Chad 2022 #9
Happy Woman’s Day everyone! (Journée Internationale des Femmes). March 8 is celebrated all over the world (except the US) to empower women, have conversations about women’s rights, encourage girls to become educated etc. Here in West/Central Africa, it is a day of singing, and speeches. The female nurses all take the day off to be able to go to the festivities, then cook a large meal together and sing and dance, and hang out together.
This morning we went to the stadium at around 8 am. We had 12 people crammed into a 4Runner. Slowly, young females from schools all over this district began to arrive, marching, and singing and dancing. Then the “officials” arrived, including the Sous Prefet (like a government appointed representative/sub-governor). Several people made speeches. Several special groups did skits. The hospital nurses did a skit about giving birth outside the hospital and how important the woman is. We all marched across the stadium together. Then we escaped the cacophony. I am told that the speeches etc go on all day, but as it was about 103 in the shade, and much hotter standing in the sun of the stadium, I was happy to escape to a bottle of ice water.
Several of us walked back to the hospital compound. The walk was hot, but felt good to stretch my legs. Each of us female docs made rounds on our respective wards and saw patients.
After rounding, I came back to my “1 day church/house” to relax in front of the fan. My phone stopped working because of the heat. I decided I could put it in the freezer, or lay my ice water bottle on top. I chose the second option to avoid having to retrieve it from the freezer which is next door.
Around 4:30, a bunch of the women all got together to eat a meal together. There was rice, pasta, roast lamb, cabbage and potatoes, and something like hibiscus leaves in a peanut butter sauce. It was all delicious. After dinner, about 20 women all went to the river for a swim and to cool off. I decided to stay behind and relax a bit. I played a little badminton with one of the missionary kids that I knew from Cameroon when he was 6 months old. We both worked up a sweat so again the ice water was terribly welcome.
As I write this it is 8:20pm and Greg is still doing surgery. I think he has one more planned for tonight. He has been at it since 8 this morning. Greg has been trying very hard to lighten the load for the surgeon that is here, so is trying to get through as much of the waiting list as possible during our month here.