Further adjustment

So over the past few weeks my job assignment as a Peace Corps volunteer has changed dramatically. The job that I was first given when I was chosen to work at West Demerara Regional hospital is no longer the job I am working on, at least it’s no longer my primary job. Originally, I was assigned to work with the assistant hospital administrator (AMA) of the hospital and the Regional Health Officer on developing mental health programs throughout the region and also on creating, implementing, and maintaining a waste management disposal program at my hospital. Both of these project started out well, I did a lot of research on the issues, the current status of mental health and waste management in Guyana, what the current resources are, what needs to be improved upon, and what was feasibly sustainable at this time, given the current landscape. This went well for the first 2 weeks I was at my site; I was able to do a lot of this work on my own, which was good because the AMA is usually very busy. However, about 3 weeks in, my research was done and I was ready to move onto the next step, with the help of the AMA. This is when I began to run into some issues. Both of my projects were too big to develop and implement on my own, huge systems changes, even just within the hospital, is not something I am qualified or even capable of doing on my own. I needed the AMA to assist me in the next steps. However, he was extremely busy with the day to day runnings of the hospital and, while still committed to the projects, was not able or prepared to take the necessary time to work on them. I did not see him or have contact with him for almost 2 months, during which time I literally had nothing to do but walk around the hospital and try to find people to talk to who would need me to do something.

It was maybe one of the most frustrating times I have ever experienced. There I was, a Peace Corps volunteer with a college degree and field experience and almost a complete master’s degree in public health and I was just walking around aimlessly, sitting outside people’s offices for a few hours before finally giving up and going home. I felt useless and frustrated and I was more than a little bit afraid that this was going to continue on for my full 2 years. I started going to the computer room for a few hours in the morning, to help transfer paper records to the new electronic medical records system, until one morning I walked in and there was someone sitting at my desk. The hospital had hired someone full time to do the medical records and my assistance was no longer needed. I literally had no place to go or be at the hospital, no physical place to go and spend my day except my house. That was the final straw for me. I went to Peace Corps and spoke with my program manager. I told her what was happening and explained, as politely as I possibly could at that point that she needed to get in contact with the AMA, who was supposed to be my counterpart on these projects (but who had never answered one email or phone call from me and who I hadn’t seen or spoken to in 2 months) and let him know that I was going to find my own projects outside of his office unless he stepped up and started working with me again. I gave him a week, and after still hearing nothing from him and sitting outside his office for hours at a time, waiting for him to make time to meet with me, I had finally had enough. The next day, which was about 2 and a half weeks ago, I went to see Nurse Johnson, who is in charge of all the health clinics in the region. I told her my situation and explained that I was completing my master’s in public health and had a specific interest in maternal and child health (MCH). I asked her if she knew of any projects involving MCH that could use my assistance, that I was a free resource who was here for 2 years to do development work and I was ready, willing, and desperate to get my hands dirty. She immediately took me over to the maternal and child health clinic at the hospital, spoke to the medex who ran it and told her that I was a Peace Corps volunteer who was going to be working at the clinic with them for 2 years. The medex asked me if I could come every day and help the nurses, sit in on exams and consultations, and give weekly health talks to the women on various health topics. I swear, I almost gave both the medex and Nurse Johnson a hug and a kiss right there.

This new assignment at the clinic is absolutely perfect for me. I only just started last Wednesday and clinic only runs Monday through Thursday from 8am to noon, but it is so much better than wandering around aimlessly, waiting for the AMA to get his act together, and feeling useless and bored. Basically what I will be doing is attending the various clinics they have during the week that are specific to women and children. For example, every Tuesday is antenatal day, when pregnant women come in for routine checkups and every Wednesday is infant and child day, when women bring in their young children for checkups. I help the nurses fill out records; I do height, weight, and blood pressure. I sit in with the medex and sometimes the doctor when one is available and help with exams. Once or twice a week I will be giving health talks to the patients on various issues such as breastfeeding, nutrition, and HIV/AIDS.

Today was antenatal day, when all the pregnant women come in for checkups. I helped the nurse find all of the women’s health cards and then weighed all the women and updated their cards. I then went in with the medex and assisted her in examinations. I learned how to measure the belly for fetal height, feel for fetal presentation so that we can see whether the child is facing with its head the right way. I also learned how to listen for a baby’s heartbeat without an ultrasound machine, which was so awesome. The medex even let me help with full examinations of new admissions, which includes full gynecological exams. It was definitely a new and different experience, but absolutely incredible. Next week, I will be doing a health talk with the women on exercises they can do during pregnancy. Right now, I am planning on just observing and helping out where I can while I figure out what types of long term projects the health center may need. I already have a few ideas but I want to get settled and comfortable with my new position before I start talking about changing things or implementing new ideas. If my counterpart, the AMA, still would like to work on his projects with me I am definitely still interested in that but until then, I will be putting most of my time and energy into the maternal and child health clinic. But, even more important than that, I am finally happy with my job assignment and I actually feel like I am being helpful and useful and doing something good with my time

5 months in: Random thoughts

So the other week I decided to try my hand at being domestic, seeing as though I am living alone in my own apartment for the 1st time ever, and sew my own window curtains by hand. Having nice curtains in one’s house is a pretty big thing here in Guyana. Every window and sometimes every doorway have its own curtain and the designs are carefully selected and changed every couple months and for every major holiday. People have special curtains that only go up at Christmas or when someone gets married or when a baby is born. And of course, these curtains are usually sewed by hand. When I moved into my apartment my landlady had put up her good Christmas curtains on all my windows and about 2 weeks ago she took them down to use in her own home when her daughter gets married in early August. This left me in somewhat of a predicament, since the distance between my windows and my neighbors is about 1 foot and my windows were now fully exposed. I decided that the obvious solution to this was to buy fabric and sew curtains. Sounded simple enough. I went and bought fabric, a nice light blue with a rose/bird design (the pickings were slim at the store), got out my little travel sewing kit, and blocked out a whole Sunday afternoon. My apartment has 6 decent sized windows and about halfway through the first curtain I started to think that maybe I wasn’t cut out for the whole domestic seamstress housewife thing. My stiches were crooked, I couldn’t measure to save my life, and the only thing I could find to hang them up was this ghetto looking blue rope. Plus Nala kept thinking that rolling around in the fabric and chasing after the rope was the best game ever. But I powered through, cause already made curtains are incredibly expensive and I had already bought the fabric and I am in Peace Corps gosh darn it, I should be able to sew a few lousy curtains. Four hours later they were done, slightly crooked and hanging on hammock rope but they were up and now my neighbors could no longer look out their windows and accidently see me walking around with no pants on (In my defense, it is stupidly hot here every single day)

Jump to the next afternoon around 5: My landlady, having seen the evidence of new curtains through my windows comes up to check them out. She takes one look, feels them between 2 fingers and just shakes her head and says “Me resew for you. Don’t trouble, me resew.” And epic fail. She takes down all my curtains (And there went my plans to walk around pants-less later) and resews them all herself. When she brings them back 2 days later, they look professionally done and she even hangs them up with special elastic curtain rope that I had no idea even existed. Guess my inner housewife still needs a little bit more work :)