3 weeks

(There may be some slight exaggerations in this post but the pictures that I hope to eventually post will support most of my claims)
I have shelves! One of my greatest challenges at the clinic has been the condition that it was in. "Stuff" (of a mostly medical nature) seems to have been accumulation here since roughly 1960 near as I can tell. CF seems to send anything they can get their hands on, then when a container arrives the people unload it but don't know what things are or how to use them. But they won't get rid of it because it must be valuable if CF worked to send it over. Everything from rather sophisticated surgical equipment and trach supplies to enough abd pads to absorb gallons (liters?) of drainage. (But can I find eye drops?!) Anyway- the government nurse didn't really trust me enough to sort or clean with much purpose up to just a few days ago. But for some reason (a divine one I suspect) he let me really have at it the middle of last week. And the carpenter, wonderful man that he is , seems to have put a rush on my "order" for shelves and will be finished painting them soon. I also managed to get Monsieur Farmer (the government nurse) to let me give away some the the stuff he should never use. Hopefully wherever it ends up can use it. (For those who know what I'm talking about I brought a truck full to Sorce de Vie who says they will pass what they can't use on to the hospital)
My current struggle is what to do with stuff that no one wants. For example several disposable cauteries that are quite caroded. Or a large box scalples (that would need an autoclave to use), or dental equipment from the middle ages. Or a collection of various sized glass syringes. To "take out the trash" here generally means just toss it aside, not even outside necessarily- in the courtyard is fine or on the floor of the kitchen- the dogs will eat it or the ants will carry it off. What isn't consumed by the wildlife is raked up once in a while and lit on fire. Then the ash blows away eventually. But the cauteries probably shouldn't be burned and the scalpels wouldn't be destroyed- unless, I guess the cauteries burned hot enough to least dull them and the glass... I'll have to keep pondering this.
I'm also trying to figure out what to do with a huge box of expired meds. Most of which I would have used (roughly half of it expired this decade) but Monsieur says it has to go. So, I focus on organizing my selves and pretending to check all the expiration dates. Now-to tackle the challenge of making sure that he knows how to use all of these meds with English labels and these products that he has never seen before. Telfa is a tough one and steri strips are almost beyond him. It would also be much easier if he spoke any English or I spoke any French....my sign language is getting much better though!
But I've gone on and on about the clinic and haven't hardly talked about the kids. This is technically a boarding school- not an orphanage, though it all comes down to how you define it. On school breaks the majority of kids "go home" but for most that means that there is living extended family in their village that will take them in. By government standards this is not an orphan. However, many of these extended families can't afford to care for more children than they already have year round so they are sent to the school.
I interact with the kids mostly at the clinic, though I've spent several afternoons now playing with them with some of the stuff that has been left by other teams. The chalk and face paints are very popular. A few of the youngest girls see me coming and pretty much drop what they are doing to see what the strange white girl is going to come up with next. Unfortunately I live behind the girls dorm so every time I go out...
My next free afternoon I'm going to see if the water balloons are still usable. Maybe I'll go the the boys dorm for that project.