The day.....where to begin?

University

Up and around by 6 and Steven was here at 8 to take me just as he stated. He was very happy today and seems to have found his energy. First we went to the University by car, this involved quite the trip to town, the university is about 10 km from here so took some doing to get to as there was a major and not usual flood in the area which had the entire road blocked off a bit. We arrived at the University, me ready to meet the staff and went to the room that I will call my office for this year. We did what? Oh we studied Lango of course. I would have had no way at all of knowing what we were going to do but as I learned back in Vinh with the Viet Nam vets, "All will reveal itself as it unfolds." Steven was fresh and ready to present me with some simple yet important words and phrases. This guy is a true professional. This is one of those "You Know Nothing Cherie Clark moments" as I was staring at his well made chart, his well planned out program as my mind calculated when I would be meeting the staff and what was going to happen the rest of the day. I realize I complain too much about language. My family is perfect, the town is perfect it is the Lango that exhausts me to think of, night or day I think this is because so many people speak English so well it makes it harder to want to kick in. Then I remind myself, this was my first full day in Lira.  Steven worked so hard and I can now remember how to say "thank you." Throughout the day today I frequently heard words being spoken and would brighten up whenever I recognized one. Big shout out to Steven for being so incredibly persistent and determined. I'm waiting for him to reach out and strangle me at some point.

Agnes, who will be my counterpart this year reached the University and gave me a wonderful tour of all of their planned project and the current class room. We then continued onward and met at least 20 of the nicest, kindest, funny, big hearted people you could encounter. Delightful people in all capacities. We toured the library, the proposed rooms of the hospital and the class rooms.  They are off to a wonderful start and it is exciting to be here in the 3rd year of operation of this University. I met so many people and from the first to the last they were so open I felt as though I had been here forever and I knew that I had come across an ocean and found people who I will remember all of the days of my life.

One of the gentleman told me of his experience in meeting with Vanessa Kerry and how overjoyed he was to meet the daughter of the Secretary of State, I assured him that I was impressed myself and had met her father back in 1992 or so in Viet Nam.

Lira

Agnes took me then way back to town and we had a tour of the hospital. I have very mixed emotions. It is poor but perhaps on the scale of what I saw when we returned to Viet Nam, not that poor, or what we saw in busy crowded Kolkata on a daily basis it looked relatively okay. But all is relative and there were young people who were very sick with Malaria and other preventable diseases that should not have taken hold to begin with. We had an interesting visit with many nurses. The previous nurses who have come before me certainly have found their way into the hearts and minds of these people as they spoke fondly of them and their contribution. In the neonatal unit we saw one baby who weighed 1kg. his mother had malaria and he was delivered prematurely as she is quite ill. His struggle looked incredibly familiar, another preemie was lying in his mothers arms as the only working incubator was already full. We walked past maternity as we were leaving and saw several women in active labor ......many with mothers and other people there to offer them support as they labored on the sidewalk outside of maternity ward in the hot sun.

Agnes asked me today if she can add Anatomy to the classes I will be teaching. Anatomy? I have a distant memory of some of it. I probably know enough to stay one day ahead of these bright young students but as for teaching it, we will be on an amazing journey. "Good Question!" I will frequently say, can anyone answer that?

It was quite the journey and as we were leaving we were able to meet with the head matron. I have no idea what all of the titles and names are but she obviously was "in charge" ...... when we reached the entire discussion with her and the pharmacy was over the fact that they had NO gloves ..... no gloves for tomorrow for all of the patients filling the wards! This seems like an incredibly large problem to tackle and she looks like a woman who can do it. How can that possibly be I wanted to ask. I have seen gloves hung up to be washed and dried years ago in Viet Nam and it effected me more than seeing the patients filled with the very sick people, the ones that are sick are very sick and many have exhausted all other methods before they arrived at the hospital for care.

One big boost for me is that Agnes was in Bangladesh in the past and lived there as a student for several years. That was so helpful as she had some baseline to judge my experiences in India. This poverty and this place is so very different and yet I find small similarities with the preventable diseases.

Steven then arranged that we go to the Palace which is the best Indian restaurant in town. He sat with the driver and they looked at the menu like. ... what is this stuff! I had a great conversation with the young woman who waited on me and had delicious Naan and Paneer. It was some of the best Indian food I have had in a very long time. She explained to Steven what dal is, brought the packet and of course he ran across and bought some. So for now I am set. I am content and overwhelmed at the same time. I wonder how this will all unfold and feel confident that I have something to offer while at the same time I met with numerous nurses and staff who looked as though they were managing things very well on their own. The NICU nurse was confident and knowledgable, she said her dream is to go back to school to earn her BSN.

What to say about the heat, it is here, all the time, surrounding me, sometimes feeling overwhelming (and it isn't the hot season). I wonder how I will manage it and at times I seem to be the only one who has noticed that it is overwhelmingly hot. Even sitting in the Dean's office, a delightful man named Tom's room I kept thinking.....has anyone noticed it is VERY hot in here but life just seems to go on without anyone taking too much notice of it. Hopefully I will adjust as the days go by. All and all, this was a what? A good day.

Young Idler, Old Begger