Monday, September 8th

I started the day helping pull charts with Simon and Abel who both speak more English than I was originally led to believe. That doesn't mean a whole lot since I was originally led to believe that they spoke none whatsoever. They were very kind and we had a good time trying to carry on some semblance of a conversation.

All of the patients who want to be seen are supposed to show up at the dispensary by 7:30am. They turn in their little green card with their chart number on it and take a seat. The charts are pulled as they are waiting and the chaplain speaks for about 30 minutes.

The chaplain speaking while the patients wait for their charts.

Patients waiting to see the diagnosticians.

Most people get to the dispensary by walking or riding their moto.

After the patients receive their charts, they wait for a chance to see one of the diagnosticians. These are nationals who have been trained on some basic normal/abnormal anatomy and physiology that do most of the basic diagnosis and treatment. Their training isn't quite as comprehensive as a nurse's training. The complicated cases get passed on to Robin. They also have a doctor from Ferke that drives over to see patients on Thursdays.

After I was finished in the chart room, I spent the rest of my day in consultations with Robin. They recently launched a new HIV/AIDS project in Torogo and Ferke, so they are doing a lot of testing for that. I drew blood for HIV testing on 3 people (and then had to recap the needles....yikes!) and one of them was positive. She suspected that she was and seemed to take the news without too much of a response. I will be drawing more blood tomorrow. They only have the ability to do the rapid HIV test here at the dispensary which just gives you a positive or negative. Everyone who tests positive during the week comes back the following Tuesday to get two tubes of blood drawn. That blood gets sent to Ferke for further testing. They do CD4 counts and get other information that they need to determine which antiretroviral regimen to place them on. So I think I am helping with those draws tomorrow morning and then I will be catching a ride to Ferke with the guy who transports the blood.

I sat in the lab for a while today, too. I haven't spent very much time in any type of lab, so I found it very interesting. I saw the whole process for the HIV tests and looked at some slides of infected cysts under the microscope.

Robin has a cat. Purcee. Now, most people who know me know that I don't prefer cats. And by "prefer," I mean "like." But I have to admit, Purcee is kind of growing on me. Every single day, without fail, this is what I come home to:


Purcee all curled up, sleeping on my brown skirt. For whatever reason, he is quite partial to that brown skirt. I have to admit, I find it rather endearing.

After work, Robin and I drove into Korogo. She has an African "son" (not really her son, but they basically have a mother-son relationship) and his sister is a beautician, so she braided my hair.


It looked pretty cool from the back, but I never did get a picture of the finished product. Oops.

We were going to go to an internet cafe afterwards, but it took longer than we expected to braid my hair, so the cafe was closed when we got there. My family is all at the Vikes game at Lambeau tonight. Possibly the only night here that I am going to wish I could be home. I can't wait until they invent the teleporter!

I am exhausted and tomorrow will be a busy day traveling to Ferke and getting settled there. Good night!