Susu

I have to admit that I am glad it is Friday. This has been a busy, draining week for me. I wouldn't say that is a bad thing though. I learned a lot and got a lot accomplished and now I'm just tired. Nothing River #2 tomorrow can't help with. I was getting pretty down on myself this week. Patients seem to be being discharged but only a small few are being admitted. We are sending nine home tomorrow and that will give us only a handful of patients left. I was actually taking it personally at the beginning of the week, as random as that sounds. I see part of my job as being bringing the women in. Making sure they hear about us and know how to find help. Only being here a month I am still learning, yes, but I still felt like the low numbers were my fault. As the week went on and I spent one afternoon going around to the different radio stations and getting us slots for next week to go on air, I was starting to relax a bit. I felt like God was really starting to show me that: A. I am not here to do this alone and B. women will come, I just need to be patient. Another reason I was getting frustrated was because we had to cancel the screening trip that was going to go out this week because the screening car needed to be worked on...if anyone out there would like to donate a new vehicle for screening, please get in touch with me. :) There's my plug. The reason I say new is because the roads here are so bad and the places the screening trips need to go are even worse. You don't find many women in the cities. You need to go out into the small villages where the roads are, well...I'm going out on a trip in a week so I'll show you pictures when I get back. Anyway, canceling screening trips slows down the progress we make. I wrote about the advocacy program last week on here and as the women go home I truly believe they are going back and sharing their experiences here in hope of helping their friends. Even today I walked into the ward and there was a cluster of women talking with one of the nurses about a woman back in her village who is wet but she is so scared to come forward. They were all trying to tell this patient who knows the woman how she can go back and encouraging her to come out. The fistula women are the only ones who get one another. No one else can truly understand them.

Today we said goodbye to mama Finnah. This woman was so funny. She has been with us for a few weeks for surgery. She had her day of gladi gladi today and her 'pikin', daughter, came to pick her up today. I wish I had a picture of her hair but she always wrapped it up when a camera came out. She kept it braided in five neat rows. The top of the braids were black but between the braids it was silver. She is well along in her years. The longer she was here, the more silver came out. I finally asked her and yes, she dyes her hair.Her catheter came out a few days ago and she is dry! Whenever I see her she throws her hands up and says, "Tell God tenki!", and we do. Then she looks at me and says, "Shake yo body!", and we do. When she left today I cried. I cried, not because she was leaving, but I cried because of Mariama. Mariama is a seventeen year old patient. Finnah and Mariama both speak susu. Susu is not a dialect spoken by many in the Western Area of Sierra Leone. Finnah spoke susu, krio, and a few other dialects. Mariama only spoke susu. She was crying because the only person she could communicate with was leaving. Finnah went over to where she was sitting and wiped the tears off her face and put her arms around her. It was a great picture of the two of them and the bond they created in the short period of time they spent together.