While my projects are still waiting on other people, I have been making (or drinking) a lot more tea, reading, and catching up on the Malian soaps--which are actually Brazilian soaps--nonetheless riveting! I also started going to the existing clinic to spend time and watch the activities there in the nurse’s area (FYI the clinic we want to build will serve the interior of the community who live too far for the existing clinic to be of use).

When you visit the clinic, you first go to the waiting area. If you need to see a doctor, you sit there until he can see you in his office. If you need the nurses, you wait until one of several patients vacates their office-sized room. There are two beds to the side of the waiting area where there are usually people lying down receiving intravenous rehydration. I’m including photos of the waiting area, the nurses’ room, and the beds.

The nurses’ room (infermière/salle d’acceuil) is a surprisingly busy place every morning. Lots of bandage changing and shots of some kind—though whenever I asked what the shots were or how someone got wounded, I was met with blank stares. Apparently in the nurse’s area, we don’t ask how or why, we treat. The first day must have been some kind of nurse training day, because there were at least seven women, two doctors, and four patients in the very small space. Everyone crowded around a screaming girl while a nurse tried to find a vein in her hand…for about five minutes. It was a little overwhelming! No matter what though, it is always interesting. Bandage changing might get old after a while, but it certainly hasn’t yet!

My host brother, BaKante Karkoss, is a medical student here in Bamako. This morning when I was leaving for the clinic, he was sitting in our courtyard changing the bandages on a girl whose head he stitched after she fell on the cliffs near our street--flies swarming. Never a dull moment! Karkoss has offered to take me with him to his med school classes next week, and I’m excited to see what that is like as well.

I hope you found the visit to the Malian clinic at least half as interesting as I did! At least now you have some idea of what we are trying to build for the community. Thanks for your emails and I send lots of love!