July 14

These are two "admin kids"....children of administrators I've been working with at the hospital. The little girl in the blue dress is Marthe's daughter, Benitha (the "h" is silent). Little girls usually wear their hair very short, and sometimes it's hard to distinguish them from little boys, except for the skirts or dresses that they always wear. No trousers or shorts for little girls. Benitha speaks very good English, as does her mother (an English Club regular). The little boy is the son of Julienne, the top hospital administrator. He has lost his two front teeth and is even more adorable when he has a big smile on his face. I wish I could have gotten him to show his teeth in the picture!

Today was a very productive day for my work at the hospital! A good meeting, some decisions made. Made some progress in trying to automate a manual part of the billing process in Excel. Tricky when resources are limited (not enough computers, little money to buy them) and staff also have little or no training in using computers. I will leave here a week from tomorrow to start my long journey back, and I should be pretty busy until then trying to wrap up my work. I'm glad - the best days are when I'm busiest (just like work at home).

Still was able to squeeze in a tea break at the hospital canteen. I know enough hospital people now that I can go by myself and not feel too awkward. But my friend Rose (travallier/jack of all trades) noticed me there and sat by me, which was sweet. The canteen is one of Lisa's projects and shows her special touch - they have really good sweet African tea with milk and cinnamon rolls made fresh each morning. If you work at the hospital, the tea is free, and the sweet roll only costs about 20 cents. Though they have a modern kitchen, they still use a wood fire "out back" to cook big pots of rice and beans to sell at lunch. Rice and beans are traditional food for this part of Africa, along with fried plaintains. If one is somewhat prosperous, then goat or beef can be added to the meal (usually boiled or stewed). They have chickens around here too (one rooster used to wake me up early every morning at my first house here, with Lucas) but I don't see much chicken in the food dishes, and I think people mainly raise them for the eggs. There's a pig here at the mission who eats leftover scraps from our table. Someone named him "Smoky". Oh dear. I hope that I leave before his time is up - I am a wimpy carnivore who does not like to see my food walking around beforehand!

Lisa did not feel like walking today, so Ella (British medical student) accompanied me on the 3 mile walk on the dirt road, instead of Lisa. I was a little concerned about getting lost without Lisa, but it was no problem. I was also asked to take Ella on a tour of the hospital this week, in order to get her oriented. Now it seems that I'm the "old hat" showing the "newbie" the ropes. Funny how fast that happened!