Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Last night Shift

Hi everyone back at home and patients that might be reading this! My time in Rwanda is almost finished. I leave Saturday afternoon. It is my last night shift here. I cannot believe how fast the time goes buy here. The patients are sleeping and so I have some time to write.

It has been great taking care of the patients on the step-down. Working on the step-down I have the privilege of seeing most patients before surgery, in the ICU, and then I get to care for them on the step-down up until they are ready to go home. I think when they first come out of surgery they do not know what hit them. They look scared and worried, but then after a day or two after transferring to the step-down they start smiling, talking, and laughing. It is an amazing thing to see. Many of my patients are already asking when they can return to work, school, and having more children. It was also great to see my patients from last year. They have returned to there work and school and seemed very happy. I was surprise that despite the language barrier many of them called me by name.

After a long stretch of work, I had a day off and I feel refreshed coming back to the hospital tonight. I spent my time off relaxing, dancing, and I made my visit to the genocide museum. It was just what I needed to not only give me much needed rest and a mental break, but also time to remember why I am here. Rwanda is a beautiful country, but the people here are even more beautiful. They are so grateful for so little and they do not take much for granted. They teach me to be more patient (even though my patience is stretch very thin here at times), to not stress the small stuff, and that less is often times more.

The staff at King Faisal has been so helpful and supportive. It has been a privilege to work with all of you. It was great working with familiar faces as well as many new ones. I have some great pictures of many of the patients and at their request and permission I hope to be able to share them on the site so that everyone can see them (and hopefully some of them will be able to see them too!) I do not have a way to upload my pictures, but I hope to do so before I leave.

Alright, time to get back to work!

3 comments:

  1. Such a heartfelt post. They could not have a more genuine nurse! :)

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  2. i,m so proud of you jacqueline so is dad...we miss you good luck on the mountain

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  3. Jacqueline - Such a touching post. It appears that you're getting as much from this as your patients. It's a beautiful thing. Good luck on Mt. Kilimanjaro

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