Relaxing weekend...

Me and Princess at Thinker's Beach!

Saturdays are great here...b/c I get to sleep in! I went to the hospital in the morning to check on everyone and they all seem to be doing well.  My little girl with the hip infection is feeling better already.  I hope she continues to improve.  The nurses told me that I may have found my Yama girl!  It turns out that they were in the same bed!!  How ironic is that??!!

After I finished my morning rounds I decided to go to this nice place called Thinker's Beach in Monrovia with the other volunteers.  It was so relaxing!  The water was warm and the sand had this black hue to it mixed with the brown sand.  I was able to chat with the other volunteers more and get to know a bit more about all of them.  It's so nice to travel and meet other people b/c it gives you so much more perspective on things.  We also met the owner of the place who is a really nice man named Edwin.  He spent some time in the states and was telling us of how he built the place and his hopes of his daughter coming home to help him with the business.  He was a pretty interesting guy.  He told us of how some of the traditional cultural practices of polygamy and female cirumcision still exist in many of the bush communities.  The best part of Thinker's was Princess-she's a wild chimpanzee who lives there now.  I got to hold and play with her, but she kept trying to dig in my pockets and take my money!!  It was too funny!

On our way back to the dorm I got a phone call from the Sinai team who had just returned to Monrovia from Phebe, Liberia.  They were hanging out for the weekend before their departure back to the states today.  They invited me to dinner with them and we were able to share many similar stories-sounds like many of the people there were suffering from the same problems that the Monrovians are dealing with here.  They don't even have an orthopaedic surgeon there-I'm the only one in the country right now!  They even told me of a few patients who I may be seeing soon that they were trying to transfer down here to JFK...

Dinner was really good as always and the conversation was great as well.  It was interesting to speak with some of the team now as opposed to when we all first arrived-especially those who had never experienced this type of work before.  It's nice to see how even a short stent can be enough to open one's eyes to what is really important in our profession...

After dinner some of the group went out to a little place called Cafe Boulevard to hang out and dance a bit.  It was a cool spot, but it kinda felt a lot like NYC.  There were many Lebanese and European people there and the DJ was playing house music.  Anyways, it was fun but I didn't stay out long.  I was still a bit tired and figured I'd get some more sleep!

My footprint on Thinker's Beach.  Beautiful place.

Sunday was chill.  I went out to the field today for the weekly football game and hung out with the guys.  Not as many locals were out this morning for the game, but it was still "plenty fun." (Liberian slang for a good time!)  I have to pace myself out there b/c the game gets pretty intense and we're falling all over the place-I can't afford to get hurt out there.  I got a pretty nasty scrape today over my knee :-(
I think I may go over to one of the guys' house this evening to watch one of the football games.  Sounds like the NFL playoffs are heating up over there.  Not too many people out here follow it though-the games come on super late out here supposedly.

Tomorrow should be a rather light day in the OR unless a lot of stuff came in over the weekend.  We're starting to offload the Orthopaedic service-many of the people who have been in the hospital for months are just about ready to go to surgery.

 

One of the patients on for tomorrow is a guy who had a tibial nonunion with an open wound and has been here since Justin was here. That's like over 6 months!  I'm going to skin graft him tomorrow; he's so excited 

Dinner at Rozi's with the Sinai Team

to finally go to surgery.  I think this week I should be able to get to some of the other cases that have been sitting around.  I'm going to check in on everyone a little later this evening and make sure they're all tucked away.  I need to go the grocery store too; I'm out of peanut butter and jelly!  I'm not sure if I mentioned what my lodging/board situation is like-there's a lady, Miss Annie, who makes breakfast and lunch everyday for us and washes our clothes.  We're on our own for dinner each night, so usually I'll try some of the local food or restaurants.  There are a couple of grocery stores down the street where I can pick up some snacks.  I have a little fridge where I can keep water and things tucked away.  It's been working out ok so far.  I don't get to eat lunch everyday, but it's all good-my dinners have all been cool.

     Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend.  Looking forward to another week.  Enjoy sharing with you all.