Weekend!

The weekend is here! (If you have a calendar handy and a chart of the various time zones you should be thinking something like, “Alisha has finally lost her mind – the most it can possibly be is Friday.”  And you be absolutely correct – especially about the Friday part, the mind part is still at least partially debatable.)  The Banglaeshi weekend is Friday and Saturday, with Friday acting largely like our Sunday.  So all the activities you think about as being on Sunday happen on Friday here and Sunday is like Monday… confusing but true.

Yesterday I got to take a tour of the new hospital!  Josiah also came but since he has been on the job site regularly it was significantly less exciting.  The new hospital is four stories tall with a useable roof with helipad.  Additionally it has weight bearing pylons extending through the roof for expansion.  From the roof you can see the hill country (the foothills of the Himalayas).  These are where the tribal peoples live including the Mru, Marma, Chakma, Tripura, Khummi, Khyang, and Tangchangka tribes. The saying is around the hospital is that if a Mru comes to the hospital and you can’t find anything wrong keep looking because “they are tough as nails”.  Example: A 22 year old woman, 20 something weeks pregnant, walked one day and traveled two more to make it to the hospital. Her hemoglobin was 2.4 (we automatically give blood in the states under 7 and normal for a woman is at least 11-12).  And she was walking…but I digress.

When completed the hospital will have 152 beds, including PACU (post anesthesia care unit) which right now essentially non-existent, 8 surgical suites, an Emergency Department, a small NICU, and once funds are provided, a CT scanner.  The hospital will continue to do its own laundry, will handle its own waste water, and incinerate its own medical waste.  Many people have sacrificed so much for this project and it is finally nearing fruition.  They hope to be completed in a year but there are still many challenges and needs.