Monday
From the outside, briefings are indeed a good show, but I was shocked in the moment in which all people together began to pray for the upcoming week, the patients… Whether this has helped, I do not know, but the initiation of a new week immediately was a kind of a new start. All bandages were opened with the necessary water and ketamine, and then they waited for the doctor, and all of the sudden it appeared that I had not been the only Caucasian in the hospital. One or the other training responsible/surgeon from Colorado was touring with the medical staff. Both being surprised of each others presence, we asked each other questions.

 

He had come to set up a balance for the hospital, but also in order to operate and to graft. We exchanged some points of view, and I also remarked that grafters and surgeons would make the treatment of burns impossible and that they could better be transferred to Kibagabaga. This was obviously also heard by the chief physician. Shortly after that he spoke to me about grafting and I was introduced to a young doctor who was ready to take over the care of burns. Together we went to the operation wing to see the available material: a mechgraft of which the tag is broken and a dermatome without knives. A problem which we can take into account, with the hope that surgeon indeed keeps treating care of burns.

After the treatment, the room seemed much too quiet and dead until we had the idea to get a few patients out of their beds for, among other things, a weighing session. Nobody seemed to complain until before we understood, a young man sat on a chair. It seamed difficult for him to remain seated, so I put him in a sheet clamp. Proud as a watering can and with a smirk up to his ears he looked at me. I was told that he had not come out of his bed for six months already…

Despite of the intense morning, I got an obsession with cleaning also in the CHUK. Unbelievable what I found here, empty staples, stomie materials, masks, bonnets, blouses for a whole army, potties,… and a sort of orange-yellow porridge in bags of which nobody could tell me anymore for what they had been used. Also here, my motto is: a clean room looks neat. After a day full of surprises the nurses took me with them to drink a cup of tea with milk and herbs in a supermarket. It immediately gave me an impression of what is to be found in the shops…