Sunday September 8

A slow and quiet day of rest, which seemed appropriate since it rained most of the day. Jonathan and Larry Kim came back from Phebe this morning, so after sitting around watching football(soccer) on the TV for a while, in the afternoon we went to have lunch at the Royal. After that we visited the Hotel Ducor so they could see the view of the city from there. For those who don't remember it from previous writing, it is up on a hill overlooking the sea and the northwest part of Monrovia. It was a luxury hotel, and must have been beautiful in its day, but it suffered badly in the fighting of the Civil War. Eventually it was abandoned, and then taken over by squatters. The hope is that it will be renovated soon, but there is apparently a dispute over ownership between Libya and Liberia, so for the time it remains abandoned. Today, while walking on cement near the swimming pool, I slipped in a slimy puddle, falling on my back, and lightly hitting my head ! It was really quite gross, and I couldn't wait to take a shower when we got back to the bungalow !
    Diego made rounds this morning, and tells me that everyone is doing well, including Rashid. After talking to Jonathan, and doing a google search, I have learned that Rashid's condition is a rare event called ileo-sigmoid knotting; from what I can tell, it has been reported more commonly in Africa, but I will need to look into it further when we are back home. It is described as a sigmoid volvulus in which the small bowel wraps around the base of the volvulized sigmoid, leading potentially to infarction of both segments, as it did in our case.
     Dr. McDonald called me this morning to check on us, and to say that the President sent her thanks to the team. She is leaving for India today, and won't be back till after we leave on Friday, so she won't have the chance to thank the others in person. I thought that was pretty nice that she took the time to think about us and send that message, but then again, it isn't surprising. She pays remarkable attention to details.
     We will have an early night tonight in preparation for the second half or our work ahead this week. If things proceed as they have on previous trips, by Friday we will find that we have run out of time with patients still needing surgery. There really isn't much we can do about that except try to prioritize those who need us the most.