A trip to the hospital and other health related matters

For those of you interested in why I didn’t have internet for the past week and a half, here is a little quiz to help you out.

The internet was down because:

A) the power company cut the line by accident, but didn’t tell anyone at the Internet company because they didn’t want to get in trouble (picture 5 year olds accidentally hitting a baseball in a neighbor’s window and running away)

B) someone (probably drunk) SHOT the wire. And by shot I mean shot with a gun.

C) All of the above.

The correct answer is C.

So it’s the end of the third week of school. It is very, very busy. By Monday afternoon I was looking forward for the weekend. I hope I can keep up with all of the work this year. At least my classes are going well. We just watched March of the Penguins with the Seniors for descriptive writing. They are total punks, but it was cute to see how excited they were over the story.

Here is an exciting story:

Last Sunday night, after the power went out at 10:00 at night, the kids were in bed in the dorm and teachers were heading to sleep. I stayed on the porch with the Australian volunteers for a bit, chatting and looking at the stars and what have you. Now, directly beneath the porch is this outdoor shack/house where students and workers chill often. So, as we are chillin, the time is about 10:15. Suddenly, one of the students, a senior, runs up to
the shack/house where one of the Pohnpeian staff is and the security guard, and tells them something is wrong with one of the students. The staff member and the guard book it across the field to the dorm, and upon hearing this, the Australians and I, in the pitch black darkness, also sprint through the dark building onto the field towards the dorm.

By the time we reach the dorm, we notice that all of the students are up, surrounding one of the bunk beds. Apparently this student, a Junior from Pohnpei, cannot move. It was a very eerie scene as I entered the big dorm room: students, all in their boxers or underwear, standing on nearby lockers and bunk beds, faces barely illuminated from the few flashlights and lanterns that are on. This is the Uppers dorm room, by the way. As you walk outside the door to a small patio, there is an identical, large room for the
Unders. All of the freshman and sophomores, at this time, are all awake, trying to get as close to their door as possible to see outside, but not daring to go out. A few students were shining the light on the student to see what was wrong, while a few other teachers were coming in.

First thing we gathered was that he had a pulse and was breathing. His eyes were wide open, his breathing was labored, and he was not moving at all, as if in a trance. First thoughts that went through my head: stroke. Also, probably EVERY student thinks it’s a possession or black magic. Now, I didn’t think that out of any disrespect towards the student’s knowledge of these situations. I know for a fact that all of them and even adults here truly believe in that stuff, despite their convictions of Catholicism and the like. More on that later.

I ran upstairs (where I and some other teachers sleep) to get Br. Dave, the physician. Others were running up to get him. He was awake by this point, and some were telling him what happened: the boy started having a coughing fit, then started moaning, and he wouldn’t stop, so someone shone a light on his face, and noticed tears coming down his face and he wasn’t moving. Br. Dave went to his office to get some things, while I ran back to the main building to find Non, now the Dorm Moderator. He was in his office, and by the time we ran back to the dorm, the boy was still on his mattress, but now resting on the floor. I helped get the truck, which we drove to the dorm, and the boys carefully put him in the back of the truck. Fr. Ken U., a Yappese priest that has been here at Xavier off and on for the past twenty years or so, drove, while Br. Dave, JC (a Pohnpeian that graduated last year but is working here now this year as Boy’s Moderator and other positions) and two Pohnpeian students accompanied the boy at the back of the truck.
There was no one in the passenger’s side, so I asked Fr. Ken if he needed assistance, so I hopped on. We sped out of Xavier, leaving all of the students scared out their minds.

If there was any time to really notice the bad, bumpy roads, it was this time at around 10:40 at night. We were about 40 minutes away from the hospital, but would be about 20 if the roads were paved. Good thing Ken. U. was a very good driver and knew the roads well. I kept looking in the back where the student was lying, still in a trance, with a blanket over him. It was all very scary. Again, stroke was the only thing that came to mind, but Br. Dave, after checking blood pressure, felt certain that it wasn’t that bad. We were managing with the bad roads, but if anything, the bumpiness may have helped, because halfway down, I saw the boy’s leg moving and his fingers gripping his classmate’s hand. That’s when I knew that he would be OK. Still, it was a tense situation.

We got to the hospital (part of the reason I wanted to go down was for the morbid curiosity of how the Chuuk Hospital handled such matters), and we went to the “emergency drop off point.” We knew where it was because a random guy outside the hospital (worked there, maybe not) knew we were in a rush so he guided us to this side ally way – which looked skectchy – with a flashlight. We back the truck up to these double doors, and no one was really there to great us, just some more random people walking around inside
(worked there, maybe not, maybe they were patients). Luckily, Br. Dave knows many people at the hospital, and has been here many times before, so he went in, got a movable bed/stretcher, and we put the boy on it. They wheeled him into a nearby emergency room. It didn’t look THAT bad, but for a more immediate emergency (like intense bleeding or something like that) it did not look that comforting. The best part was a printed sheet of paper that was taped on the emergency room door that read:

The Emergency Room is not a storeroom. Please do not take any materials from this room if you have failed to adequately stocked your own room. Thank you.
The doctors.

If there is a sign like that, you know people (maybe workers there, maybe not) have come in and figured they could just take any supplies they wanted.

Anyway, at this point, I was mostly standing around with the other two boys that came down, while the priest and Br. Dave were telling a Phillapeana woman doctor what was going on. They checked him out, took blood pressure and shone the flashlight in the eyes. To get this story moving along, basically after 20 minutes, the boy started moving a lot more, then finally he sat up, awake, but extremely disoriented. He was basically having a very bad nightmare, and his fever (only 101) was still high. He was looking
around like “why am I not in the dorm any more?” They helped him up after a few minutes, while the doctor was praising the lord, and we all got back in the truck and went back to school. Everything was fine.

I don’t know if I mentioned this yet, but for a while, he was talking in this trance, saying that he was seeing his dead grandfather. This added to the belief that the problem was a minor possession of a spirit. Br. Dave tried to explain to us the next day that you hallucinate during a high fever, but that seemed to offend the two Pohnpeian staff members. There is a word for what happened to the boy in Pohnpeian, which basically means
“possession.” Some of the Senior boys, either truthfully or to scare the Unders, told the Freshman to “be good or else the same thing will happen to you.” As one of the teachers here said, we should not and cannot completely debunk any of their “black magic” or “possession” theories on why these things happen, but it’s a bit disconcerting if they still believe in these things while they claim to be devote Catholics. What really happened was probably linked to unhealthy lifestyle or a bad diet. I’ve never heard of
people falling into a trance with a very high fever, but here on the islands it’s common.

Also, related to that, and I don’t mean to end on a sad note, but I found out yesterday (Saturday) that my sponsor mom passed away two nights ago. She just collapsed from high blood pressure or something like that. It’s very devastating. But, apparently, and I don’t mean to downplay her death, it is not THAT bad for the children, because here on the islands, you don’t just have the small, nuclear family; everyone is considered family, and many
aunts, uncles and cousins are considered part of the immediate family. So the children, to a degree, will be fine. But this event also makes me aware of the conditions of this place: the diet, the health in general, is not always that great. People here are obese and the food isn’t exactly a balanced diet. It’s very unhealthy, despite all of the fish and fruit available.

Anyway, that’s what’s going on so far. I’m really loving school, despite how busy I am being kept. I slept basically all day yesterday to catch up from 3 weeks of not that much sleep.

Keep bringing the love

AJ