Last day hanging out in Brazzaville, so we definitely made the best of it. I got up around 6am and read a bit from a tropical medicine textbook, and Reol prepped breakfast for when the rest of the gang woke up. Kara and Stephanie, the two physician assistant students from Indianapolis, arrived last night, so we ate breakfast with them and then helped worked with Mr. Mbossa to get their money changed over. Much much easier today with the smaller amounts being changed. But yet again, the "ambulatory bank" showed up to give us the cash. I guess the reason is that the US dollar is pretty much worthless in the Republic of Congo, but over in the Democratic Republic of Congo they actually want the dollar (here they like the Euro). So, they go over to the DRC and get it changed over. So the guy once again started pulling money out of his sock and exchanging it....and he still had ours from yesterday, so we were shocked that he's just walking around with a couple grand in USD still. Must have a mean right hook. We also realized Jason speaks more French than he gives himself credit. Considering we speak none, and he was able to translate the majority of what was being said, we aren't letting him pretend any longer.
Once we finished with the money exchange we set off to explore Brazzaville. Thankfully Jason, Kara, and Stephanie were cool with just setting off with no real plan. I've been with groups before who are worried about wandering around a place like this and saying it's dangerous.....which I suppose it could be, but I'm usually not too worried. Anyway, we knew that if set off and took a right outside the compound, and took a left at the gas station, and then headed straight....we should hit more of the city. As Jason put it, it actually kind of looked a lot like Florida. Today was much cooler than yesterday, and there was a slight occasional drizzle that felt amazing. We decided to head towards the river, which when we found a spot to go through it was basically a construction site with a lot of garbage everywhere, so we didn't exactly get to show the girls the same awesomeness we saw yesterday. Not exactly the best place to hang out so we continued on. We wanted to get some food, and were hoping for some local "street meat," so we trekked on looking for that. We grabbed a couple of bottles of water from a small store and then found a woman hacking away at some "chicken" on a grill. We bought the chicken and some bread for a few bucks and Jason said we should look for a park bench to sit and eat. I replied that there was no way we would find a park bench in the Congo, let alone a park, that we could eat. So we kept walking with Jason insisting....and sure enough, a park. An actual park, with park benches. I stand corrected. We had a good chuckle and settled down to eat our street meat and bread. Talk about well seasoned chicken. I was tempted to go back and get the recipe, if I could speak French I guess. I suppose we shall see by tomorrow morning if we're all sick on the plane, but it was well cooked and tasted delicious, so regardless it was worth it. After that we started to head back to Hotel Bravo, as Aucolz was supposed to meet us in the afternoon....and we did find our way back, without too much difficulty really, so that was good. We got the hang of the street crossings too, which basically involves just walking across the street and putting your hand out to signal to the cars that they need to stop....and they do, oddly enough. I'm still alive, so I guess it works.
When we got back to Hotel Bravo we played some card games for a while, and Reol prepared some food for us. I've definitely eaten more here than I normally do. They mentioned we would likely lose weight, but I think I might gain some with all this food they keep feeding us. It's all delicious too. I'm going to be quite spoiled by the time I get back to the states. Soon after, Aucolz arrived (he's the resident from yesterday that showed us the hopsital). The guy is really a lot of fun, and quite a joy to be around. He hung out with us for a couple hours and we just chatted about this and that, he asked us questions about our hobbies and such.....it was great. It's awesome to meet people like him and build relationships around the world. During this time we found out that Ivonne, one of the girls who has been helping out around the Hotel, actually speak great English and is taking a college entrance test tomorrow to try to go to the US for school. She's really shy and has been acting like she didn't understand us, so once we found out we pulled her over to sit with us and we got her to start talking. They all at least speak much better English than we do French or Lingala (local dialect). This is where today's title comes into play. Aucolz asked me if I planned to learn Lingala and French during my month here, to which I replied, "I'll try." He responded, "There is no try, only do." I started laughing and asked him if he's ever seen star wars. He said yes, but didn't understand my reference. I told him that's what Yoda <(-_-)> says, so I told him "you are wise like star wars." So our slogan for our trip I think will be that there is no try.
Tomorrow we leave for Impfondo! We'll eat breakfast at 6am and head out around 6:45 for the airport. I think it's only like an hour long flight, so it shouldn't be too bad. But they are crazy strict on the kilos for the baggage, and they charge us per kilo over. Considering we planned for 50lbs each, and they want 44lbs, it'll be interesting. I'm going to try to load up on how much I can wear without dying of heat exhaustion. I don't think they weigh us, so we'll see. But really I think it's like only a dollar per kilo extra, so it's not the end of the world. We can try showing them the invite to the hospital and ask if they will let us slide by, but I hear they don't usually. Guess we'll see.
I talked with Dr. Harvey a bit today about the plans for the week for Jason and me. Dr. Wegner is an emergency medicine physician who also is the primary surgeon (so freakin' cool), so I'll work mainly with him. He'll be able to teach me a lot about emergency medicine in an international place as well as how he acquired the skills to do surgery so well. I'll also get to assist him with surgeries it sounds like. Awesome considering it's the best of both worlds for what I want to do in the future. I nearly did surgery for my residency, but decided the lifestyle and training requirements weren't suited for me accomplishing my goals internationally, and emergency medicine was definitely a better fit. Between my procedures that we do in the ER and getting the opportunities to do surgery in places like the Dominican Republic with the Rush group (check out my prior blog posts from our trips back in November/December....we did general surgery, orthopedic, and ENT/cleft lip and palate repairs), this is a great chance to see an ER doc who has been able to become well versed in surgical techniques as well. Jason will then work predominantly with Dr. Harvey, who is a family med doctor who also does a lot of surgical cases. He's the primary surgeon when no other doctors are around, and when Dr. Wegner is there, he handles mostly the cesarean sections. Jason is going into surgery, so any surgical cases will be of interest to him, but he's also expressed an interest in learning other techniques, like cesarean, so that he's able to handle anything he encounters overseas. Sounds like it's going to be a great couple of weeks and I'll learn a ton. Now just to hoping that the flight to Impfondo doesn't get cancelled for any reason.
That's about all I have for todays events. Just a lot of exploring and I think I've got some good pictures reflecting it. We are planning to set up a dropbox to share photos later since some of us got photos from different times, so I'll for sure be posting everything once I'm back. I think I'll have a day or two back in Brazzaville before I leave, so I hope to buy some sort of a souvenir to show everyone back home, I just didn't find many local shops during our trek....so I'll see what I can find. Might be able to find some cool stuff in Impfondo though. Until tomorrow......just remember, there is no try, only do.
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