Today’s day at the hospital began a little later than usual. There was a confusion when it came to who was leaving to drive into the hospital when, so Priscilla and I ended up waiting till 9am to go into 666[;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;[[[[[g00\06g88gll8;8;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;  by;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;8/8llb [ßthat line of random things is from the Harvey’s cat laying on my computer, I decided to leave it in, she really wanted to say that] the hospital, it wasn’t the end of the world…sleeping in was nice!

Once at the hospital we jumped right into helping Dr. Henri Samoutou again with inventory and preparation of the Eye Clinic. We actually spent most of the time in the Bloc in a specific operating room only for eye surgeries. It was pretty cool and the instruments were different from those I had seen in our previous week in the Bloc. There seemed to be a lot more medications on hand and stored in the operating room too. I swear I have come across 70 different kinds of eye drops after working with Dr. Henri all week.

We worked with Dr. Henri until around 11am, that is when we headed over to the ER to help out, the usual. When we got there, there was a girl in need of a NG tube (feeding tube), so I volunteered to do it! The girl who needed it was in a coma, and had a ton of fluids in her lungs. The nurses had been routinely using a suction machine to remove as much of the fluids as they could, but the girl was still in pretty bad shape. The assumption was that the girl had aspirated (the inhaling of vomit), causing an infection in her lungs, resulting in a coma and other problems. So since she could not consciously feed herself, she needed assistance—thus the NG tube! One positive of putting an NG tube into an unconscious person is that they don’t have to go through the uncomfortable placing of the tube. When you put in the tube you put some lubricant on the end and then insert it in one of the nostrils. Before you actually put it in though you make a general estimation to how much you will push the tube in. You do this by starting at the nose and then wrapping it back behind the ear and then down to the xiphoid process. What is the xiphoid process you ask? The xiphoid process is the bottom tip of the sternum, and the sternum is the middle bone where your ribs meet (or for those who just need a picture, it’s the red thing on the picture, ya’ll).   When you have measured this distance, you mark it on the tube with tape and then you can start putting the tube in. You push it down through the nostril and down through the esophagus until the tape mark is at the nostril. You then need to make sure the tube is actually in the stomach, so you push air into the tube using a syringe WHILE using your stethoscope to listen over the person’s stomach. You should hear a forced bubbling sound as the air stirs up stomach fluids. Wahlah, you’ve done it!

After working in the ER for a while we headed to lunch and THEN we prepared ourselves for an afternoon adventure! THIS adventure was mudding! Here in Congo, people do actually live in mud huts like most people stereotypically imagine when they think of African housing. Making these mud houses takes quite a bit of time and labor, it literally takes a village to make one! So because it takes many people, and because it is just plain fun, we decided we wanted to help! Mama Sarah took Priscilla, Miles, and I to help for the afternoon in the Aka village. We were mudding the village’s recently dugout community toilet. It is a 6-meter deep hole that you squat over, and we were going to mud the “outline” of walls that had just been made. To mud, you first need to make the mud mixture. It is similar to squishing grapes to make wine...kind of. You pour water on dug up dirt/clay, then you squish it together with your feet. And then you fill in the mud outline with the mushy mixture! Pretty straightforward, but it takes a really long time and a TON of mud. Pictures bellow! The bottom picture shows an Aka man named Papa Simon, you can definitely tell that the Aka people are indeed very small in this picture because I am only 5'3'' (they are called pigmies).  

After mudding we all headed back to shower and make dinner and then crash. We were pooped after mudding for hours in the sun! I made it till 8pm and then fell asleep.