June 23^rd  (Saturday)

           We were able to take advantage of our day off and sleep in a little bit. I slept in ’till 9am and I didn’t hear the others moving about the house, so I suppose we all had similar ideas. After waking up and doing some laundry and had breakfast we read our books. Later I baked apple crisp and made some apple sauce that I may have put too much cinnamon in (but it was definitely still good and edible). Fiona had her first ever taste of apple sauce, she said it was pretty good. Although I’m the person who ate 75% of the apple sauce.

We went for walk to get some more eggs by the colony and looked around their gardens to see what they were growing. Chinese cabbage looked ready to harvest as well as the tangerines and strawberries looked almost ready.

We then stopped in to see if Mel wanted to come for supper and a walk later because we thought she was home alone but Chris and Alison were already back home from their day-trip. So we finished off our afternoon with some reading.

Tom and Phil did stop by to fix Nicole’s bed which is apparently broken–when they came and asked about it, it was the first Nicole knew about a broken bed! Thomas had noticed something earlier that morning, apparently. So the men fixed the “broken bed”. We had a good laugh about it (us girls). I guess Nicole isn’t a princess according to the Princess and the Pea legend. We had an enjoyable evening playing games and then we went to bed.//

June 22^nd (Friday)

            Last day of our “work week” as we get to rest over the weekend, unless there is something emergent that we can help with. I was able to plaster another child’s club foot essentially on my own, except this baby was very wriggly and Jack and JR were assisting me in hanging onto his leg and keeping his foot in the correct position. It is called the Ponsetti treatment that JR has learned and implemented here when treating children with club feet.

I was then able to observe an abscess being drained from the top of someone’s great toe, it was fascinating and disgusting all at the same time. Then a boy came in the same age as my brother Caleb (he looked to be about 14 but on his ticket it said his birth year was 2000). This boy had a dislocated shoulder. It was actually a bit difficult to notice as the shoulder only looked slightly forward compared to the other one, also the boy couldn’t move it very well so he had quite a decreased range of motion. So they gave him strong pain meds to prep him for putting it back into place. JR then instructed one of the clinical officers how to do it. They used a certain method that Dr. McAdam prefers at Chitokoloki. He tried with no success. He tried a few times, then JR tried herself but it didn’t go in, then Dr. Lipsi gave it a shot using a different method and nothing happened. So then we left the boy laying on the stretcher with traction created by a weight hanging off the tensor bandage and let gravity help pull it out of its incorrect position and then it just had to be put in correctly. So we left him like that with a family member and went for lunch at the Spiechinger’s.

It was a lovely lunch, we had different kinds of pot pies–chicken and beef and both were delicious. Afterwards Kate asked if we could babysit Owen for the afternoon so she could help Mwansa with the clinic. So Nicole took charge of Owen and her and Fiona walked to our house with him and I went up to Kariba to see what was happening with the boy who had the dislocated shoulder. I got there in time to see Dr. Lipsi and Tiffany attempting again to put it back in, to no avail. So they decided they should take some more x-rays to see if that would help to see what’s happening.

I then helped Kate with a little boy. She was plastering his wrist as he had come in with a fracture. He was maybe a little bigger than Owen. He sat still and was very good to let us do our thing. He had big eyes that looked a little teary-eyed and just had a little frown/straight face. He was very cute! After that I decided to go back to the house.

We played with Owen for a little while and he is so full of energy. We then (Nicole, Owen, and I) walked back to Owen’s house. We met Mwansa along the way and walked with her a bit. We got to JR’s just as Kate was coming on the four wheeler to come get Owen. He was so excited to see his mama though! It was so cute.

We went to JR’s house later that evening for a get-together. We watched Cinderella and had snacks and Tiffany’s birthday cake. Mwana and Owen’s antics kept us all very entertained. After our evening was concluded we returned home and went to bed.//

June 21^st (Thursday)

           Another theatre day is upon us. We did ward rounds first. After we got done in the ICU Nicole and I took an elderly lady to the minor theatre to remove her old dressing on her leg stump so that Dr. Lipsi could redress it. The nursing staff had taped it too tight all the way around which could cut off circulation if you aren’t careful.

During this time the girl in the emergency room -Patricia, started to crash, thankfully JR and Tiffany were in the room and someone apparently went to the ICU and simply shouted “Dr. Mwansa, COME!” So they performed a resuscitation and used the defibrillator and shocked her as well as used the last of the adenosine. She was successfully brought back. Throughout the rest of the time during ward rounds Fiona was bagging the patient while I provided periods of relief. It was then tea time and we passed the ambu-bag to the assigned nurse.

After tea I scrubbed in as the fourth assist during the debulking of a tumour that a woman had on her neck. I didn’t do too much but I had a good view of everything that was happening during surgery. We went back to the Annex for our lunch.

After lunch we returned to the hospital for a few more procedures. Nicole scrubbed in for a BTL and then there were two cervical biopsies performed by Dr. Mwansa. The BTL patient’s reaction on ketamine was entertaining. We used ketamine quite often as the medication of choice for conscious sedation. The patient’s reaction to the ketamine was to sing and sing loudly! It was amusing, however, she had a nice voice.

