Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Kaiba was early today so we set out in the morning cool air. He said lots of his friends had heard the radio interview and really appreciated the free care.

Going through town I spotted Michael sitting in a chair next to a stand waiting to interview every third willing participant. kaiba stopped to buy bottled water for the dental clinic and two of Michael's translators--Anthony and Tomba, came up to give me high fives. They are both teachers and the most polite, friendly, and mild mannered people around. Kaiba and I kept going and around the corner Abu waved at me on his way to meet up with Michael. All these greetings made me feel like a local now.

The generator was working so Ali did not have to fix anything. He spent time in the room to learn to assist per Sahr James's request. As soon as the generator was turned on several employees came in the room to charge their cells. I remembered both my laptop and cell were running low and needed charging, so I plugged in too, feeling kind of like a blood sucking parasite.

To my distress it was a day of advanced dental infections. A parade of 8 or 10 patients all had swellings on different parts of their faces one after another. Quite a few adult patients came because they had heard the radio interview, but I only had 5 patients who were under ten and 3 of them were in the clinic because their parents were coming anyways for medical problems.

A 4 year old boy came in and right away emitted a blood curling scream after Ali said something. Turned out Ali told him he was going to get a circumcision, which the boy happened to have just had and he still remembered the pain. He would not stop his screams and Ali started to order him to stop. Sahr James sent Ali out the door and the boy finally calmed down. After he was done the mother sent his 9 year old sister in. What a smiley and happy little girl. We joked around and "snapped" some pictures which the kids loved to see.

I have picked up some Krio words: swalla you peets ( swallow your saliva), toot shakin (tooth loose), pullou (extraction), filla (filling), bettown(bite down), lock you mout (close your mouth), snap (take a photo), pikin ( children), small-small (slow, or,just a little), you see (she said). "Lock you mout" is my favorite.

I gave Sahr James and Andrew each a bottle of OFF, they were so happy you'd think they had just won the lottery. After saying good by to Bailor, who was very tired from an all night emergency, I headed to the UN compound--the bastion of electricity and wifi. I was really behind on my blog and I wanted to update it before I forget things. Reading comments from friends back home made me shed a few tears; I don't really know why. Maybe it is the feeling that the burden is lighter when it is shared.

A young SL man came in and introduced himself as Thompson to Raphi and me. He works for the Government election commission and is in Koidu a few months to set things up for the election. He showed me a photo of his wife who was studying medicine in another town. No one lives with their family here because of jobs, even Bailor commutes. Sasko who cleans the clinic is the only one who lives with his wife, in the storage room next to the clinic.

Michael called and was upset I was still at the UN at 8pm. "It is dangerous after dark and it is raining, you need to come home right now" he said. Thompson offered to give me a bike ride to pay back for borrowing my charger/adaptor. This was nice of him because he himself was a visitor still trying to find his way. He drove carefully through the evening streets which was not as dark tonight, maybe I was starting to get used to things here. He said he tried to be careful in a new place, and asked to know more about Buddhism when we talked about religion. Impressed by Thompson's poise ad simple confidence I told the interns about him. Kulani wanted to know if Thompson was part of the SL election fraud.

Ramen noodles and canned Sardine from the Lebanese grocery store for dinner. The sardines were surprisingly good packed in with a small piece of red chili pepper. BJ thought Raphi and I were completely weired eating sardines. Michael went to bed so he could get up at 7 again to hit the streets.

I wonder if more children would come to the clinic tomorrow, my last day.