Namatanai Part 3 - When Not Catching Babies

When not busy playing Doctor T-Dog (T-Dog is what Melanie and Belinda have taken to calling me) I helped out around the hospital doing a few other jobs.  AusAid delivered over 100 boxes of medicines and supplies a while ago.  I’ve been helping unpack and organize those boxes in the medicine dispensary and the storeroom.

Part of the dispensary

Another random odd job I recently did was making a stencil of a cross and “emergency” to spray paint on the emergency room door.  Nothing in the hospital is clearly labeled with the exception of the morgue.  I will say if any building should have a clear label it should be the morgue.  That's one building I would not want to accidentally wander into when looking for the paeds ward or the outpatient building.  Now, after my handy work and help from Belinda, the emergency room is clearly labeled.   I also helped Belinda put up a shelf in the emergency room.

Me teaching Belinda the art of tagging

The finished product

The mini shelf we installed in the ER to house the needles and other various things

Back to playing Doctor… Melanie asked if I wanted to help apply a cast on a broken leg and I, naturally replied, “Hell to the yeah!”  Apparently a woman walked… I repeat WALKED into the hospital with a broken tibia AND fibula.  I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but that’s not just a broken leg, it’s a REALLY broken leg and the woman WALKED in.  Not sure if you got how hard core ladies are here, but if you missed that in a previous blog let me state it again.  Women here are HARD. CORE.  She’d been waiting several days to receive a cast and Belinda and I got to be Doctor Melanie’s nurses and helped apply it.  While applying the cast the woman grimaced but other than that she didn’t make a peep or shed a tear.  Considering I’ve never had a broken bone (knock on wood I continue that streak because PNG is not the place to break a bone) I had no idea how easy casts are to apply. 

One afternoon Belinda showed me how to give a malaria test.  After watching one she said "Ok, have at it.  I'll be in the store room if you need me."  Uhhhh, talk about baptism by fire.  It was mostly children who needed them but there were also some adults.  The reaction of the kids was mixed.  Those who knew what to expect cried and screamed before I even got out the finger pricker.  Others walked up curious with a finger extended having no idea what was to come.  After pricking their finger and taking a blood sample the reaction was pretty much all the same... a look of "What the heck was that for you crazy lady?!" followed by lots of tear.  Needless to say, I only did one day of malaria testing.  I prefer to be liked by the kiddos at the hospital rather than receive glares as I walked by.

Want to draw a crowd in PNG?  Give a white lady a malaria kit.

Look at the evil glares from the kids.

   

Another task checked off the “To-Do” list was a fundraiser for the hausik (hospital).  Old equipment and miscellaneous items were collected from around the hospital and then taken to the market one Saturday morning to be sold to whomever desired to purchase the hospital’s junk.  There were quite a few people who wanted it, especially the beds (they were unused), because we managed to raise over 2,000 Kina for the hospital.  Wahoo! 

I was the boss lady who collected all the money.  I needed a 
place to hold the money and what better a box than a 
"Lubricated Condoms" box (the hospital was giving out 
condoms among other things like skin creams and 
de-worming tablets).

Don't have an umbrella?  Just grab a chair!  Works just as well,
if not better because when you feel like having a rest you can then sit on it.

Everything not sold had to be sent back up to the hospital.  The number of things stacked
 on things stacked on things reminded me of the movie "Beverly Hill Billies."

Yes, that kid on the left stood just like that holding things in place the entire way to the hospital.  I chose a safe seat on NEXT to, not on, the tailgate and held on for dear life.  One pot hole could have made for a very bad day.