I woke up this morning and did my normal morning routine, only after each step I packed it up. Brush my teeth, pack the tooth brush. Wash my face, pack the face wash. You get the idea.
After breakfast I walked to the CSPS and was greeted by a very joyful nurse. She insisted I follow her around as she did her “work”. I sat in as she did a few consultations and then she got up and declared she was going to the maternity to help the midwife with CPNs (Pre-natal consults) . I was confused by this; it was Wednesday and we’d only ever done CPNs on Mondays. Since I’m virtually useless during CPNs (I can only weigh the women, and even then I seem to mess it up) I thought I would go say hello to Roger at the pharmacy. Once the nurse realized I wasn’t following her like a lap dog, she called me over and insisted I come to the maternity with her.
There were only a few women there and not much to do. She asked me to take their tension and Sylvie, the midwife, right away piped in that I can’t do that, in her smite way, before taking the next women into the exam room. “You don’t know how to take blood pressure?” the nurse seemed shocked. Nope, I’m not a doctor. She told me how easy it was and said she would teach me. She talked me through it as she did it on a women, but her explanation was lacking and I still didn’t understand how to do the counting bit. Plus the final numbers they come up with are nothing like what I hear in the states (apparently they drop the first number?). It was my last day in village and I didn’t feel like getting a lesson on how useless I was. Thankfully there were only 3 women there and we were soon done with our work at the maternity.
She had me follow her back to the clinic and into the consultation room, where there were no patients to see. She sat down at the desk and wanted to chat. She asked for all the details about the wedding, and then told me she couldn’t come. She had been talking about coming to the wedding all week, so I was surprised to hear this. She had just found out that the national meningitis campaign, where they go house to house, was that week and the Major would not give her the afternoon off to come to the wedding. After our short conversation she leaned back in her chair and fell fast asleep. I didn’t know what else to do and not wanting to wake her, for fear she’s want me to “assist” her for something else, so I sat there as she slept. About 20 minutes later a young man came to the doorway and clapped (the Burkinabe knock). She did not wake up. He looked at me and I shrugged. He clapped again louder. This time she raised her head. “When your work is finished, the Major wants you at the maternity”, there was to be a meeting with all the health agents to prep for the meningitis outings. She said okay, then as soon as he left she put her head down on the desk and fell back asleep.
10 minutes later one of the Community Health Agents came into the room, “we’re waiting on you for the meeting”. “I’m working” the nurse replied. The agent laughed and said something I didn’t understand. “I’m coming” she said. After she left the nurse again closed her eyes. 5 minutes later the same lady came up to the open window and said something I, again, didn’t understand, but I hope it was along the lines of “seriously, come for this meeting”. The nurse took a few minutes to compose herself before walking over to the maternity. I ducked into the pharmacy to talk to Roger before she could tell me to come with her.
Conversation with Roger was pleasant. I asked if he was coming to the wedding and he told me no, he was too villageois to come. We proceeded to have a conversation about nothing in particular, where he informed me that the United States had 52 states. When I said there were only 50 states he pulled out a Burkina news paper, which had printed in an article about immigration in Arizona that there were 51 US states. Interesting. Soon it got to be 11, then 11:30, and I started to anxiously watch the maternity for the meeting to end- I wanted to say goodbye to the Major. Despite being my counterpart, I had barely spoken 2 words to him in the last week since he was so absent. Finally at noon Roger told me not to wait any longer, I had things to do and I should go home. He’d tell the Major I wanted to talk to him and hopefully I could catch him on my way out of village that afternoon. I lingered a bit, to show I gave it my best effort, then hurried home to finish packing.
I made an easy lunch and then cleaned and packed up my kitchen. Most of my house was already packed, just last minute stuff and cleaning. One of the neighbor boys wandered over, one of the Chef’s sons, to see what I was up too. Typical, he’s a usual, but he usually comes in a pack. As I cleaned up I gave him a bag of plastic bags, which he seemed excited about. He then preceded to fall asleep in the chair I had moved outside while I swept, still clutching his bag of bags.
After I was all packed up I piled all my belongings in the corner of the big room, ready to be packed into the Peace Corps car on the following Monday.
This drew the attention of the neighbor kids. They watched me for a moment and then sent Angina to me, knowing she is my favorite, coaching her on what to say, “Vous etes partir?” Not quite right, but I understood. “Oui, Je pars” Instead of being sad like one might expect (or hope) the kids seemed excited and ran around asking me for anything I still had out. I gave away old magazines and all the boxes and bottles I had empty and they ran home with their “goodies”. Just before 3 p.m. Roger stopped by to say goodbye and give me the 500CFA I had loaned him when he didn’t have change at the pharmacy. He truly is a good guy. He knew I needed to leave at 3. He informed me that the Major had just left for one of the satellite villages, but he would tell him Goodbye for me.
As I loaded up my bike and closed up my house I was bombarded by a few of the usual kids. They asked for candy, and since I had it and was leaving I gave them some. Then they wanted me to take photos.
Finally at 3:20 I got on my bike and headed out of village. I was already 5 minutes late for meeting Katie, my PCV neighbor, on the road and I still had to bike 4Km to meet her. Just as I was passing the CSPS I ran into Roger. He told me the Major had just returned, but if I was already late it was okay for me to just continue on, he said with a wink. Sorry, I’m already late. He gave me a warm goodbye and wished me a good marriage, and I continued on, biking out of village for the last time.
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