I passed the hospital gate. The gatekeeper behind the right post was busy with peeling his egg. He threw the shells on the ground and stuffed a big part of the egg into his mouth that he could not reply my morning greeting. Fresh ruts of the Casspirs rough treads with curves were pressed in the sand on the square. Some ruts branched off to the gravelled ring road inside the premises with its huge potholes. I started the round in the intensive care unit. The patient after relaparotomy to stop the intraabdominal bleeder was in a stable condition. The drain produced only little amounts of blood. The blood pressure and pulse rate were reasonable. A bag of blood was connected. I made my notes. The other patients were in stable conditions to be transferred to the general wards. The two bedrooms that the superintendent and doctor for his private patients had occupied were full. In one room were the mothers after their recent deliveries.
I went to the surgical male ward and looked after the old man after the exploratory laparotomy with the inoperable colon cancer. The patient had opened his eyes in which I read the fear of uncertainty and death. The word which should comfort him took the patient without a word. I went from the male ward to the female ward. The old woman after amputation of her left leg due to the malignant bone tumour looked at me without any complaint. She impressed by showing her strong will to recover from the operation that she could leave the hospital as soon as possible to support her daughter in the upbringing of the two small children. ‘High life’ was in the children’s ward. Children who were not bedridden, ran and crawled half or fully naked through the corridor and bedrooms. Some of them had spots of excrements on their grey hospital dresses. There were small urine lakes and piles on the floor what had to be cleared up.
The few nurses did a marvellous work in cleaning the children and replacing the dirty linen by clean linen. They fed them and put them on the bedpan. I admired their commitment and patience. One of these nurses, I called her the angel of the children’s ward, was busy in changing dressings on children with burns. She did it in a professional manner with a mask over her mouth and sterile gloves and made the dressings wet with sterile saline solution before she removed the dressings from the wound. This particular nurse with the true human face was lean and did her work extremely gently to avoid any unnecessary hurt. It were the sick children who were in her mind when she did her work without looking at the small watch on her left wrist. I followed her doing with great attention and respect. It was the close connection between brain and heart what made her work outstandingly valuable. I praised her commitment as a wonder of humanity in this terrible time of war.
It was time for the morning meeting that I left the children’s ward. The office of the superintendent was filled. I took a seat next to Dr Ruth. Dr Nestor came later and took a seat next to US. The matrons and the pharmacist couple sat already on their chairs opposite to the desk of the superintendent and looked straight at his pale face. Dr Lizette and some Philippine doctors arrived and occupied the last empty chairs, Lizette took an upholstered chair at the window front. The superintendent in his white linen jacket left his chair and crossed the room and switched on the air conditioner which started rattling. The short black paediatrician entered the room as the last with the right hand deep in his trouser pocket. He stalked like a star with a face of great importance from the door to the window front and took a seat right of Dr Lizette. He crossed the right leg over the left and looked at the ceiling. Nestor closed the door and the superintendent opened the meeting.
He announced what was already known that at the end of the month what was in five days, the colleagues from the army would leave the hospital. He thanked these doctors for their commitment which he called exemplary, and added that he didn’t know how the work without them could have been handled by the few remaining doctors. The young army doctors made their big eyes when the superintendent put it in the following words: “The hospital had depended on the military doctors. You have rendered a great service by your work on the patients for what I like to thank you in the name of the hospital administration and the rest of the colleagues.” ‘If that doesn’t go wrong’, I thought of the hypocritical manner how the superintendent did express his thanks and had in mind the disrespectful behaviour of the paediatrician on the day before when he introduced the new specialist surgeon to me. It was this negative-remarkable event when I realized that the future had already started. I saw in my imagination the rising tips of the black masts of the new vessel with the black crew which would take over soon the power in this country.
There was silence in the room after the sentence of thanks had been addressed by the superintendent. The black paediatrician had anger on his face whose eyes focused something at the ceiling. The other faces on the window side looked seriously without any motion. The young colleague and talented story writer took the word on behalf of his other young colleagues in uniform. He thanked for the opportunity that they could work at Oshakati hospital where they have learnt so much in the recent months. He himself has collected experiences that were extensive to an extent he couldn’t think of before. When the young colleague mentioned my name to thank for all my guidance and support in teaching him the medical basics and some operative techniques, it has opened him the eyes. The paediatrician looked critically at me as I did not deserve these words of thanks in this wonderful humane way. I took the averse eye expression relaxed, but remembered the furious looks of the ‘lieutenant of the devil’ who was the arrogant, selfish and scheming Dr Hutman. However, I took the paediatrician’s response as a token regarding the future when the new power vessel with the black crew has docked and the power change gets in full swing from white to black. It was the sincere gesture of a friend when Dr Nestor nudged gently my arm and whispered ‘excellent’.
The superintendent made a note on a paper and folded and stuffed it to the other papers in his left pocket of the linen jacket and started talking about the precarious security situation. The wording of the topic was worn and blunt, since it was the same what he had used the previous weeks. He mentioned some new thefts which have occurred in the main kitchen where big amounts of meat were taken from the freezer and barrels with diesel fuel for the power generator were taken from the generator hall, and the engine and four new tyres were stolen from the carport. He reiterated the disappointment of the acting shirt-sleeved medical director in respect of the recent criminal activities. He expressed his concern that crime would continue as long as the culprits were not identified and punished. “These activities affect severely the hospital. What can the patients eat, how can the generator run in cases of the power cuts and how can the ambulance get ready to function, if meat, fuel, engine and tyres are missing?”, the superintendent questioned.
I observed the paediatrician who seemed to be entertained, while his eyes walked along the ceiling. I put the question up what koevoet is doing in their night raids when they search for suspected Swapo-fighters on the premises and in the wards. They could prevent the criminal activities and protect the hospital properties. The pale looking superintendent moved his eyes, but did not say one word. The pharmacist said that things cannot simply disappear, if the vehicles were screened at the hospital gate. I picked up this point and asked, if there were vehicles which bypass the control by the gatekeeper that they pass unscreened the gate. There was silence, because everybody including the superintendent understood that it got referred to koevoet with their Casspirs. The superintendent kept his big eyes on me, while I suggested that the superintendent should think about the meaning of the nightly raids of koevoet on the hospital premises. After this point, the colleagues on duty reported on their activities and the patients who were admitted. The pharmacist woman mentioned the drugs that were not on stock, but ordered since two weeks. With this, the morning meeting had ended and the participants left the superintendent’s office with serious and vacant faces.
I was waiting for the young colleague outside the secretary’s office where I asked myself when this meeting would become meaningful. We went together to the theatre building. On the way I thanked the colleague for his kind words. The young colleague said that he had made it short to avoid wrong reactions that could be based on jealousy, though he did like to say so much more. We changed the clothes in the dressing room and entered the small tea room. Dr Tabani sat already there dwelling in his thoughts and reflections. Dr Lizette arrived. She took a seat with a cup of tea and expressed her disappointment about the poor quality of the meeting where the superintendent made big talks, but without any practical solution. Dr Tabani smiled