I then went to relieve Fiona in the emergency room to continue bagging the girl. The first lady who had a cervical biopsy was being wheeled on a bed to recover in one of the wards. As she was passing by the emergency room I could hear her shouting “HALLELUJAH! And PRAISE THE LORD!” I was told later that the second woman was calling the nurses, Fiona, and Nicole “little children” and laughing.

After the procedures were finished we returned to our house and went for a walk by the river to take pictures of the sunset on the shortest day of the year, (it is their winter months).

We then began supper preparations when we returned. We made omelettes and potato wedges. I also cooked up some beef for the next day. Tiffany sent us a message asking if we had eaten supper or not. We answered saying that we were making some and she was welcome to join us. She replied saying that wasn’t her meaning, she was thinking she could make nshima (but apparently we eat too early). She did accept the invite and had supper with us and joined in playing some games, of which, Fiona and Tiffany were quite competitive when it came to Dutch Blitz in particular. Tiffany also regaled us with crazy missionary medical and non-medical stories. It was a really fun night!//

June 20^th (Wednesday)

           Another clinic day today. We were so busy (the three of us anyways), there is always a long line to be seen by the doctors at clinic. We went to Dorothy’s again for lunch. She had been planning to have just the men that are here to help with maintenance/construction of a roof and installation of a water pump. However, they ended up going to another area for a few days, then Dorothy decided to have us three girls, Phil Granger, Tiffany, Dr. Lipsi, Mwansa, Allison and Mel.

It was a good lunch and it began with Dorothy showing us what her worker, Sarah, had almost swept up what was underneath the chair at the dining table. It was a black and white banded snake. It was quite small and had been put in an empty jam jar. We looked at it and set it to the side after determining by looking in the snake book that it was a kind of garter snake–poisonous but not known to be fatal.

When Allison came we passed the jar saying we thought you might want to see it. She took it and wrinkled up her nose at the sight of it–she really doesn’t like snakes, so she quickly try to get rid of it. Mwansa also didn’t love having it on the table and it became the centrepiece.

A little later while we were discussing snake and crocodile stories Mwansa yelled and jerked in her chair and Nicole yelled “what is it?”, Mel and I flinched. All this happened at once. As we have been talking about snakes, Mwansa had felt something touch her leg (which we discovered it was just the cat’s tail), Mwansa apologized. Tiffany then scared Allison when we were putting things away in the kitchen.

After lunch, us girls came back to the Annex and rested/read, we went for a walk by the river, then had supper, and went to the last English gospel meeting of the series. Allison and Tiffany had to leave the meeting early as there was an emergency at the hospital. Mel and us girls walked over as we were curious and Mel needed Allison’s house keys.

There was a little girl who had come in earlier that had been seizing and was positive for malaria after being tested. She came in as she was vomiting blood. It became emergent when she was unable to breathe on her own anymore and became paralyzed. We then were suspecting that perhaps she was bitten by a snake, but we couldn’t find a definitive bite mark. After she was stable we returned home for the night.//

June 17^th (Sunday)

           Today was also a relaxing day. Fiona wanted to go up and watch an abscess be drained for a pregnant woman. Dr. Lipsey was going to do it early in the morning before the meeting at 9am. I also got a bit more sleep than usual – I’m getting used to the roosters (besides they crow all day long it seems). When Fiona came back we were finishing our breakfast (which is banana bread that we made the morning before, so good!)

I think we are getting better at singing in Lunda and Luvale, but extremely long words do pose a challenge at times. Today the ministry was given by visitor from Unionville Gospel hall, it was nice to have it in English, but watching the translator was pretty funny. Sometimes he would speak much longer than a simple translation. Ha ha, Dorothy said “he’s preaching a whole sermon in between!”

When we came back to the house we began to make lunch: chilli and homemade naan bread. It was so delicious! I’m impressed with our cooking every time and happy that we can make good meals for ourselves. We think we should have Dorothy over to show her we can do better than PB&J sandwiches.

We also went to the Sunday school at the colony, which was nice; the little boys have so much energy! The rest of our evening was spent reading, relaxing, and playing games. And we can’t forget listening to my Spotify playlists.//

June 16^th (Saturday)

           Today was a nice relaxing day for me. I slept in a little bit as did Nicole. Although, Fiona did walk up to Kariba to join ward rounds. She returned later that morning and we are planning on having Tiffany over and making nshima. Then have others over to play games after supper. However, there was something that suddenly came up and she had to go to Zambezi to meet her brother there.

Nicole and Fiona went to the hospital in the afternoon after we had lunch at Dorothy’s to participate/watch a leg amputation. I stayed at our house and fit in a video chat with my mum. I also cleaned/tidied the house and baked brownies. I was just starting to prepare supper: honey mustard chicken, rice, and cabbage when the girls came back.

After supper we played some games, just the three of us. It was nice to have a fairly relaxing day as we know looking at the week ahead we will be busy enough and you never know when there could be an emergency. Also the girls have no self-control when it comes to brownies, so, note to self. Also, Dorothy whipped up a lunch for us (I think Sara had the day off) as Dorothy said it’s just a simple meal, that was quick. She had KD, sausages with mustard on top, boiled broccoli, and baked beans. It was good, but a strange assortment of food.//