TGIF

I've finished my first work week at Galmi Hospital; so what does a typical day look like?

Get up at 7am, make hot water for instant coffee while getting dressed, eat breakfast while reading a note from home and a daily devotional.

Walk up the path to the hospital therapy room.

Start seeing patients for occupational therapy at 8:15 or whenever they arrive.

Maybe take a break around 10:30 if things have slowed down.

Go home to make lunch at 1pm, maybe take a nap or read or call home. If it's Wed or Fri, buy produce at the stand. If it's Tues or Fri, buy dry goods at the store on the compound.

At 3pm, walk back to work. Make sure all the patients get seen before dinner.

I've met a ton of people this week; Galmi has volunteers from all over the world. I've taught our PT staff, Barnaba and Oumarou, and our OT student, how to do shoulder mobilizations (and had Amy practice on my bad left shoulder...aaaahhhhh). 

My highlight of the week is that we had a young lady graduate from therapy after staying this week to be treated for her postpartum stroke:

I also learned some Hausa, the local language:

Sannu (Hello)

Su nanna Djamila (My name is Djamila--my Hausa name)

Tashi (stand up)

Zamna (sit down)

Kwanta (lie down)

Babu (no)

To (ok)

Zo (come)

Mike (straighten)

Uku (3)

Goma (10)

Chigaba (keep going)

Yowa (great)

Ma dala (wonderful)

I've also discovered Dudu, which is delicious:

Like a yogurt drink.

Today the boy with 75% burns was readmitted to the ICU because he's doing poorly; we visited and prayed with his family. Our youngest amputee is also in ICU getting a transfusion today. Please pray for both of them and for our doctors. 

I'm looking forward to the weekend, playing board games, eating with new friends, maybe visiting town and the tailor, and church. Maybe they'll even fill the pool! 

Life at Galmi

More snapshots of life at Galmi. We were again overwhelmed with therapy patients this morning. I lose track of how many I've treated (but we have an OT student to keep track of things like that). I had a gentleman with scar tissue buildup after a finger amputation, and I said to Deb that maybe he could squeeze something like foam. This is what I was given:

This made me laugh for two reasons: first, bravo on the self-fulfilled prophecy; second, Spanish in West Africa?? Really??

Anyway, we did grip strengthening exercises like so:

After lunch I was invited to venture off of the compound for the first time, since the therapists needed supplies for a big camp we're doing next week (more on that as we finalize plans). I needed to blend in; what do you think?

If you've ever seen a scene from The Amazing Race TV show, you can imagine the chaos of the marketplace. But until you've been there, you can't capture the smells and throb of humanity all around. Here is one corner, where we stopped to get mangoes:

I also bought carrots, spices, and these lovely fabrics, and I'm excited to hire a tailor to make scrub tops and probably some other goodies for me to take back home:

I had dinner with Deb and friends and enjoyed Bible study tonight. It has been a full day and tomorrow promises more blessings of its own.

"What excellent boiled potatoes"

I have had 2 adventures in cooking with a gas range today, and happily both were successful! I had boiled potatoes with eggs and tuna for lunch, and I've just made my first batch of banana bread:

I expected to be resourceful with limited supplies in the therapy dept, but I think it will be a bigger feat to continue cooking on the meager food supplies available here; my creativity is going to be stretched in new ways!

In therapy world, I'm helping our student Amy to learn about core stability and proprioception with our young stroke patient, and one of our girls with spasticity enjoyed playing with our new tea set today:

Please pray for a young boy we are trying to treat, who has been burned over 75% of his body; we are afraid he will not make it. Burn victims are frequent here as generally mamas cook over open fires. It is the role of therapy to keep body parts moving during the healing process so that no range of motion is lost, but it is obviously painful for these guys and this is a very difficult aspect of the job.

"Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you"

I'm very happy to report that my first day at Galmi Hospital was a resounding success, thanks to the wonderful family of staff that have welcomed me in!

The day started like this:

I rode in this tiny plane for about 2 hours with the pilot and a medical resident from Texas named Charlie

A view of Galmi city (top left) as we come in for a landing

When we landed, lots of staff greeted us right on the airstrip. What a welcome!

I was shown to my duplex, which is the perfect number:

It has a relatively big kitchen and a bedroom with lots of storage.

Also my back patio is the swimming pool, but it's not filled yet.

