I think this post can add some balance to my angry/frustrated posts that I've written lately. Honestly, I am really just trying to balance myself as I get thrown into a new world. I'm not using this blog as a place to attack people but I am using it as a place to work out my thoughts and feelings through talking about what I do in Africa. As you read this, if you read this, just remember it's a very personal thing and I don't really think about others as I write. This means I am not sending positive or negative messages to anyone and I rarely have anyone in mind as I write. Maybe I can sum this up in a few words: don't be offended by what you read, understand I am just trying to process life. With that being said, I am honest here. I try my best not to sugar coat things.
Since my last post I rode a camel, made cookies, and saw death for the first time. Two great things and one thing that is just reality.
A volunteer (Chelseas) here is leaving on Friday and one of the things she wanted to do is ride a camel. There is a tribe that comes through here (as I understand it) who are nomadic and have camels. I think they are technically displaced because they are usually in Blue Nile but I don't know for sure. Anyways, she had seen some camels in the market and really wanted to ride one. First, as we were walking to the market another NGO stopped their truck to ask if we wanted a ride to the market. We, of course, said yes and climbed in the back of his truck, stood up in the bed of his truck, and held on to a rail. It looked like we were in a parade! The funniest part were the people who saw us go by thought it was funny and we could hear, "Kawaja!" as we drove past. Once we got to the market we just walked until we saw camels and it didn't take long. We caught up to the camels and one of my co workers made small talk with a camel owner. Eventually, he just said the word, "girl" and pointed to the camel's back and said, "there". The camel owner was amused by this and immediately put the camel down so my friend could get on. Then she told me to get on, too! Haha, I've ridden a camel before but wasn't expecting to ride one this time! I did it anyways, of course. Why say no to a good camel ride? As we rode through...I don't know how to describe the area we went through...everyone would point and laugh and some people even followed us. It was really fun until we got off the camel. Getting on and off a camel is an adventure in itself but that is not the part that was un-fun. Once we got off some policemen or something were angry with us for something. I am actually really unclear about what happened because they were speaking Arabic and I can only understand very limited Arabic. They wanted money for something but we just kind of smiled, nodded, and walked away. They looked confused.
That night, Chelsea and I decided to make cookies. I got a recipe sent to me from a friend in Zambia. She understands the challenges of cooking with charcoal and sent me a recipe for no bake cookies. I understand no bake cookies are eaten everywhere but I have never had them before. They are very easy to make but since me and my partner in baking waited until night to make them, that made for an interesting time. The "kitchen" or mud hut we cooked them in has no lights. She had a head lamp but I had a flashlight that was a little difficult to maneuver. At one point I was shining it in my face and wondering why I couldn't see something. I clearly felt out of my element. We also realized that the kitchen is probably a great place for snakes since it's so warm and all the baby chicks like to hang out there. We kept an eye out for those snakes the whole time we were boiling ingredients! All the effort was worth it, though! They were gone in a day. I need to make a double batch next time and REALLY make the effort worth it.
Monday was technically a National Holiday for us, Martyr's Day. This holiday is to remember all those that died during the 21-year civil war between South Sudan and Sudan. I didn't really get to celebrate, I worked instead. I DID get to sleep in a little but had a meeting to go to a reports to finish before the meeting. Since all my reporting focuses on the hospital, I went to the hospital to collect the reports. While there, I went into the maternity clinic to get a report from someone and stumbled upon an emergency. A woman had come in with her premature twins. She had delivered both at home, I can't remember how long ago, and had recently noticed one was having a very hard time. Both had a skin infection which she had treated with some home remedy. One baby had a very bad infection and the home remedy had only made it worse and probably infected the blood. The other was getting worse but was nowhere near as bad. The baby with the bad infection had started gasping for breath, so the mother decided to bring the twins to the hospital. When I walked in, a health care worker was trying to get the baby to breathe. He had already started an IV so he could give it antibiotics to fight the infection but soon after it stopped breathing. The mother was holding the other twin and just sitting next to the baby that was being treated. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen. The baby was so tiny, it didn't seem real. In the same room there were healthy babies, some born just half an hour earlier. As we watched, the clinic workers wrapped the baby in white cloth, told her they were sorry, and went on to treat the other twin. The mother cried but attended to her other baby. What else can you do? Life has to go on.
I've never seen anything like it before. It didn't make sense to me, this tiny baby dying. I have heard so many times before that death is part of life and life is a struggle from the moment you take your first breath but this was a very harsh reminder of how true those statements are. I have been far removed from many realities of life by growing up where I did. I still don't completely realize how sheltered I've been.
