Day 18 – Monday – Most Productive Day Yet!

                 So it’s the start of a new week and what better way to begin a Monday than with power! I woke up and helped prepare breakfast before heading down to the clinic to fight for everyone’s free time so I can get the right information about Nyakato. I started in the lab where Meaghan was taking samples from patients for the lab tech to process. She helped me figure out what materials and time go into performing each test. I put these into a spreadsheet that will eventually calculate the exact cost of performing each test based on the latest price information available. Unfortunately however, to do this takes a lot of Jimmy and Dr. Bon’s time. I got as much information from Meaghan as I could and then went to Miriam’s, the HR manager, office to look through some records on the amount of each procedure they have done at the clinic. This is where my day starts to get challenging. The records aren’t exactly what I would call easy to read. They are all in pen or pencil and a procedure that’s called one name on one page will be titled something completely different on the next. I’m not anything close to a medical professional so sorting through these abbreviations and names will be a challenge. I took the records back to Paula’s to digest them and put the information Meaghan gave me into a useful format.

                At the house Paula and Sele were working on some financials for a new construction project so I got a little sidetracked helping them on the computer. Sele really wants to learn how to use excel and asked all kinds of questions. Some of the things he wanted to do were new to me so we all spent about two hours learning about the program.

                I apologize for talking about excel as much as I do. I know most of you probably don’t care about it but it’s kind of the reason why I am here so when I talk about my day there’s most likely going to be a bit or two about excel.

                I went back to the clinic to get a document with all the prices Nyakato currently charges. As I waited for Dr. Bon to finish with patients I talked with some of the locals outside in my minimal Swahili and their attempt at English. When you get to a point in a conversation where both people can tell the other person has no idea what they are trying to say you can’t help but laugh and it puts a smile on the kids’ faces. Dr. Bon and I stayed at the clinic until after dark (around 7:30) going over what I was making for him and how it would help him in his daily management of the clinic. He keeps gasping randomly and I thought maybe he had a respiratory condition. It wasn’t later until I asked Paula that short gasps in the middle of a conversation are like the minor “uh-hu’s” that we would say to let the other person know we understand.

                I decided to have dinner at Lucy’s tonight since Paula and Denny weren’t planning on eating. Lucy has cooked Chicken and chips (fries) along with some vegetables and rolls and it was all delicious. The power was off by this point so it was a candle lit dinner. Later I dove into the Swahili book. I’m almost done! Before bed, Paula made hot cocoa so I sipped that down and read until my candle burned out.