Today was the first day of the PDSS, and busy. I started the day with a
run, which was pretty difficult considering the elevation and the fact that the
hotel is located on a pretty substantial hill. I didn’t manage three miles, but
I was happy(ish) with what I did get done, considering the factors at play.
Our first meeting
for the day was with the Chief of Staff of Operations of the Lesotho Defense
Force, a two-star general. He had with him three one-star generals, so it was
quite the meeting. We explained the mission—we’re going to be pairing up
one-on-one with Lesotho Defense Force doctors, seeing patients in the mornings
and doing clinicals in the afternoon, the same pattern as the DRC MEDRETE. They
were under the impression that this was going to be a much larger mission, so
we knew from there that we were going to be fighting an uphill battle. They did
eventually figure out what we were talking about and agreed that it sounded
like a good mission.
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| View of the Barracks from the road |
As if that wasn’t
enough high-powered people in one room, the second meeting of the day was with
the Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Defense, where we again explained
the mission and he did a lot of head nodding and thanked us for our support.
Then we went to the military hospital—the only military hospital in all of
Lesotho—to talk to the hospital commander (lieutenant colonel) and some nurses
and the only two doctors in all of the Lesotho Defense Force (it’s a small
country…). We again explained the mission, they told us what the hospital
needs—which is mostly stuff, which we can’t provide—and we went on a quick
tour. We’re supposed to get more of a tour tomorrow.
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| Makoanyane Military Hospital |
After lunch, we
headed over to the Ministry of Health, to meet with the Principal Secretary
there. When we told him what we were looking for—which is pretty much for them
to participate in the academic session of the exercise—he quickly found people
for us to talk to, and came back with the head of the programs for TB/HIV,
Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response, and International Health
Regulations. In other words, exactly who we needed to talk to. We explained our
plan, they agreed to participate in academics, and committed to at least six
hours of lectures, in order to make sure the LDF doctors know about the national
programs for disease surveillance, TB, HIV, and STDs. Success!
Throughout the
entire day, the civilian on the survey who’s in charge of the security survey
spent the entire time complaining about how boring the medical meetings are and
how they have nothing to do with him. I didn’t say anything, but I wanted to
tell him that when he’s going on a pre-deployment site survey for a medical
mission, there might be one or two meetings about, I don’t know… medical stuff?
It was frustrating, but he was fairly easy to ignore.
In all, late night
(it’s 9:35 and I’m exhausted), and my allergies are killing me. I forgot to
take into account that it’s spring in Lesotho, and spring is when my allergies
are the worst. Ugh. Fortunately, it’s easy to buy medications here, so I bought
some generic Zyrtec (what I take at home), and hopefully will be feeling better
tomorrow.
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| Local allergy meds. A lifesaver. |
And now, time to
go to bed, so I can go to more meetings tomorrow.
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