work experience week / day one

A horrible, horrible thing about having high hopes / expectations is the problem of having your hand fallen tremendously. Alright, from the beginning. I arrived at the hospital, and I and my dad said the same thing: "Is this a hospital?".

It really didn't look like a hospital. It was much too small, there were tents outside, and some benches outside as well as people waited for some sort of treatment, and a small building to the right said reception, where I was told to wait. Inside the hospital no better – I spotted at least three chickens roaming around.

I entered the reception, my dad following me, to see a few rows of long benches that were all once completely covered with faux leather, but now looked more like zebras, and a couple of single chairs up against the wall. Two people were lying down on two separate benches, sleeping I guess. I sat down, and my dad said goodbye. I wished myself good luck on his behalf.




The man I sat next to asked me if I was to see the doctor (probably noticing that I didn't go to register) and I said no. I waited, annoyed at the lack of A/C. It wasn't particularly warm, even with my blazer (first impressions matter), but I liked my areas cooler than room temperature. The receptionist called out numbers in two groups: babies and adults. It was pretty systematic.

After about 10 minutes a man (his name I don't know) came into the reception, spotted me and asked if I was Tosin. I guess I stood out from the growing crowd of sick clients. After being introduced, I was sent to the reception -- this time to work, which saddened me greatly, even though they said I would be at the lab at noon. Now the crowd had grown much larger, many of them pregnant or new mothers, and all of them restless.

I hoped I could help, so I wouldn't be idle, but for the next two hours I was extremely idle, forced to watch the two receptionists trying to manage the restless clients. I got so idle that I asked my supervisor, Mrs. Peters, if I could do anything else. And so I was redirected to paperwork. Filling out patient folders for adults, and then for babies. I asked questions like “Age? Religion? Highest Education?” and wrote them down neatly, unlike Ms. Vera, whose handwriting was very doctor-like.

I had lunch (jollof rice in the canteen; I wanted to go to chicken republic but I didn’t have enough money) then returned to paperwork, but this time registering people that wanted to get tested in the lab. All were pregnant women. I tell you, never had I seen so many pregnant women in one day. I closed early because the crowd had died down, and spent remaining time on my netbook, watching the little party going on to celebrate the midwives (did you know today’s international midwife day?) , where I saw Dr. Fajola and was promised that tomorrow would be more fun. Oh, I sure hope so.