Thursday, February 2, 2012

One of those days...

Sorry if I'm posting here too often. Writing about stuff feels like therapy though. And I need some therapy right now.
I had a pretty bad day. I have absolutely no idea what's going on at my internship, and I feel like there's no one there who can tell me. I went to the hospital this morning and immediately got lost trying to find the maternity ward. When I found it, they sent me into the labor room to the lady who is the head nurse/midwife person. They told me she would be right with me, but then everyone immediately seemed to forget I was there and so I sat there for an hour until I finally just got up and asked the head nurse what I should do, and she sent me to another part of the ward. One of the nurses had me help her with the laundry at first, but then we got back from that and there was nothing for me to do but watch what was going on around me. So I just followed people around for a while who didn't seem to know who I was or why I was there, and I felt like an idiot. Especially because everyone was speaking Twi constantly and I couldn't figure out what was going on. I watched some doctor put an IV in a newborn baby, and an IV of blood into a pregnant lady, but when I asked anyone questions about what was going on, nobody would really answer.
Fortunately though, I met this girl from Denmark who had been at the hospital volunteering for about a month in different wards, and she told me that out of all the wards she's worked in so far, the maternity ward has been the hardest to figure out what's going on and what you're supposed to do. So she told me I should just walk back and forth  from the main part of the ward to the labor room and just watch stuff. So I did. And I walked back into the labor room and asked the midwife lady if I could just observe what she was doing for a while, and she said she was about to deliver twins. So I ended up in the delivery room. I saw twins being born today. nbd. (?!?!) Still not sure how I feel about that.
After that strange experience, I went back to the other part of the ward where absolutely nothing was happening, and just sat there with the girl from Denmark until the end of our shifts.
And then on the trotro ride home, I was approached by some creepy-ass guy who made me super uncomfortable and I missed my stop, which is why I am at the CIEE office and not at home napping right now. Luckily though, the stop I got off at had a convenience store right there, where I got ice cream to make myself feel better. And I vented to a UPal about my day and he said that it sounded like a pretty typical first day for these internships. Frustration, confusion, people completely ignoring you, etc.
Hopefully it'll get better.


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