May 20
Here's what it's like going to visit the doctor in Guinea…Show up at the clinic at approximately 6:30 am (or come the night before and camp out) and wait for the gates to open. Once the gates open at seven you stand and wait for a number (there are different numbers for dental, children, adults, surgery, etc…its VERY confusing!). Around 7:30, the line begins for pre-paying for your visit (approx $3.50 for an adult consultation and about $1.30 for a child). Once you have paid, you get to wait again, with approximately 150 other people) in a large covered area with chairs set up "sanctuary style" facing a large screen (they do provide the "Jesus film" or sometimes live evangelism while you wait) to be called into the vital signs area. The vital signs area is a 10x10 foot area in the front corner of the waiting area by the video screen that is sectioned off by a metal frame and cloth curtains. You are called by number into the vital signs area, usually with 2 or 3 OTHER patients at the SAME time, men, women, kids, there is no separation . You stand barefoot on an old scale, the kind with the spots for your feet and the red arm thingy that swings around clock-style to show the weight (no digitals here!) that every other person for the past 8 years has stood on and has never been washed, to get your weight. Then you sit beside everyone else in there and bare your armpit for the thermometer (yes, the same thermometer that EVERYONE else uses…we do, however, wipe it off with some kind of antiseptic stuff on a piece of cloth, we use the same cloth ALL day, and the next…) to take your temperature. Yes, the women lift up their shirts if necessary (not many bras in africa), the men unbutton, all right there together, and there is probably a screaming child next to you that isn't yours! Then your pulse is checked and your blood pressure is taken. All the while, you are carrying with you a little book called a "carne" that is your medical record. You are responsible to keep this with you all the time, in between visits, during your visit, etc. It's the only way anyone can know your medical history. After your vitals are complete (it may be 10:30 or 11:00 by this time if you are in the first 20 patients for the day) you go back out to the waiting area to wait for your number to be called to go and wait in another outdoor "hallway" on concrete benches to actually be seen by someone. You may see a nurse who can order labs and prescribe meds for a certain protocol of things, or the doctor or surgeon for more serious issues. Then you go back to the place to pay and pre-pay for your lab orders (maybe $3-4 for basic work ups). Then you go to the lab and wait. Then you wait for the results. Your "carne" is taken back to the ordering nurse/physician so they can read the results. They then prescribe the medications needed. You go back to pre-pay for the medications. Then you go stand and wait at the pharmacy. Your order is filled in the order it went in. If you are lucky, it may be 4:00 when you get to go home (by walking or by paying a motorcycle taxi to take you and your spouse and your child all at the same time, home)! If you are staying for surgery, or need to be monitored for a hospital visit, you guessed it, you (or your family) go and pre-pay for the visit. Your family then is responsible to feed you, provide linens, drinks, bathroom arrangements, etc., for your entire hospital stay! Can you imagine?? I could go on and on about the spider we killed in the OR, or the laundry hanging on the fence outside of the hospital that was just hand washed by a family member, or the flies that surround those patients with wounds, or the patient who is having a seizure on the floor in the waiting room and they simply wait for the seizure to subside and the patient to awake from the nap that always follows, before attending to them. It is a completely opposite experience from what we would consider even remotely sane in the United States. Yet the people are always grateful, never complain, and know nothing different. It's so hard to see it, to want to change it all, but then to realize it's their culture, and the REALLY DON'T MIND!. And this hospital is 10 times better than even the biggest and best government run hospital around! I am grateful to be able to witness this, be a part, and to come home more grateful for the opportunities we have at our disposal at home! Two more days and we travel home! Can't wait to see everyone! Thanks for your continued prayers and encouragements! BTW, the boy with the burns went home smiling!