Nuts softball tournament

A very busy week it was. I don’t mind so much because it’s interesting and my time goes by rather quickly. Aside from the emotional news about my pregnant patient, I was also visited by a doctor from South Africa and trying to get my visa and cable request in for my up and coming trip to Burkina Fossa, Ouagadougou. There’s an annual artisan festival going on while I’m there and Dina wants to come with the kids. So I have to arrange the driver, time off, our hotel accomodations, and estimated cost. Once I’m there, I will be meeting my nurse and familiarizing myself with the clinics and hospitals there. I already have patients scheduled to be seen (a breast mass and a hip bursitis that needs injecting).

This weekend is the NUTS softball tournament. When we first arrived at post, I was asked if I wanted to join the team. Not entirely opposed but completely disabled when it comes to swinging any kind of club or stick at anything, I declined. I know my limitations and people should thank me for that! I don’t know what NUTS stands for but I could guess after talking to some of these people that it could be taken literally.

What it means for me though is that I have to be prepared for sports injuries. Last year someone broke an arm and last week in training, someone needed stitches. The teams are coming from all ovver west Africa so we were asked to help house some of them. We took on two young women from Benin. Their team decided to come Thursday night since they had to drive over 12 hours, and get the most out of their time. I wnet to pick them up at 9PM but they didn’t arrive until 1AM. Those poor girls were tired and so was I.

Friday, we had some friends over for drinks and dinner. I got called out to the baseball field. An innocent by standard was watching the game when a fly ball came down through the trees and hit him in the eye. He had a brief loss of consciousness and his eye swelled up like an over-ripe apricot. I took him to the Gamkalley clinic (French) to make sure he had no internal bleeding into the orbit of the eye which could put pressure on the nerve and cause blindness. He was fine. It cost 4,000 CFA (~$8) and I gave him $2 to catch a taxi back home.

The rest of the weekend was univentful. Our house guests were very nice and we took them out to the Grand Hotel for drinks and brochettes last night. They have the most wonderful view of the Niger River from the veranda there.

It’s Columbus Day but the kids are at the French school. Pierre, our gardener is back from Burkina Fossa and the girls left early this morning. I thought I’d share the morning with Dina but I got called in to evaluate a little girls’ arm. Her brother tugged on it and made it hurt. No harm done eccept that I’m going to have to have a talk with that boy!