African Time

In Africa, like much of the rest of the world outside the US, things happen slower. On my days with hospice, we often spend 2-3 hours in the morning getting ready for the day - getting the medications we are going to take in order, having tea, buying any other supplies, etc. This is all done at a leisurely pace and we rarely do any actual patient care before noon. Rounding on the Medicine wards is similar - if someone wants morning tea, we have it before we go see the patients. The change has been both pleasant and incredibly frustrating to someone who is used to the American medical system where practically every moment spent at work is spent working unless you are actually forced to wait for something and there's nothing else that can be done during that time. The westerners here roll our eyes and wink at each other and refer to 'African Time' when we think something is taking too long or not being prioritized appropriately. However, we've also gotten used to this system. As my departure date approaches (I leave next Friday, the 13th) I feel like my time is accelerating back to American time and I have a lot of things on my list of stuff I was planning to get done eventually while I was here that now needs to get done soon. For example, I was planning to give a CME (continuing medical education) talk on pain and symptom management on my last Tuesday here. Unfortunately, yesterday I ran into Sarah, who coordinates with the flying medical squad and had arranged for me to go out with them next Monday through Wednesday. She forgot to tell me that she had arranged this and I had assumed she had forgotten I was interested and I wouldn't get to go. So now I will be in the bush somewhere doing basic medical care on Tuesday morning. Hopefully Dr. Kipuyo, the selian hospital director, will let me give the presentation Thursday. I kind of miss African time already, and I've not even left yet.