Malamulo

So, last Monday I spent the day hanging out at the house I was staying at because Dr. Fam was gone for a workshop in town, and Dr. Christie had gone to town as well and I didn't feel like I knew anyone else there well enough to bug them the whole day long. It was a pretty good day. I spent most of the day reading books to Chrisalyne's kids. Chysa had me read the the same three books over and over and over.. I could almost quote "If You Give a Pig a Pancake," "The Little Puppy's Bad Day," etc... now. She's a little mess.

Tuesday I went on rounds with Dr. Fam again, then we went to Theater to remove a guy's prostate. We were supposed to have surgery on a hernia as well, but that didn't happen because the Prostate surgery took too long. Just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong with this surgery. To start things off, when the man got on the table, he told the anesthesiologist that last time he had surgery he reacted to something they gave him, so they had to try to get a hold of his last surgeon. That took some time, they finally got a hold of him and were told it was okay to go ahead and give it. So, the anesthesiologist went to try to give him the injection. They just wanted him numb from waist down, so he just had to insert a needle between the guy's vertebrae. Problem: the man was rather hefty and the spot couldn't be found. So... he did general anesthesia instead. Once he was under, the man had to be intibated... then it was quite a bit of work to wade through all the fat tissue. Not only that, but Dr. Fam was just using the incision the other surgeon had used, and it wasn't large enough to work in, and the man was bleeding a lot. When he finally got down in there, he had trouble getting the prostate out. I mean it took a long time, meanwhile he was bleeding and I had to suction all this blood up. Finally, he got part of the prostate, couldn't find the other two lobes, but he had to turn his attention to stopping the bleeding and started tying off blood vessels, but had trouble finding where the bleeders were because the fat was in the way, the hole was too small, etc. Then, one of the guys assisting had to go, so there were just two of us assisting, not enough hands. At one point I was trying to retract with my left hand, hold a couple of clamps with my right hand, and suction at the same time. Well, finally the other two lobes were located and we were able to close... took a long time though. We were in Theater about six hours that day.

Wed Chrisalyn, Cam, and the kids and myself all hiked for two hours to go see where Yanjinani, Chrisalyne's hired help, lives. It was quite the trip. With two little kids, plus a backpack full of supplies to keep those kids cared for ad happy... we were loaded down with stuff. We hauled the kids in Chitenges (2 yard piece of cloth, just throw the kid on your back, then tie them on with the chitenge... quite effective). It was a nice hike, and we drew quite the crowd once we started climbing the mountain she lives on. White people don't pass through there very often. It was funny, we had this big group of people following us for some time. A drunk lady even latched onto Cam, holding her hand for a ways. The family was all dressed up for us, grandpa had his suit on and everything. It was cute. So, we visited them for some time, had lunch there, then headed back.

Thursday was more surgery. Two med students from Loma Linda were there too. One of them scrubbed in. We had two hernia's, I closed the first one. It was kinda funny, I'm in there with med students, they stand back and watch and I have my hands right in there. Surgery isn't really their thing... one had to ask me to take over when he was helping at one point. Then, we closed the lady with the peritinites that we had had in there a week before (they didn't close all the way in case of reinfection). After that, they were taking care of a guy who has rectal cancer. He couldn't pass stool because of it. So, they had to give an enema, then insert a tube and allow things to drain. Quite messy, not for the weak of stomach. Apparently they had another surgery that night, obstructed bowel, went from 8:00 PM to 3:00 AM... didn't know about it until the next day.

Friday I just hung out with the family, did some cleaning, helped make lunch, went for a walk, went to the market, etc... It was a nice day. While in town, I met some members of this big group from Loma Linda there on a mission trip. Saw them again on Saturday. It turns out the leader of the trip is Claudio, who was the leader of the trip I went on to Ecuador a couple of years ago. So that was pretty cool... of all the places and times. Looks like we'll just keep randomly bumping into each other in different countries... haha. Anywho, this guy is Argentinian, his parents have connections to La Universidad Adventista del Plata in Argentina. So, he is going to have them put in a good word for me. So, now I've got connections. :)

Sunday we left at about 6:15 AM on a bus that passes through Malamulo. From there we went to Blantyre, caught another bus to Lilongwe, then a minibus from Lilongwe to Mchinje, taxied with a couple of catholic priests from there to the border. Exited one country, entered the next, found myself exchanging on the black market again for lack of a better alternative (the lady at the immigration office hooked me up with a "reliable" guy and had us change money in front of her so she could make sure I didn't get ripped off... haha). Then we taxied from the border to Chipata. As soon as we came into the bus stop, the car was surrounded by about 10 guys telling us to use their bus service, trying to convince us they would give us the best deal and their bus was better than everyone elses... They actually got into fights with each other about this... a couple started punching and shoving at each other... quite amusing. We finally purchased our tickets then waited. We spent the night there. Cam and Ray spread out on a bench, I took the concrete floor, covered up with a couple of chitenges. At about midnight our bus arrived and we all piled on and spent the rest of the night sleeping in there. The bus left at 5:00 AM and should have arrived at 13 hrs, but.... we broke down in the middle of nowhere and had to wait for a mechanic to come repair the gear shift. Yeah... so, I think we got in around 16 hrs.

Once we finally arrived at the bus station, Cam and Ray had to call their ride to come pick them up (they spent the night in Lusaka because they flew out the next day), and I had to call my ride (someone from RFI was in town running errands). Then we spent some time telling people that no, we do not need a taxi, bus, or mini bus. Cam lost her wallet, Ray stressed over whether or not his package had arrived at RFI, he needs stuff in it... chaos broke loose for a while. Finally got things worked out, rides arrived and we were off again. So yeah... it was a good trip all in all, and I was very happy to see my pillow last night.