Another One for the History Books

Well the week has been pretty mediocre. Last weekend I had nothing to do. I went to church which was hot, long, and uncomfortable. Sunday I had no plans so I decided to try and see if I could do 1000 pushups in a day. Got it done in just over 5 hours. The workweek saw me filling in more of the book. One might ask what the girl who came to replace me is doing. I honestly don't know. The hospital has a tendency of hiring people even when they don't have a use for them (which is probably how I ended up here, but that's not the point). Anyway, she is still around and spends a lot of time in the drug storeroom. Neither of us are very busy. Yesterday I taught her how to do sudoku and I think I've created a monster. After I helped her with two, I told her to look some up online or download an app for her phone. She was super excited about it, and it was cool to be able to teach somebody something new and have them respond so positively.  Another highlight of the week was subbing for the pharmacist for 3 hours. The pharmacy wasn't busy, but I got to sit in a more comfortable chair for a while! The good news is that as of today, I have 5 days of work left. I figure I can handle anything for just 5 days. Well, kinda 5 days. As I was quietly chanting TGIF to myself, the head nurse informed me that he wants me to come in on Sunday to help do a report. Not wild about that idea but he said it's gonna take only an hour. So I'll help for an hour. But I'm leaving after that whether it's done or not! There are 2 weeks left until I head out, and I told the admin staff some time ago that I want my last week here off so I can pack, get rid of the stuff in my apartment, buy some last minute souvenirs, say goodbye to people, and do some final planning for my visit to Paris on the way home. It probably won't take an entire week to do these things, but I'd rather have too much time than not enough. Plus, now that I'm back on book duty I'm really glad I asked for that last week off.

I've watched a handful of ultrasounds this past week, and I also attended a 7am staff meeting that almost became a fistfight. That was...     unique. I wasn't even going to go to the meeting since I'm leaving soon and it started an hour earlier than work usually starts, but I figured it was my last chance to go to one and it might be interesting. I wasn't disappointed! People really like harboring grudges around here, and then they dig them all up and unload on each other during staff meetings. As a completely uninvolved party, it didn't seem like much progress was made in this fashion, but it was a little excitement to start the day off. The rest of the day was pretty tense! It's funny (and when I say funny I mean distressing), these people are very quick to forget the good things that come their way but when someone does them wrong they carry it to their grave (which might be in the near future if things escalate too far!) I feel like I'm pretty good about letting stuff go and staying neutral when it comes to workplace drama, but seeing these ugly grudge matches here is a poignant lesson to me to stay determined to let things roll off my back. I've gotten pretty good at taking a deep breath, counting to 10, asking myself how important this will be in 5 years (or even months or days). Gotta pick your battles!

The weather has been pretty nice this past week. We had one day where it rained for 2 hours really hard, and another cloudy day, but otherwise I'm not convinced that the rainy season is on its way. I was under the impression that by now it would be stormy and stuff. Guess not! I'm still really enjoying being able to keep track of the Giant's games. Usually they're in the middle of the night so I just watch highlights the next day, but every so often one happens at a reasonable time and I'll keep tabs on it. Between that and working out at the gym, it makes the time pass a lot quicker!

I've started to think that I've had a backwards experience here. Just from what I've picked up from my SM peers, it seems that most of them started out pretty homesick and weirded out by the place, and now as the time comes they're sad to leave. For me I was the opposite. I showed up and was stoked about all the new experiences and didn't worry about home so much. But as my time to leave approaches, I am quite sufficiently ready. That's not to say I won't miss some aspects of Cameroon, but I don't feel like I have a whole lot of reason to stick around. I've pretty much seen all there is to see, done all there is to do, and I'm ready to move on. At this point, the list of things I'm excited to do when I get home is a lot longer than the list of things I'll miss here. I tend to spend more time thinking about the future than the past, so maybe I come by that honestly. And I'll probably realize more of the things I miss about here once I'm actually home and can't access them anymore. Definitely the few friends I've made here will be one of the things I miss, and I guess the view of the mountain is nice, but specifics are a little hard to think of right now. I almost wonder if I'll have any reentry shock. My understanding is that reentry shock is mostly due to needing some closure. I think for me, getting on the plane at the airport will be plenty of closure. I mean, yeah, driving myself around, not getting stared at and called "white man", having air conditioning, a fridge, and a washing machine will be a novelty for like a month, but I'm not sure it's gonna be too jarring. And I don't think that's going to negatively impact my general outlook on life. Course I'll be jetlagged too for a day or two as well, but after the initial exhaustion wears off it's just going to be a week of being hungry at odd times and having to pee in the middle of the night. But that already happens to me so I won't be any worse off!

TL;DR Lightning round of weeks highlights: 1000 pushups in a day, ultrasounds, lots of book filling, sudoku teaching, staff drudging up grudges, subbing in the pharmacy. Other stuff covered this entry: The weather (fine), the Giants (great), and my thoughts on leaving Cameroon (I'm ready)