We’re singing in the sun

It’s 8am the 7th of March and for those of you who don’t recognise the date it’s the day before International Women’s Day . As usual we didn’t quite get organised, we had started several weeks before to try and get material and register the hospital to march in town but here we are no material and not registered suddenly its all action and before I know what’s happened everyone decides we can walk in our nurses uniform s and we can somehow still register.
By lunch time we have an official programme and several nurses go of to hear Madame the President speak about the right for every women to an education and training. The banner is organised and the after walk feast too. Somehow everything in Chad has to be last minute to work.




The next morning the girls are looking hassled as an endless stream of complications with uniforms that are not ready or available a banner that hasn’t arrived and Gislaine who can’t squeeze into her new dress mean they risk to be late for school ,eventually everyone is crammed into the car and we set off.


Apparently its fine to arrive at 7.30 not 5.30 am as the information said and which I was glad about , we change into our uniforms in a corridor behind the Mayors office only to be told that’ Sante’ is meeting down the road outside the new Mother and Child hospital with its 7 as yet unused ambulances parked outside ,we move on rapidly and eventually find some more nurses all ready to march- for what exactly -well maybe just to have some fun together and show that women can have qualifications too. Not a bad thing in this country where many of our patients are only allowed out of the house when fully covered and if their husband allows.


After a long wait being entertained by a man
dressed as a pregnant monkey dancing and given emergency sugar cubes to keep us standing by the Red Cross .We are off and ‘Mind you don’t take off’ is the cry as Gislaine and Beatrice struggle to hold on to the banner saying Hopital de Guinebor II eventually attached to its poles and with paint nearly dry. We parade past the Presidents wife along the smartest road in Chad finished just in time for the 50th anniversary celebrations. A never ending stream of women’s groups appear down the road in their Chadian women’s day material , the hotels, the police, the vets with chickens and eggs, the teachers singing a song which basically says without us you wouldn’t have any of the other professions (the midwives thought they came first) the women from the bank in a different material again specially made for them!! School children too all smart in uniforms .

After the march the speeches about how its good to be a woma in
Chad , well maybe we can help with that as we care for patients and show the importance of all ,but by then we are at Anastasies house for a sort of Chadian fish and chips with whole fried fish and potato salad and a French loaf each not to mention the essential coca cola much needed after the walk in the sun.

Back at the hospital the men have managed without us and there’s a kind of festive we can cope against the odds atmosphere even though they had to limit the number of patients!! Maybe next year we’ll manage to walk in the right material and be a bit more organised but for now it’s been a good day and maybe just a few more women will have heard of Guinebor Hospital now.

P.S. For more hospital news click on the link top left for an article on the BMS website