Daily Life

I wake up early, the sunlight streaming through my mosquito netting. I sleep on a waterbed, which is strange, but the water displaces my body-heat and keeps me cool.

I make myself come coffee and then bike along the main road that runs north-south to the hospital. The Congolese are early risers. At 6 am I see men going to work and children walking to school. Every morning a motorcyle with a huge crate of fresh bread whizzes past me into town, leaving a wonderful smell in its wake. Most of the other smells here in Impfondo are less pleasant.

The hospital's first daily event is morning devotion. Hospital staff and volunteers meet at 7 am in the hospital chapel for a few songs and an scripture reading delivered in French. Sometimes Dr. Harvey translates, sometimes he's elsewhere and no one translates. I find that I enjoy these meetings without translation since I usually learn a few new words. 

Next comes morning report in the conference roomm of the admin building. Here we discuss new patients and developments in patients already at the  hospital.

After this the doctors go on rounds, visiting every patient in the hospital. 

Bugs are a very important part of life at the hospital. We share every room with ants, flies, and enormous, dangly-legged wasps that build their mud homes in the corners of the ceiling.

Here is a milipede I scooped onto my bible. 

Every day at 1 pm, the volunteers eat a big lunch at the Blue House, the central residence for volunteers and visitors on the hospital grounds. We usually have noodles or rice with some kind of meat (beef, chicken, wild boar, crocodile, catepillars), and on the side is a huge plate of papaya, pineapple, or fried plantain. 

In the afternoons I work with patients, help with a surgery, or teach my English class.

At first, teaching this class was not my idea. A few weeks ago some volunteer nurses from Mercy Ships offerred several classes for the hospital staff to practice their English. When these nurses left to go back to the ship, they volunteered me to carry on the class. I decided to teach a 1 hour class twice a week on Thursdays and Fridays.

The first day I had three students. The next day Dr. Harvey made an announcement over the hospital's radio broadcast and I found twenty-five students crammed into the conference room. The number of students continues to grow. I use teaching techniques I learned from my Latin teacher, Mr. Griffith, involving pictures and gestures to convey new words and stories. Yesterday I held my class in the chapel and told the story of Noah to over 70 students of all ages.

The second day of class.

And the next time. 

I usually back home before the sun sets at 6pm. The main danger is not crime but traffic. There are motorcycles everywhere and for many of the drivers, manuevering a two-wheeled vehicle is a newly acquired skill. 

Next week I'll do my best to describe the city of Impfondo.

Thanks for reading.