Well, here we are back in Addis again! I’m pleased to say
that the journey was not too bad and only took 9 hours as there had been a
considerable rain storm last night and so the roads were not quite so dusty –
just muddy instead. The car is being taken to the garage tomorrow to be
‘serviced’ and, more importantly, to have some brake discs and other rather
important parts replaced. The roads here wreck the car and on the weekly
inspection (not that I know what I am looking at), it is not uncommon to find
that some bolt or another has been shaken off. Indeed, there was a rather
important looking rod hanging down by the back wheel last week where the bolt
had fallen out.
It’s a bit of a pain to have to take this break right now as
I am in the middle of following up some of the women I have seen in the
clinics. One woman, with a BP of 260/160 has just had an elective C-section as
she was developing liver problems. The trouble is that the baby is just 29
weeks gestation and a bit growth retarded due to the high BP. Ideally, I would
have liked to have been around to make sure that he receives good care and thus
optimise his chances of survival. I worry that he won’t be kept warm and that
the feeding regime will be a bit hit and miss. Talking of feeding, I was
totally frustrated the other evening as yet again, the nurses had run out of
baby milk, despite us sorting out a source of it from the hospital. All they
have to do is to order it in advance but still they turn up at 10pm asking us
for baby milk as they have run out. There is a 2-month old baby who should have
gone to the orphanage but for some unknown reason, things have been delayed and
so he remains in the ward being bottle-fed – when, that is, people remember to
get him some milk.
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