Adding
On and Fixing Up
The Protestant Hospital is very close to my
guest house in Garoua Boulai. I walk on
the road that cuts through it each time I go to town (including to the market). For two months I have been watching
construction there. I have considered
taking pictures, but thought, “Why be obsessive about taking pictures? This is not my area of work…” Well, I guess you might find it as
interesting as I do, so maybe I should have taken pictures at earlier stages of
the work!
The plan is to create covered walkways
between the main hospital building and other nearby buildings where patients
stay. The workers have also replaced the
roof on some patient rooms, redone the outside wall coverings, replaced the
doors, and will soon paint.
The workers started by cutting down some
branches of a tree in the courtyard so that there would be room for the walkways. Then, they began making cement
blocks. We think of buying them from a lumberyard,
but here they mix the cement, put it in molds, and then put the blocks in the
sun to dry. Here are two pictures – one
is the pile of cement used to make blocks – and also used to dry clothes… The other is the cinder blocks drying in the
sun with the walkway and courtyard in the background. 
It is similar to the process used to make
mud bricks that are most often used for houses, schools, etc. The mud bricks can be fired to make them
stronger. The pile of bricks is covered
by straw and wood and then it is burned during the course of a night. Like a kiln, but not fancy… Here’s a picture (from a village in CAR) of
the mold for mud bricks and some of them drying in the sun.
The building pictured at right had its roof
removed and new supports put in place.
Then, new corrugated tin was put on top.
This is the most common “permanent” roof. Also common are thatched ones. (See the section below about building a
paillot.) This building also had 2 skim
coats of cement (I think) added to the underlying bricks. It will soon be painted. The doors are new, too. The rooms in this building are for patients.
Aside: Cutting the Grass at the Lutheran
Station.
On my way to take pictures of the
construction, I passed three men cutting the grass which had gotten
thigh-high. They were using machetes
which always fascinates me, so I took their pictures. The man in the second picture is sharpening
the blade. Because this is the station
build by the US missionaries, the maintenance man, Jean, also has a lawnmower
which he uses regularly. Either this
grass got too high for the lawnmower or it is not part of the area Jean
regularly cuts… 
Life
as a Patient at the Hospital
Writing about the construction at the
hospital makes me think about differences between a patient’s life here and in
the US. As you can see, the hospital
here is not as large as most in the US and in not enclosed in one
building. Of course, hospitals here don’t
need to be heated in the winter! The
walkways are to shield people from the sun and rain (somewhat, because when it
rains hard and blows, these walkways are not enough!)
Here in Cameroon doctors visit patients in
their rooms and, in another area of the hospital, see out-patients. Nurses give medications, take temperatures,
and routinely check on patients. Records
are kept. All of this is much as it is
in the US. Here, though, patients or their families keep the notebooks that are
used for records. They also buy the
medicines at the hospital pharmacy and are also expected to buy the needles
needed to give medications or take blood for analysis. (At least they can be sure that the needles
are clean!)
There are other differences, too. The hospital provides beds with mattresses
for in-patients, but the families provide sheets and meals. Cooking is done outside over wood fires (the
way most families also prepare meals at home.)
Family members bring mats and rest/sleep on the floor of the room to
provide care. Sometimes they also bring
foam mattresses. The picture at the
right shows a large mat in my living room that is similar to those families
bring to the hospital. (I didn’t want to
intrude to take pictures of families and sick patients in the hospital. And,
yes, that is a chimney in the corner – not that it is ever cold enough to have
a fire in it!) These mats used to be
woven from straw but are now most often made in factories with plastic
thread. The picture at the right shows a
couple of old mattresses being used to cover some building materials to protect
them from the rain – or maybe this is just a garbage pile that will be removed
later! Hospitals here have no
televisions or telephones for patients.
Patients who have them bring their own cell phones, of course.
Patients here spend much less to get
hospital care, but, even so, many people can’t afford to come. There is generally no insurance although those
who work (other than as farmers in their own fields) may have some assistance
from their employers. For example, I
help pay my employees’ hospital visits and medicines and I know the Lutheran
Church here has an assistance plan for their workers.
Building a Paillot
While I was in Baboua, the roof of the
paillot next to my house needed to be replaced.
I took pictures of the stages used.
First, the old straw roof and wood supports were removed. Then the men replaced the wood supports – of
two different sizes – and then replaced the straw. The whole process took several weeks. This paillot has a low stone wall enclosing
it. Some just have the poles that hold
up the roof. This is the paillot that
one of the guards of the station in Baboua uses at night. He is very glad to have the protection when
it rains hard! Paillots are also used as
protection from the sun, but as a night guard, Dimanche generally doesn’t use
this paillot during the day.
