No Power. No Water.

The power did go out for good last night. Walking home in the dark without streetlights or road signs was a challenge. But watching the electrical storm from the front porch was a real treat.
This morning there was still no power or water. Not just for me, but also for the residents and the staff that live on the grounds of the hospital complex. And the hospital was on auxillary power, so the air conditioning wasn't working. All day long we watched the temperature rise to 29 degrees C (85 degrees F). Which only got us ready for going outside where it was sunny and over 90 degrees F. I thought it would be colder here in the Fall.

The hospital does not have a cafeteria. The only food or snacks are in a Coke machine on the fourth floor. But that isn't hooked into the auxillary power and wasn't working today. And there was no power for the projcetor for my lecture. And because it was so hot I cut the lecture short.

It's taken a while, but I think I've figured out the difference between the consultants, house officers, community service physicians, and interns. Consultants are residency trained and board certified specialists. House officers can spend their entire career as house officers. The community service physicians are not serving time for a criminal offense. Interns are still just interns.

Today I was in the pediatric room. Saw the excision of two hydatid cysts in a liver, the excision of a cervical cyst and an umbilical herniorrhaphy. Surgery is supposed to start at 8, but the patients usually don't arrive in the OR till 8:15. And with delays and equipment issues, anesthesia doesn't start till 8:30. And with luck, surgery starts at 9. Today there were problems with an oximeter and a capnograph. There were no spares, so we waited till the technician got them working again before proceeding. People are so accustomed to delays that no one seemed upset. As a corollary, coronary artery disease is not very common here.

Time to find a church and pray that the water comes back on soon.