Today was my first
9/11 out of the States, and I definitely noticed the difference. While my
Facebook account was covered in cries to ‘Never Forget’ (referring to not only
9/11/01, but also the events in Libya last year), I was in meetings in a
country on the other side of the globe, the date having no more meaning for
them than the 4th of July or Thanksgiving. There were no moments of
silence, no news broadcasters replaying the events of twelve years ago, no
American flags being waved from street corners. And that was fine. In a time
when everything is always broadcast and always recorded, it was nice to have a
day to when all I had to worry about was what the anniversary meant for me, not
for anybody else.
And now back to
Lesotho… As I did yesterday, I got up early to go running, trying a different
route this time. Since they warned us about going around town when it’s dark
out (and the sun doesn’t rise until about 6:30 around here, when I’m pretty
much done from my run), I’ve been staying away from the “town” parts of the
roads, which doesn’t leave a whole lot, and all of it pretty steep. Looking at
my elevation chart after my run, I ascended 300 feet in less than half a mile.
No wonder I had to walk up some of it.
 |
| Elevation map |
The entire morning
was spent at Makoanyane Military Hospital, getting the more in-depth tour
(which allowed me time to ask questions to refine the mission plans) as well as
the tour of the Thomas Wellness Center, the PEPFAR (President’s Emergency
Program For AIDS Relief) funded clinic that focuses on HIV/AIDS prevention and
treatment. After the tours, we sat down and hammered out plans. My original
thought was for four doctors and two Public Health nurses, the four doctors
being two infectious disease specialists (one adult, one pediatric), me
(preventive medicine), and family medicine. My thinking for family medicine was
because of how much obstetrics work they do, in terms of the prevention of
maternal to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) treatment of pregnant and
breastfeeding women and whatnot. However, when I explained my plan, they asked,
“Can we get an obstetrician?”
 |
| Thomas Wellness Center |
Hmm. Get an
obstetrician for obstetrics work. Who would have thought?
So we changed the
family practitioner to obstetrics, hammered out the rest of the details, and
then broke around 1200. Mo, our Embassy contact (he’s Basotho, and like all
Basotho, no American can pronounce his name, so it got shortened to ‘Mo’) drove
us out to the site where the Basotho tribe made their stand against pretty much
anyone who tried to invade, a large steppe with only one path up (in other
words, easily defended). We took some pictures and bought some miniature
souvenir woven hats (the national symbol of Lesotho) and then headed to Kick
For Life, an NGO run by FIFA (soccer people), which has a good cook. Sure
enough, the lunch was pretty good, for being European-type food served in
Africa.
 |
| The rock |
 |
| Lesotho hat |
We headed back to
the hotel after lunch, where I quickly sent of my justifications for mission
personnel to the person in charge of manning the mission, and then settled in
to do nothing but read a book for the remainder of the afternoon. I had grand
plans of going to the gym to get on the stationary bike, but that just didn’t
happen. Oh, well. Maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m going to continue
sitting at the bar, sipping cheap red wine while playing on the computer and
pretending to watch the rugby game on TV.
No comments:
Post a Comment