A completely used up week

Good morning to Germany, after reporting very little about my life in Caynaba in the past few weeks, today I would like to tell you a little bit about my past week.

The past week was characterized by trench warfare, conflicts and death. But let's start from the beginning.

The new week always starts on Saturdays in Somaliland. Saturday here is comparable to Monday in Germany. Patient beds that were vacant over the weekend are usually occupied again at the beginning of the week. So it was last Saturday, the hospital was full and the work never ended. One of our patients was also a 13-year-old girl who had already spent the previous days in the hospital with suspected meningitis. During the morning visit, she seemed stable and her condition seemed to be improving. Unfortunately, her breathing stopped and her heart stopped beating during the morning. Of course, I know that you can't save everyone, but it still doesn't leave you unaffected when someone dies who still had their whole life ahead of them.

On the same morning, two births took place in the hospital. One of the babies aspirated amniotic fluid during birth and fought for its life from the very beginning. Unfortunately, we lost the fight on the same afternoon. The week couldn't really start much worse. 'Tomorrow will be better,' I said to myself and went to the hospital confidently the next day, ready to face the challenges of life. The next day, we also lost the fight for the second baby, it was still too weak to grow up in the dry and dusty environment of Caynaba.

'Geography is destiny', as Napoleon recognized during the French Revolution, is more relevant than ever today.

In Germany, the children might still be alive, at least they would have had a greater chance to face the struggle of life, and it is unfair that the world community still allows such inequalities.

To clear my head a little and just get out of the hospital, I had planned to go out with the Mobile Clinic the next day. But when things don't go well, they just don't go well. The local police chief threatened to arrest us as soon as we left Caynaba without having another car for his policemen. Normally, the policemen who accompanied us rode in the team's cars, now he insisted that they ride in an additional car, which we should preferably rent from him. In order not to add fuel to the fire, I decided to cancel the trip with the Mobile Clinic and stayed in the hospital. We were able to resolve the problem for the time being in a conversation with the governor, but it will certainly become an issue again at some point.

In the hospital, however, another conflict and struggle for authority was already brewing. Our pharmacist and our doctors came to me almost daily with different complaints about each other. The doctors don't write the medications correctly, write the wrong dosage, too long duration, etc.. at the same time, the doctors complain that our pharmacist changes the medications independently or withholds tablets from patients. A joint meeting with all parties involved has so far brought little success. Such trench warfare takes a lot of nerves and energy and can probably only be resolved by a show of power.

The rest of the week was characterized by tough salary negotiations with one of our doctors and a lot of office work for the monthly closure. So I have definitely had better weeks. Let's hope the next one will be one of them.

See you soon

#Alexinsomaliland