Not what I expected

Hi everyone! Sorry it has taken me so long to update you all. In this update I feel like I need to be completely real and honest with you. This past week and a half has been kind of tough. I really felt like I would come back and all would be back exactly where I left it off. But let's be honest, how could it be? Almost all of the people I grew close to my last time aboard are not here anymore. Also, for the first week here I was in a totally different environment working on a different ward with a different category of surgical patients. But in the week and a half I have been here I have made new friends and have finally began to fall in love with the patients. Let me tell you about them ...
This time around I was placed in the VVF ward. VVF stands for vesicovaginal fistula. As many of you know I have 5 years of Emergency nursing experience and absolutely no gynecological experience. So without saying you can imagine I was very lost as to how to care for these patients. Let me give you a little history here. The majority of these ladies are about five foot tall, which makes me a giant among them at five foot ten myself. Anyway, they found themselves pregnant somewhere between 13-17 years of age. As you can imagine their bodies were not equipped for childbirth. They had many difficulties and were unable to deliver the baby the old fashioned way, causing them to be in labor for days. Because of this and the pressure that it caused there was tissue death and a fistula (hole) was formed causing them to continuously leak urine or feces. Their husbands, the majority of the time, leave them and they are social outcasts because they are always "wet".
Though we have an amazing urologist (bladder, kidney and urinary system doctor) on aboard in Dr Steve, we aren't able to repair all of the damage. Sadly we have had to send some of these "little ladies" home. So overall, there isn't the same happiness and joy in the ward as I would have expected. But there are hugs, and dancing and smiles even when they don't go the way they expected. To walk into the ward now and have them smile and give you a hug is beyond words.
As of yesterday I am now in the general surgery ward, where in the coming weeks I will be trained as a charge nurse. Please pray for me! I have never been a charge nurse and I am a little nervous. I am really excited to work with the maxillofacial (face, neck and head surgery) patients again and cuddle with the babies! So as I am contemplating my future plans and preparing to work here for the next five months please just say a little prayer for me, I need guidance and courage to lead the new nurses that I will be training (we have about forty of them!). Merci boku!!
P.S. Photos to follow soon (hopefully)