Melissa, a Nursing Student in Uganda

I've introduced Melissa before, and no, Sarah, Kieran, and I did not go to the church ceremony.  Originally, the village ceremony had been planned for Friday and the church for Saturday.  Something happened with the schedule (the priest, the church, the groom's family?) and so we weren't able to stay.  During the 4 1/2 hour drive from Mukono to Tororo, however, I got to know Melissa, one of Jane's honor maids, along with Sarah.. 

Melissa (on right) and Sarah

Melissa is a graduating senior nursing student at Johns Hopkins University, doing a clinical rotation in nursing at a teaching hospital in Kampala.  She has been on the Pediatrics unit for her most recent rotation.  Her lack of experience in the profession showed in her conversation, mostly with Kieran and Sarah in the front seat during our drive to Tororo.  But her humanity and compassion and caring could not be doubted.  They are impressed with her ability to function in the chaotic environment of the Kampala hospital, which is known for its disorganization.  I am quiet, listening and wondering how someone from the Western medical model can provide compassionate care in a country where life is so fleeting. 

She describes being on the peds unit (sometimes two to a bed, with parents sleeping on the floor beside or under) where medication is simply not available, and the most aggressive respiratory treatment is high flow oxygen, with one concentrator shared between many patients, so no one knows exactly what is delivered.  There are shortages of IV fluids, and even IV cannulas.  Melissa bagged a baby with sepsis whose heart was strong, but just couldn't breathe on its own until she had to stop...there is no ventilator in Uganda--for anyone.  She said they'd had a run on sepsis, and it seemed as if she'd watched a lot of babies die.  She's concerned because frequently, there is a critical need for blood (Hgb of 2.0) and the lab is backlogged, and doesn't have the staff to do a type and cross, so she has been taught to do it by the physicians.  So she does, with full knowledge of her responsibility for getting it right, because there is no one else to save a life--maybe. I admire her sturdiness, and ability to deal with the tragedies of being a nurse and still function and do what's right, even though it's not anywhere close to ideal.  She sees clearly.

Melissa was a Peace Corps volunteer, living with a family for over a year, planting rice in the fields and helping them harvest it.  She had a cell phone that worked if she hiked to a hilltop and was to be used in an emergency.  She charged it weekly in town, and didn't use it during the week so that the charge would last.  She had been taught the language and had all of her immunizations courtesy of the Peace Corps and had to be evacuated after the year due to a coup in the country...don't ask me which one...it doesn't matter, maybe Madagascar???

She has a Biology degree, and ran a camp in the Uganda mountains for gorilla watchers for a year after leaving the Peace Corps, which is how she met Jane.  I didn't question her about her motivation for becoming a nurse.  I did ask her if she wanted to practice in Uganda, but she said no...she needed to work in the US for awhile to pay her student loans, which were huge.  She was a very pleasant intelligent woman, whose father lived in Nevada for awhile and whose family owned property in New Jersey, clearly a student of the world, and aware of her place in it.  She described learning to drive in Uganda, while also learning how to drive on the left, and said her greatest challenge was the rotary where she needed to go left around, and all of her instincts screamed to go right. 

On Sunday, when we were on our way home she texted Sarah that at noon the church wedding service, scheduled to start at 1000 had not yet started, and that it was to be another long day because they had then to drive to Kampala for a celebration dinner hosted by the Groom's family.  Oh my.  I'm sorry I missed the church service, but I'll enjoy the pictures.