Kpalime

Well, this has been a very busy week...after setting up the wards, stocking supplies, and finishing our inventory, we had the hospital open house on Friday night. This is basically an opportunity for all the crew to see the hospital before the patients come. So, to make it fun, we had everyone rotate to different stations with different interactive games and stations where people could learn how to stitch and start IVs or things like that.

Our station was called "nurse for a shift." So we had 5 people come in at a time who were the "nurses" and had a list of tasks they had to perform for the 5 of us, the "patients"...it was a race to see who could finish the fastest...but the catch was that we were all supposed to be as difficult as possible...so, we all had fun being noncompliant patients...passing our other meds to other patients to take...spitting out our meds, not sitting up for them to listen to our lungs, being whiny, etc. One of my friends who was a patient in the bed next to me even got sat on at one point because her nurse got so frustrated! We were all laughing hysterically throughout the night..I actually laughed so hard I cried at one point! It was really funny to watch and be a part of!

My favorite part of our little activity was that our "nurses" had to put the bedpans under us...but they didn't know we had syringes full of lemonade under the covers...and actually left them a surprise in the bedpan that they had to empty in the bathroom! It was pretty funny to see all of their reactions! We had a lot of fun and everyone seemed to enjoy what it was like to take care of patients and be a nurse.

After our busy, yet fun week, we all realized tht this would be our last free weekend where all the nurses would be off at the same time...so we decided to take the opportunity to get out of town for the weekend and visit a city called Kpalime. All 16 of us piled into a little taxi bus and got "comfortable" for the 2 hour ride up north...let's just say we all got close on the trip..in many ways :)

Pic in the packed taxi from the back seat

The weekend was a lot of fun..we got to have some time to relax and hang out, swam, and explored the market (let's just say the African markets are VERY different from the local stores in the states and sell all kinds of random things).

I met these adorable kids in the market

Lunch in Kpalime with friends from the ship

The second day we hiked Mount Agou, the highest mountain in Togo..it wasn't quite the equivalent to Kilamanjaro, but it took us almost 7 hours to hike it and was definitely a good climb! We had a local African guy with us who pointed out some pretty cool things along the way...like leaves that you can crush in your hand to make paint..and a few different types of fruit that were growing on the trees that we passed on the hike.

One of the great views during the hike

Making our way up the mountain

On our trek up the mountain, we had to go through two different villages. We were met there by lots of cute kids who excitedly called out "Yovo, yovo" as we passed by (that is the word used in Togo that means 'white person'). It was really cute.As I was talking to Noel (our African friend who served as our guide up the mountain), he told me that many of the people in these villages hike down the mountain and back nearly every day to go to town...It's crazy to me that these people have such a long trek down the mountain just to go to the market...and I recall times that I was too lazy to take the 10 minute trip in the car to the grocery store back home...pretty crazy how different things are here...but then again not everyone lives up in the mountains..and the people who live up there do have an amazing view!

We thought it'd be fun to spell out Togo at the top

Somehow we managed a pyramid after the long hike!

Anyway, I really enjoyed the weekend, not just seeing new sights, but also the opportunity to get to know some of the people from the ship a little better. We have a big week ahead of us..the first surgeries will start on Wednesday, so I'm excited to get back to being a nurse again!