All in all, I am happy to be here. I am slowly learning what I need to know. Separating my new reality from my old one and realizing they cannot be compared. This is much different from that. I'm still getting used to the bucket "shower" but at least I have a way to get clean! A lot of great things are being done here and soon I will write about those things! For now, you have to deal with all my personal stories and emotional struggles. :)
Since my last post I rode a camel, made cookies, and saw death for the first time. Two great things and one thing that is just reality.
A volunteer (Chelseas) here is leaving on Friday and one of the things she wanted to do is ride a camel. There is a tribe that comes through here (as I understand it) who are nomadic and have camels. I think they are technically displaced because they are usually in Blue Nile but I don't know for sure. Anyways, she had seen some camels in the market and really wanted to ride one. First, as we were walking to the market another NGO stopped their truck to ask if we wanted a ride to the market. We, of course, said yes and climbed in the back of his truck, stood up in the bed of his truck, and held on to a rail. It looked like we were in a parade! The funniest part were the people who saw us go by thought it was funny and we could hear, "Kawaja!" as we drove past. Once we got to the market we just walked until we saw camels and it didn't take long. We caught up to the camels and one of my co workers made small talk with a camel owner. Eventually, he just said the word, "girl" and pointed to the camel's back and said, "there". The camel owner was amused by this and immediately put the camel down so my friend could get on. Then she told me to get on, too! Haha, I've ridden a camel before but wasn't expecting to ride one this time! I did it anyways, of course. Why say no to a good camel ride? As we rode through...I don't know how to describe the area we went through...everyone would point and laugh and some people even followed us. It was really fun until we got off the camel. Getting on and off a camel is an adventure in itself but that is not the part that was un-fun. Once we got off some policemen or something were angry with us for something. I am actually really unclear about what happened because they were speaking Arabic and I can only understand very limited Arabic. They wanted money for something but we just kind of smiled, nodded, and walked away. They looked confused.
That night, Chelsea and I decided to make cookies. I got a recipe sent to me from a friend in Zambia. She understands the challenges of cooking with charcoal and sent me a recipe for no bake cookies. I understand no bake cookies are eaten everywhere but I have never had them before. They are very easy to make but since me and my partner in baking waited until night to make them, that made for an interesting time. The "kitchen" or mud hut we cooked them in has no lights. She had a head lamp but I had a flashlight that was a little difficult to maneuver. At one point I was shining it in my face and wondering why I couldn't see something. I clearly felt out of my element. We also realized that the kitchen is probably a great place for snakes since it's so warm and all the baby chicks like to hang out there. We kept an eye out for those snakes the whole time we were boiling ingredients! All the effort was worth it, though! They were gone in a day. I need to make a double batch next time and REALLY make the effort worth it.
Monday was technically a National Holiday for us, Martyr's Day. This holiday is to remember all those that died during the 21-year civil war between South Sudan and Sudan. I didn't really get to celebrate, I worked instead. I DID get to sleep in a little but had a meeting to go to a reports to finish before the meeting. Since all my reporting focuses on the hospital, I went to the hospital to collect the reports. While there, I went into the maternity clinic to get a report from someone and stumbled upon an emergency. A woman had come in with her premature twins. She had delivered both at home, I can't remember how long ago, and had recently noticed one was having a very hard time. Both had a skin infection which she had treated with some home remedy. One baby had a very bad infection and the home remedy had only made it worse and probably infected the blood. The other was getting worse but was nowhere near as bad. The baby with the bad infection had started gasping for breath, so the mother decided to bring the twins to the hospital. When I walked in, a health care worker was trying to get the baby to breathe. He had already started an IV so he could give it antibiotics to fight the infection but soon after it stopped breathing. The mother was holding the other twin and just sitting next to the baby that was being treated. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen. The baby was so tiny, it didn't seem real. In the same room there were healthy babies, some born just half an hour earlier. As we watched, the clinic workers wrapped the baby in white cloth, told her they were sorry, and went on to treat the other twin. The mother cried but attended to her other baby. What else can you do? Life has to go on.
I've never seen anything like it before. It didn't make sense to me, this tiny baby dying. I have heard so many times before that death is part of life and life is a struggle from the moment you take your first breath but this was a very harsh reminder of how true those statements are. I have been far removed from many realities of life by growing up where I did. I still don't completely realize how sheltered I've been.
All in all, I am happy to be here. I am slowly learning what I need to know. Separating my new reality from my old one and realizing they cannot be compared. This is much different from that. I'm still getting used to the bucket "shower" but at least I have a way to get clean! A lot of great things are being done here and soon I will write about those things! For now, you have to deal with all my personal stories and emotional struggles. :)
1 comment:
Glad you got your cookies! Thinking of u bud
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