nighttime fires

Last night I went to bed early in hopes of being able to wake up refreshed this morning – I think the jet lag is finally starting to catch up with me. The wind outside was whipping violently – I don’t really know how to describe it, it is SO powerful. It shakes the doors in my apartment even when the windows are closed. Sometimes with the windows open, you have to throw your weight against a door to get it to open because the wind is pushing so hard against it. Anyway, last night was one of those overly crazy wind nights. I was able to fall asleep soundly, though. About 1am I woke up to the intense smell of smoke. It smelled like someone was having a campfire right outside my window. You could smell the burning wood and everything. As I was becoming coherent, I also noticed the whaling of sirens in the street. They were coming from everywhere. I looked out my window to see what was happening and Table Mountain was literally on fire! There were red blazing flames popping up all over, some of them very large. The whole city was covered in a smoky haze and the mountain had red smoke billowing from it. It was quite frightening. Everything else was dark, and I couldn’t remember where on the mountain the houses began. I said some prayers for those in potential danger, I could tell some of the flames looked very close to some tower apartments. We don’t have forest fires in Iowa or KC, so I was pretty worried. I went back to sleep momentarily, but woke again around 2:30am. My roommate woke up, too and we watched the mountain. It looked like the fires were growing – if that was possible. Every time one would go out, another would pop up. The wind was blowing so fiercely, I don’t know how they ever kept up. I have to send a shout out to the Cape Town Fire Department. I don’t know how they even got to some of the places they did, but when I woke up this morning, there didn’t appear to be any more flames, just some smoking areas. This morning you could see the helicopters swooping in and out pouring water on the mountain. The mountain is completely charred on one side. This morning as we drove to work we could see the damage. It got very close to some homes and may have done damage to some according to some reports. They had to evacuate those apartments I mentioned earlier, and some other homes. I heard about 60 people were evacuated, 6 people injured, and perhaps one death. There is more information and some pretty amazing photos at http://www.nowpublic.com/world/fire-breaks-out-table-mountain.


Today was another day of being present with the kids. I had more hands to hold, more opportunities for my neck to be squeezed and even some moments to help kids laugh. There were 2 highlights from the day as far as progress on the unit is concerned. I was working in the treatment room with 2 sisters I have worked with a number of times. I left to get a patient a gown and when I returned they told me they had just been talking about me. They said they thought the surveys Caroline had handed out for feedback from staff were missing a portion. The sisters continued by telling me how our presence in the treatment room does more than just comfort the children – they said it brings a calming influence to the staff as well. One sister told me how Wednesdays can be particularly stressful with so little staff, but our presence in the treatment room brings such a calming effect that she hadn’t felt the stress that day, she was just calm and comforted. She stated that by calming the children, we were also calming them. The other sister confirmed what was being said and told me she hoped someone could always be there. They went on and on about how comforting it was to them. I hugged them and told them I was so happy to hear that – that our role was to make a more calming environment for everyone and what a soothing effect that had on the children. YES!!! I don’t know about you guys, but I thought that was HUGE!! Later the sisters asked Caroline if her “tall colleague” had told her what they’d said. I had told her, but she wanted to hear it from them, so she said no. They repeated it to her and to the ward sister (aka combination of nurse manager/charge nurse). Victory! ☺

The other compliment and highlight of the day came from a patient. Caroline has been working with a little boy who only speaks Xhosa and whose eyes were swollen shut for the first part of his admission. When he first came in, she would read to him. He would sit on the side of his bed, and sit close to her like he was looking at the pictures in her book even though his eyes were swollen shut. She continued to read to him daily, so that he would recognize her voice as safe. When his swelling went down and he could open his eyes, he recognized Caroline as his friend. She has continued to play with him and support him despite the language barrier. Today the little boy was talking to one of the nurses and asked who the nice girls were. He told the nurse that he had no idea what we were saying to him, but he thought we were so nice and loved that we played with him. I laughed when I heard that – I just thought it was funny that he acknowledged he had no idea what we were saying. ☺ What an awesome compliment. Over and over again, we’re seeing how you don’t need to speak the language to communicate. Don’t get me wrong, it would be super helpful and I’m all about being able to speak to people in their native tongue, but just because you can’t speak, doesn’t mean you can’t communicate. That’s something for me to remember when I go home. I often shy away from patients that don’t speak English because I’m intimidated by my limited ability to communicate, but now I’m learning to do just that without having to use words!

I don’t have anything exciting to report from this afternoon. I came home and took a hard solid hour and a half nap. I figured that was in order since I zonked out at work when I put my head on my desk during my break. Oops. ☺ An early to bed is in order tonight. Until tomorrow…