Making Hay While the Sun Shines...or hanging laundry before the torrential downpour

So, it's rainy season. Not to complain, dear subarctic followers, but I have a singular talent for choosing to wash and hang my clothes at the most inopportune times. We typically have showers during the evening and into the morning. The second it's sunny, I beat feet to get everything smelly soaked, scrubbed, and ready for the line, by which time storm clouds typically roll in. Extra rinse cycle, I guess? 

I think something we Ilula Friends try, and sometimes fail, to be cognizant of the legacy we leave here. For the sake of metaphor (and at the risk of sounding conceited) I look at our visit as a burst of sunshine. We arrived energized, ready to make a difference, and were simultaneously overcome by how under-resourced our Tanzanian friends are, and how very much they are able to do with what they have. Everything we see is tainted by our experiences in the American healthcare system, which can build a basis for collaboration and innovative ideas, but can devolve into judgment and despair.

From an administrative standpoint, Cindy, Danny, and I have been daunted and energized by opportunities to improve patient medical recordkeeping and inventory management. It took about a week to gather all of the information necessary to determine our direction: we met with the administrator, CFO, pharmacist/med supply manager, and recordkeeping staff. My moment of shock occurred when we walked into the medical record room to find patient files stored in bookcases to the ceiling, and piles on the floor. The horror! We are working through what it will take to make these processes electronic, and cut down on the ingenious, but time-intensive paper systems.

Something I’ve struggled with personally is finding ways to contribute to making improvements while I am here that will be sustainable into the future. For instance, I’m hoping to reorganize and compile patient records to come up with a searchable master list for medical records staff to use to identify patients. While it will be a time-consuming project, it’s something I can finish in the next three weeks. It gets sticky, however, not being 100% certain that: A. it’s formatted in a way that is useful to staff, and B. they’ll even be willing to abandon the paper register.

Now that we all have some understanding of how the ILHC operates, we’re beginning to decide how to leave our marks - to somehow repay these wonderful people for all they’ve taught us by offering our own unique piece of expertise. It’ll continue to be a struggle to realize that all may seem easy and straightforward while we’re here, but we will largely be absent for the implementation struggles that accompany any change. If we don’t do a good job of designing our programs, it will be very easy for things to stay the way they are. That’s why it’s important to take advantage of the sunshine, but to realize that rain will come.