We decided to take the day off to relax, and as we have done before we went to the RLJ Kendeja Resort just outside Monrovia for the afternoon. We enjoyed food, drink, and the ocean breeze while sitting in the shade and looking out at the beautiful sand and surf. We saw a few brave surfers; apparently several areas of the west coast of Africa have a sudden and significant drop off as you go out from shore. This creates some excellent surf, and also some serious undertows, so generally swimming is not advised in these areas unless you are a strong swimmer. Naturally this does not stop people for going in, and we have seen a couple of near-drownings over the years.
Toward the end of the afternoon several of our doctor friends from JFK came for a meeting at RLJ; they indicated they were waiting for Dr. Jerry Brown , the newly appointed Acting General Administrator, to join their meeting. As we were walking away from the beach, he came walking the other way, and we had a chat. He informed us that the autoclave (sterilizer) at JFK "blew up" this afternoon, and there were people there trying to fix it. We shall see tomorrow morning how our surgery schedule will be affected; it will be a big problem if it can't be fixed quickly.
We are halfway thru this trip, and I would say that it is going better than I had expected. I knew it would be different, but I wasn't sure in what ways. I think the main aspect that is better is that we are integrated into the postgraduate training program; patients are not separated into "our" patients and "their" patients, but rather they are all together, being cared for by all of us. Its a good feeling, and I believe it is a good model for the future.
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