Day 5

This was the day to take down the wall. After chapel, the construction team hurried to the operating theater to begin sealing off the doors with plastic and duct tape (the universal tool) to keep the dust out of the surgical areas. That done, the four of us worked together to chip out the large window frame covering the entire width of the 8’ area. We managed to get it out safely without breaking any of the glass panes. Then we began cracking the concrete veneer covering the double rows of bricks that formed the five foot high wall. Once we got it started and some of brick and mortar removed, Bud and Glen went off to examine the water storage tanks to see if they could devise a repair to the water tower’s sagging platform. It is sagging under the weight of the nearly 1,700 gallons of water in the tank (roughly 6.75 tons) and weakened metal bracing of the platform as a result of persistent leaking water from a valve on the tank. Meanwhile, Mark and Larry, using hammers, chisels and a sledge, broke down the brick and concrete wall. Bud and Glen returned triumphantly with a repair solution mapped out for the water tower just in time to help cart away the rubble from the wall. We managed to get the wall out just in time for lunch.

The seal on the doors provided a sufficiently good dust barrier that Dr. Kari, anesthetist Barb and the local members of the surgical team were able to perform surgeries in the adjacent operating room after all. The noise from the hammering seemed not to be the problem we expected either.

In the afternoon, the surgical team did one or two more surgeries. These went quite smoothly.
Again, Ann spent much of the day providing patient care with the other nurses. A particular focus was the care and feeding of the very tiny premature baby. The baby has not been feeding well and the mom has been somewhat frustrated. This morning, Ann was able to get a good quantity of formula into the baby and to get the baby to nurse some at the mom’s breast. Ann clearly appeared to feel relieved, thankful, and successful when she reported this to the rest of the team.

Diane worked alongside the other nurses again this morning, helping change/make beds, deliver orders to pharmacy, and other helpful tasks. In the afternoon, she accompanied Joan on yet another trip to Livingstone to pick up supplies and to take volunteer medical workers at the nearby eye clinic to the airport.

In the afternoon, the construction team built the wood structures we will use to jackup and provide structural support to the sagging water tower platform. We can’t finish the job until we are able to borrow a hydraulic jack which should be available Monday. We also made plans and checked supplies for the installation of a float-based automatic on/off switch to the water pump that fills the water storage tanks. This will involve digging a shallow trench roughly 250 feet long between the well house and the storage tanks, laying conduit and pulling wire to connect the pump switch to the float we’ll put in the tank. This will help eliminate overflow and water loss problems and lack of water from being too late in turning on the water pump manually. It should stabilize the water supply and reduce waste. The work on this will begin Monday as well.

Today was a pretty good day all around.