Ward. The house is decent. Our
room is very tiny, our kitchen is lacking, and I still don’t understand how to
use the toilet, which doesn’t flush. However, it seems that Mama Neema and Irene are
sharing a single bed right now to accommodate us, which is the only thing I’m not
okay with. They are absolutely welcoming though, and we feel almost bad for
wanting to move. We will have it sorted out this weekend.
On Friday, we began work and our routine. The hospital begins
with a short service (in Swahili) every day at 8am. We introduced ourselves at
the service to the best of our abilities, and got to work! We have to take an inventory
first of medical equipment – good thing the hospital is small! The only
inventory we were able to obtain was of furniture…. Not too helpful. We were
also able to do some quick, easy fixes as we went from ward to ward. We put a
suction machine and oxygen concentrator back into working order!
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| Raelyn and the Oxygen Concentrator! |
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| The Workshop - Open Door Policy in place |
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| View of Nkoaranga from up the hill where we live |
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