So I had my first day in Impfondo. After spending the morning in the airport from 7:00 to 9:00, we flew up north. Sarah, the community health nurse, met us at the airport.
We made the rounds of the hospital campus today. We went to all the wards, as well as the E.R. There was a little boy sitting on a bed looking completely out of it. He was getting a blood transfusion. There was a boy with a badly burned face. Everywhere it was extremely hot. Everywhere there were people. There are
very few private rooms, and visitors/family members crowded many of the
4-6 bed rooms.
There was a man who had been hit by a truck, shattering his pelvic bones completely. One of the doctors is trying to get him flown down to
the capital for extensive surgery. In the maternity ward I saw the smallest baby I have ever set eyes on. It's head was almost as small as a tennis ball.
I saw lots of miserable faces. I saw a man in a sorry-looking wheelchair sitting under the burning sun. We pushed him into the shade. I shook hands with everybody, since it is the polite thing to do. Sick children, sick women lying on beds; sweaty with vacant expressions. Sick men, one of them close to dying. But I saw happy faces too. Smiles when I greeted them in Lingala, and sweet children. One little girl followed us around everywhere.
I met so many people today: patients, family members, the hospital staff, the guards, the carpenters, the other missionaries, and so on. I have hopes of remembering names and faces but not today. I think I was in a bit of a daze for the rest of the afternoon. I have never seen anything like this. Not even close.
