In the Emergency Room and throughout the
hospitals in the US, there is a word that is taboo!! It’s the “Q” word!! For
those of you who are not medical, the “Q” word = “quiet”. I have literally
interrupted a patient or family member in mid-sentence to stop them from
saying, “Wow, it’s so _____ tonight”. Then they are educated on the
consequences of the word they were about to use. 😀
I hate even putting it out there into the universe. You would never think that
a bunch of educated adults would be so superstitious!! Don’t even get me
started on full moons!! I digress.
Anyway, Sally and I have made a rule that
we will not say, even in celebration, “Electricity” just to keep the bad
electricity ju-ju away. As I mentioned in my previous blogs, the “E-word” is
currently one of my biggest challenges. Being the American I am, I have tried
to record the outages to try and figure out if there’s some rhyme or reason to
when it’s off and when it’s on. No such luck. I shared this with Sally and she
just smiled at me with the look of “oh, pumpkin, you’re so pretty”. She told me
she used to do the same thing but finally realized that there are no scheduled
outages - except in June for 3 weeks. Hopefully by then I will have really
given it over to God and live like my motto - “It is what it is” or in Krio
“A-do-bear” (spelled phonetically) To understand and accept that I am not going
to be able to control this and just need to bear it along with everyone else
around me. I pray I’m getting better but there are times when I am reminded how
very blessed we are in the United States.
This past week I was sorta like a real
nurse. My second struggle is how very different they do nursing care here than
what is done in the United States. Most of the time I take a breath, close my
eyes, say a prayer and do what is requested of me. But there are other times
that my crotchety old ER nurse comes out and I mumble under my breath and
probably roll my eyes but I’m trying very hard not to do that. When I stop and
take the very few seconds to process what’s being done (or not being done), I
do understand, sort of. I know that it’s going to take time for me to become
comfortable with it all. I am so very grateful for Sally. She’s always willing
to let me voice my thoughts and feelings and then help me process it. She has
little nuggets of wisdom and experience that she shares which is very helpful.
Thank you Jesus for my sister Sally.
Speaking of sisters, the neighbor kids
will yell out, “Sista, sista” and wave to us. Or we are called “Porto”.
Apparently most white women are nuns (sistas) especially because we live on a
compound that has a convent on it. And the “Porto” is short for Portuguese who
were basically the first white settlers to Sierra Leone so that’s what white
people are referred to as. I hope that we get to go to Freetown (the capital on
the coast) sometime soon. There are museums and other historical sites that
tell the history of Sierra Leone and the people here. They are wonderful
people, very kind and welcoming.
I’m excited to start taking some language
instruction. The priest that helped Sally, who also lives within our compound,
completed the courses he was teaching at the university and will now be able to
help me learn the language - if an old dog can learn new tricks. I’ve been
trying to listen closely at work and a lot of my colleagues are good at helping
me translate when I speak to the patients/family members. I think my struggle
will be with the accents, I just need to train my ears better.
That’s all for now. Thank you for your
continued prayers and support. I love being able to talk to and message my
friends and family back home. Feel free to drop me a WhatApps message - my new
number here is +232 76 290769. Or you can try FB Messenger but I don’t check
that as often. There’s also email: kathykois@gmail.com
Much love and many blessings to you
all! XOXO ~ Kathy
