Well, our day is nearly over for Karl Tillinghast and me. We fixed an OR table, converting it from electric to manual. Many items just get so rusted from humidity, and they don't get maintenance routinely. We turned the OR table on it side to work on it, and mouse dropping, left over used medical supplies, oil, broken glass and dead bugs fell off onto the floor. Amainingly, the OR table would work electrically when the table was on its side, but not in the upright position. So Karl and I greased and worked to get the table to work manually. Nila was having a big day with the cleft palate surgery, tympanoplasty, thyroid, etc. It is about 5:30 pm and the rest of the team is not home yet. Don't expect them for a while.
Karl and I also worked on many air conditioner units, some lab equipment and tried to get an old x-ray machine to work that had been donated about 6 months ago. Kinda the attitude down here is that if it does not work for a few months, they give up. Partly due to no money, and partly due to lack of technical ability. Some of the items donated are high tech, and after a mission group leaves, the locals just don't know how to run the item. For instance, the lab machine was in Spanish for the software, but the working manual was in German. You get real good at sign language.
This was an especially hot day here, and we just have to make some re-arranging of our sleeping situations. Some of our accomodations have A/C and some don't. The one's that don't are just brutal. So, we are probably going to go Camp, or Boy Scout/Girl Scout with separating the couples so everyone gets A/C, but we will have 4 to a small bedroom, which is a very tolerable tradeoff from the heat.
Did someone say below zero up in NE? Send some down.
The trip is amazing, the support from all the folks that helped to send us here is so appreciated by the team.
There will be more blogging as the team gets back in shifts.
In the photos are hospital ladies folding gauze that was rewashed from yesterday's patients. Yes, they recycle gauze here. Also, our laundry service is done by hand, and by some of the most carring people you would ever meet. The last photo is a child who lives in the area.
John
