Rice and Mice

 

Subject: Rice and Mice.

It's after midnight and I'm sitting in the nurses station.   I'm
sitting down for the first time in 9 hours.   Tonight has been
absolutely insane.  But,  at the same time, there were moments that
were absolutely charged with God's presence and I felt alive and
connected to those around me.    I just gave my last midnight
medicine to one of the Cheif's daughters.   She is pregnant and
dressed in a sparkling (almost tinsel-ish) red top and a red
skirt.   When I came to give her IV Ampicillin she told me, "I kind
of need to pee."   I said, "Ok, well ,can you wait just a
minute?"   She agreed kind of hesitantly.   I mixed the water in with
the antibiotic and started shaking when she so cutely said, "I really
kind of have to go," and started crossing her legs a bit.  We both
laughed a bit as we realized the urgency that somehow sprung up.  I
was like, "Alright I'm hurrying!"   We were laughing so much but both
of us knew that was laughing was not good either!   She was really
sqealing by now and so I finished giving the Ampi, clamped her IV,
and told her, "GO!"   :)   So funny.   She ran out back to use the
hospital public bathroom.
She came back laughing still and said she felt so much better.   So
she sat back down and as I was hooking her IV back up and hanging the
new perfusion, a mouse went running across the back metal headboard
of her bed!
Here is where I confess.   Earlier in the night I chased a mouse out
of my nurses station into the patients ward. :)   I felt bad about it
but it's the only exit and I was not letting the mouse stay with me
all night long.    All the patients relatives were sleeping out there
on the cement floor and thought maybe he'd just run through them and
not wake any of them up.   Anyway, this was no doubt the same mouse.
She screamed!  We all started dancing around after it ran down the
bed post and around our feet!   Her mom grabbed my arm and we all
just waited to feel some awful bite.   I think everything started
being funny at this point.  It was late and noone could stop
laughing.   Then we started talking about eating mice.   They said I
could eat it with rice...that it's really good.   I've been offered
mice on a couple of different occasions....just roasted over the
fire....I've never accepted any of the offers.  But we agreed that
maybe if I ever catch that mouse here at the hospital, that I'll come
to their house (he's the chief, I know where he lives) and we'll eat
it.   But then we got to talking again and we were like, ok, this is
probably not the best mouse to eat.  "There are mice of better
quality."  At this point in the conversation I realized that we were
talking about the quality of mouse meat.  You know, when you are in
Rome...you should just talk about the things that the Romans talk about.