August 26th, 2017 by jenniferolmstead

Morning was relaxing, I got lots of reading done while everyone slept. I do so enjoy that time. I spent some time in prayer, I was having trouble focusing last night and really needed it this morning. Breakfast was interesting. I’ll try to describe it. Imagine a bowl of rice that has the texture of cream of the west with onions, pepper corns, and some small green leaves in it. Then imagine a sauce similar to tomato soup only much thinner that is poured over the top. All eaten with your fingers. As bizarre as it sounds is was quite good.
I left a little early today hoping to participate in the morning worship. I found a new one. I was walking to the hospital when I heard singing, and it was a song I recognized from church. I followed the sound and ended up at the nurse’s classroom. They invited me in to join. I just love starting my day with worship, it does something I cannot explain. I was invited to speak about Jesus while I was there, nothing like being put on the spot. I offered a few words of encouragement for the students. Then we had a mass prayer, I really enjoy that. Thinking maybe we should try it in bible study at least. Anyway, then it was off to work.
Today was my first day in the woman’s ward. I was expecting women, they were there to, but majority had babies. The women’s ward is for cesarean section and gynecological type problems, mostly. Any woman can be there but as it is a small ward some are in the male ward and they ensure these cases are not in the male ward. So, I got lots of practice helping new moms learn how to breast feed babies. It was actually kinda fun. There were a few that needed various abdominal surgeries as well, gall stones seem to be quite common here. There is one lady that came in with cellulitis in her r leg. They have already debrided the wound, it has multiple sites and I could see tendons in all of them, the one on top of her foot I think I saw a bit of bone as well. They are planning a skin graft but had to wait for the swelling to come down, which it has but it has taken two weeks. They drained 200ml of infected fluid the day of surgery. That is amazing. Wait so long to come and be seen here. The lack of education really shows in this environment. They lack the education to even understand much of what they are trying to teach them while here. They do not have a date yet, but I would enjoy watching the skin graft.
Nothing exciting at lunch today, it is usually pretty much the same. We get rice, some kind of soup stuff that is super thin we pour on the rice, a vegetable of sorts, usually it is potato or onion and seasoned till you almost cannot tell them apart, once in a while it is plantain (a non-sweet banana) which I really enjoy, and a meat which rotates between fish. chicken, and egg. Not bad actually except once in a while when the cook gets a little excited I think and adds to much hot stuff.
O got some language lessons today, quite fun actually. I can now tell people their baby is beautiful, or good. Tow complements that parents love to hear. You should have seen all the students trying to teach me while the poor mother sat and laughed. It was quite fun. I am trying to learn a few words but most speak Bengali not Hindi and the nurses speak Hindi. Also, they all think I need to learn different words so there is no repeat. Today I got smart, I know it took me long enough, I wrote them down. Now I can practice tonight and hopefully remember them tomorrow as they intend to teach me more. It’s exciting to be learning a few basic words.
Stopped on the pediatric ward to say hello, but they were very busy, so I went and watched ultrasound for a while. I’m getting a little better at recognizing things.