It all started at about 11pm on October 6th. I was attempting to fall asleep, which wasn’t really working, when I hear a loud snap. I couldn’t tell exactly what had caused the noise, but I got a little freaked – you know, weird noises when you’re living alone in the middle of nowhere…not great. So I am lying in bed trying not to freak out when all of a sudden I hear a short tinny banging sound. It starts and stops for a few minutes and I finally figure out what it is - My Mouse! I have had a mouse wreaking havoc on my house for the last few months, but I finally got mouse traps sent from the US and put one out to catch the little bugger the other night. Of course the first attempt didn’t work and the mouse got all of the peanut butter off of the trap without getting caught. I was so frustrated that I just left the trap on the floor without anything on it – I was sure I was never going to get rid of this mouse. So I realized that the snap I heard last night was the mouse caught in the trap and the banging was the mouse trying anything to get out of the trap. I figured if I let it writhe a bit that it would finally get tired and stop. But the banging just kept getting closer and closer to my bed, so that when I shone my headlamp out into my room I could see it bouncing towards me. It was caught with a front quarter of its body stuck in the trap keeping it mobile but slow. It was at this point that I realized I needed to deal with this situation or I would never be able to sleep. By the time I built up the courage to walk past its bouncing form in my narrow doorway I contrived a plan to catch it. I am not very good with creepy, crawly animals but I built up my courage, grabbed my broom and dustbin and attempted to sweep it up and into a bag. Of course it got a little too close to me and I dropped the dustpan, turning the mouse right side up so it could scamper away. I chased it and finally caught the end of the trap. Mustering all of my courage I picked up the trap, with the mouse dangling from it, and quickly dropped it in a bag. I hung the bag up for the night so that the mouse couldn’t get out, but it still was a little creepy when the bag would occasionally rustle in the dark. After my ordeal my adrenaline was pumping and it took me a while to get back to sleep.
When my alarm finally went off I felt like I had hardly slept. I had to be up early because I was planning an event at the CSPS (clinic) that was to take place during our biweekly baby weighing and I needed to be there early enough to prep before all of the women arrived. My project for the day was to do a demonstration to show the proper use of a mosquito net and alternative ways to hang it. My plan was to make poles (wood cemented into large cans) that could hold up the mosquito net allowing people to hang it wherever they wanted, inside or outside. The objective was to demonstrate that there should be no excuse as to why they cannot use their mosquito nets such as: we have no way to attach it to our bed or we can’t hang it outside as it is too hot to sleep inside. So my plan was to make these poles, demonstrate how to hang the net, how to correctly use it and then turn the demonstration into a discussion on other malaria prevention methods.
I got to the CSPS early and sought out the Major to find the last minute materials I needed, but he was busy trying to get a pregnant woman evacuated to the district hospital for a C-section. I waited around for an hour before finally seeing the wood the major had had cut for me. As it turned out the wood was too thick and heavy to be held in the cans I had collected. With only the packed sand I had put in the cans they would fall over taking the net with them. In addition the wood was too long and the four pieces were not of equal length. After we found someone to cut them down for me the major sent our chauffeur to get cement so we could better ground the poles into the cans. Throughout all of this troubleshooting I was running back and forth to help with baby weighing. As of 8:45 the village midwife had not arrived to start weighing babies and the women were getting antsy and starting to leave. The major became very concerned, because if the women didn’t stay to get their baby’s weighed then they wouldn’t stay to get their kids vaccinated either, which always takes place together. Because we are short handed at the clinic right now (we are down two out of four nurses) no one had time to go and start the weighing so they sent me…to do it alone! There I was surrounded by angry, frustrated women with their tired and cranky babies. They were yelling at me in Bissa, laughing at how I pronounced their names and upset by how long it was taking me to fill in all the paperwork! I felt overwhelmed and frustrated. Eventually the village midwife showed up and helped me diffuse the tension, but by that time I had to leave to go help the chauffeur cement the poles. While letting them dry I went back to baby weighing as there were still many women waiting for their turn. We finally finished around noon after weighing 92 babies in all. A successful morning I would say even though I didn’t get to do my demonstration. Oh well, it will just have to wait for another day – probably tomorrow. By the time I got back to the clinic everyone was still running around trying to deal with patients, so I took on the responsibility of registering the malnourished children we identified during weighing. We had two severely malnourished kids and two moderately malnourished who all walked away with packs of Plumpy Nut. I tried to give them the speech to make sure that the packs were not wasted and actually went to rehabilitating the malnourished children – we’ll see what happens when they return next month. So, after a long morning I finally headed out, leaving my poles at the clinic to dry. A quick trip to the market and then finally home to eat and nap, thus ending my 12+ hours of chaos. Hopefully tomorrow will be less hectic!
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