One section of the compound is housing, and adjacent to it is the hospital complex and outpatient nutrition center for mamas and babies. We were given a tour of the hospital by my counterpart Deb, and we were each hosted for lunch by a neighboring family.  There is a daily "siesta" from 1-3pm, the hottest part of the day.

I went to work with Deb, her OT student Amy, and her PT-in-training Barnaba in the afternoon. Deb is learning the local language, Hausa, but speaks French with Barnaba, who is Nigerien, and English with me and Amy, who is from New Zealand. At one point the client was Tamajeq so there were 4 languages flying around! Ayayay...no wait, that's Spanish...

As most of you know, I love having students, so I was happy to jump in and work with Amy and a young mom who had a stroke  postpartum, while Deb handled the Tamajeq boy. Later I had a tour of the rest of the compound, and dinner with Charlie, Amy, a couple from Mississippi, Anne from Oklahoma, and Mame from Minnesota. Tomorrow I will be in the clinic all day, yippee!  Everyone has already made me feel so welcome, it's hard to believe that I've been here for less than 12 hours!

Traveling again

Today (Monday) I will be traveling again, out to Galmi Hospital. Please pray for safe passage.
Yesterday I got a unique look into the culture around Niamey. We started at a local church, where we praised God in 3 languages. Here is the Tamajeq version of Psalm 23:

Unfortunately we had to cut church short when my hostess received an urgent call from her kids; so we ended up driving through the bush to pick them up from a campsite (everyone was ok by the time we arrived):

There's an unfortunate litter problem--plastic bags everywhere

In the middle of this scrubland, I noticed something that made me think my Grandpa Rehak was playing a joke on me:

Yep, a driving range, putting green, in fact an entire golf course! 

Back in town, we ate brochettes for lunch, which are meat kabobs, served with fries (with mayo, mustard, curry powder and green chili sauce on the side). Yum!

At the guest house I'm joined by 3 ladies from Norway, a family from Australia and a guy from Texas. Sadly I spent the rest of Sunday in my room with a migraine, so they probably think I'm antisocial, but it's cool to meet people from all over.
"I am not born for any one corner of the universe; this whole world is my country." -Seneca, Letter 28

Niamey, Niger

I've made it safely to Niger and have made friends with some of the locals:

Windy taxi ride

Bougainvillea! 

SIM Guest house 

Ginormous lizard that accompanied me for dinner... I think I shall name him Gerald

"If you can change one person's life for the better..."

It is Thursday evening and I have spent two days at AIC Kijabe Hospital, observing and consulting with a team of physiotherapists (PTs). I want to thank Sherri, Ken, Michael, Robert, Jennifer, Noeleen and all the other therapists for allowing me to pester them with questions!

 Reviewing charts

PT exercises

the physio gym

I was granted opportunities to visit every type of ward in this 300+ bed hospital: Men's Ward, Women's Ward, Pediatrics, ICU, Private Ward, Semi-Private Ward. Oh, and the casting room and sewing room. There were patients with strokes, fractures, Parkinson's, TBI (head injury), arthritis, hip replacement, knee replacement, and amputations, among other things. They were from age 1 to 80 (there was also a newborn whom we visited to pray over but she wasn't actually a patient, just a blessing!). Most patients were very motivated to get home as independently as possible. Although I was limited as a volunteer to non-patient care, I was able to educate both staff and patients on the role of OT and consult on some cases. My proudest moment was that trek down to the sewing room for which I requested modifications to knee braces for a patient with weak fingers (due to RA). After adding more velcro and loops she was able to put on and take off the braces independently 💪😊💗

selfie with Robert

selfie with the other Justine!!!!!

It is still difficult for me to see people suffer, however, and some people we cannot help. There is currently a teen boy in ICU (and his family) whom I would ask prayers for.

These therapists work very hard and the hospital is currently under a lot of stress due to a combined Kenyan doctors' and nurses' union strike. After seeing 10 patients per day, Robert says, "you are tired, but if you can change one person's life for the better, it is worth it."

Here's what else I've been up to:

hanging out with Bethany!

thunderstorms over the Rift Valley!

British snacks! (this reminds me of small group back home)

making pizza in a real brick oven!

I have only 1 more day in Kenya 😢 At 5am on Saturday (8pm Fri CST) I will fly from Nairobi, Kenya to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Niamey, Niger. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers!