Karanda

We`ve had a really great day today! It started with a Shona church service, which we have permission to record some next week, the singing is amazing! Then we finally got the long-awaited proper tour of this place. Karanda is not just a hospital, but more like an entire village to itself. There is a large, fenced in compound which contains everything - a lot of staff housing, the primary school, the nursing school, a small area for families of patients to stay, and of course the hospital, which is also a fenced compound within the fenced compound. The hospital is divided up into different wards - maternity, female ward, male ward, peds, and the OR. Oh, and out patients, which is closed on the weekends except for dire emergencies. I would like to bring this concept into Canadian hospitals ;). Also there is an antenatal clinic, and opportunistic infection clinic, and an area for expectant mothers to stay when they get close to delivery if they`re from a long ways away. Also everywhere are goats, chickens, cats, vegetable gardens and fruit trees. Just outside the gate is ``town`` which is a small grouping of buildings with stores, a restaurant and dwellings. I think it`s all amazing, we didn`t bring our camera on this walk (it took about 2 hrs) but we`ll have to revisit many of the places and take pictures. I am so thankful that the people here don`t mind or even love it when you take pictures. Whew! All who want to see pics when we get home better be prepared for tons!

We`ve had lots of thunderstorms today, but not much rain. We`re loving the storms and the rains, not only because it`s beautiful, but because it cools things down a bit! (cool being a very relative term!) No matter what it is, rain or shine, night or day, our room ranges from 27-30 degrees, no farther than that. I`m finding it mostly doable, but Garn`s still feeling pretty warm. If there`s a breeze, it feels much better. We`re trying to remember to keep drinking lots. Yesterday was quite a warm day, where you feel sweaty from the time you get up to the time you lay down. Actually, we both woke up with heat headaches in the night, too, but at least they weren`t too bad.

Both of us are looking forward to starting work tomorrow, though neither of us know exactly what we`ll be doing. Apparently the Nurse`s Council is meeting this week, so we`re really hoping for some good news. Walking around in the hospital today has really increased my desire to take care of the patients, but I`ll have to keep working on the other kind - patience! Those with experience in 3rd world countries emphasize the need for flexibility, we`re working on that. :) They promise they can keep us very busy, so we`ll be very happy for that. Other interesting things here - water usually runs out by about noon, so it`s good to keep a large bucket for spare. It rained really hard yesterday, so we all filled buckets with rain water for back up supply. Most people have filters in their kitchens for drinking water, as no other water is safe for us to drink. Power comes and goes sporadically, no rhyme or reason to when it goes off and on. You learn to use flashlights and candles for most things in the evening - walking around, getting ready for bed, etc, but the last couple of days has had power most of the time, which is unusual. Last night we got together with 4 others from the guesthouse, and had a great time. 4 of us were playing cards, but then we stole a teddy bear from one of the other 2. Power was off, so the other 2 retaliated by creeping up in the dark with bandanas over their faces (like we wouldn`t know who it was!) and stole our flashlights. We, in turn, retaliated by trying to ambush them with cups of water, but they locked their door. We splashed some underneath it, though. The keys for the doors are the old-fashioned kind, and they lock on both sides with keys, so we stuck a key in their lock on the outside, and they were locked in because they couldn`t get their key in the inside. Then the power came back on, so we had the total advantage of no longer needing to get our flashlights back! Lol, it was fun. Anyways, I got to go make supper. Probably most of you haven`t even had breakfast yet! :)