Thursday, March 2, 2017
Don and I went to Lungi today. The x-ray machine we got for the Bai Bureh hospital in
Lungi arrived yesterday. Dr. Sesay went to the airport and picked it up without any
problems. We arrived at the hospital at 11:00 and Dr. Sesay and his brother Dr. Sesay
and all their staff were waiting for us. They are so excited to get an x-ray machine. It
took more than 2 hours to get it out of the crate and set up. We watched a training film
and looked through the written material and Dr. Sesay finally decided that he was going
to open the opportunity up to all his x-ray techs (who work in other departments of the
hospital because they did not have an x-ray machine) to study all the materials, be
trained by a professional technician, take a written and hands-on exam, and whoever
comes out with the highest score will be the "senior" technician. Oh, are they excited.
They actually had a young woman come in with a shoulder injury while we were setting
up the x-ray machine and they would have loved to have been able to take an x-ray of
her shoulder. But, they will not use the machine until training is done. It is normal
when you meet with a professional here in sierra Leone for them to walk you out of the
building. Dr. Sesay walked us out and continued with us to the parking lot and then
continued on asking us to walk with him. He took us to his house which is in the
hospital compound. It is very large and there were 12 couches and over-stuffed chairs
outlining the living room and 4 couches forming a square in the middle of the living
room. He asked us to take a seat and then went and got us each a bottle of very cold
water. He went and got his wife and 4 month old baby boy. We visited for a few
minutes and then she announced the "food" is ready. Food! We were not expecting to
be fed. As we were going to the table I asked her if she would eat with us. She said
"no, I have something to do". The reason I asked that, is that one other time we were
invited to lunch and we were fed a very nice meal but the wife did not join us. She
stayed in the kitchen. Mrs. Sesay went out on the veranda and she did have some old
classmates that came to see her. So she really did have an excuse. The meal consisted
of cucumbers, watermelon, pineapple and papaya. Dr. Sesay said he thought we might
be vegetarians. We drove back to our apartment without incident.