It quickly became evident that, no matter where you are, and what the fire house looks like, firemen are firemen. They bust one another's chops relentlessly, they do their house chores in the morning, they always make sure their gear is set to go, they eat together, smoke together, watch TV together, and back one another up regardless of the situation. Heres a video of the off-going shift getting a late job:
The end result of the morning meeting was less than optimal for the ongoing projects, but it was great to meet the guys and see how they work. Timmy, the senior driver/operator, who clearly worked most of his career without the benefit of dental coverage, would put ANY driver/pump operator to shame. It taught me beyond a shadow of a doubt that, no matter where you work, and what resources are at your disposal, you have to find a way to get the job done; Adversity breeds creativity and never underestimate the power of a motivated, intelligent, dedicated fireman with a problem to solve!
The remainder of the day was productive and downright fun. David and I pulled out manikins and equipment and started working through the Paramedic skill set. Digital intubation was a huge hit and just when they started to get confident, we placed manikins under chairs, upside down in corners and only accessible from the wring angle to challenge them and offer them examples of how to push their students beyond their comfort zone.
We knew we were scheduled to join the KCEMT administrators for a special dinner of nyama choma. We all expected a traditional Kenyan meal of BBQ'd beef and some of us were genuinely excited. A select group of us...Kenny mostly...had chosen to stay up until 2am the night before hellbent on finishing a bottle of Jameson purchased in the Netherlands. Although his mission was successful, it required 8 mg of Zofran the next day to stop his stomach from doing somersaults. By the time dinner came around, he has something resembling an appetite but getting 3 hours of sleep had caught up with him like a cheetah catches a gazelle, he looked like a vicious carnivore has grabbed him and squeezed the life out of him. Just in case we had momentarily forgotten that he was tired, we received numerous reminders that he wanted to go home to goto sleep. It reminded me of traveling in the car with my kids and the near constant, "Are we there yet?"
As it turns out, the restaurant was attached to a very westernized hotel. It was so westernized that the name of the restaurant was The Spur and it had an American western theme. There were silhouettes of cactuses everywhere, western-themed signs, pictures of American Indians in full head-dresses and plenty of streak and burgers on the menu...basically, we ate at the Kenyan version of Longhorn Steakhouse. The beer was cold and the skewered steak I ordered tasted good. Most guys had ribs (Thursday is Ribalicious Thursday!), a few had steak. It was nice, at least initially, to have gotten a "normal" meal.
On a more sobering note, one of the KCEMT Instructors that joined us was a guy named Tosh. He works full time for the Kenyatta Airport Fire Brigade and was one of the first responders at the big airport fire. Tosh, without the protection of an SCBA and breathing air, entered the burning building with his team and attempted an interior attack on a humongous fire. He ended up suffering significant smoke inhalation and was in ICU on a ventilator for a few days. To his credit, he looked great and it was an honor getting the chance to dine with him. His experience further solidifies the overwhelming need for improved fire training and a major change in the equipment typically available to firefighters.
Getting home a little early and getting into bed closer to 10pm was a joy. We are all recovering form long days, short nights and bit of jet lag still. Unbeknownst to me, a quiet monster was creeping up inside me. I'll never know if it was just salt, or MSG, or something else, but at 3am, I awoke to the sensation that someone had buried an axe in my skull. My head throbbed and the act of rising to find some ibuprofen nearly dropped me to the floor. In retrospect, after half a liter of water and 600 mg of ibuprofen resolved the pain, I realized that it was probably something in the marinade on my steak that sucked every last ounce of water in my body out. Of course, at 3am, with my head splitting open, in my bed IN KENYA, I knew, with every bit of my existence, that I had malaria and I was about to die. I even thought...for a moment...that taking the pain killers was a waste of time. I just had to wait until the fever set in, so I could confirm the diagnosis and get to the hospital to begin treatment. I imagined having to ride in the back of a Kenyan ambulance, be admitted to a hospital and trying to fly home still suffering from the infection. Just as I was about to convince myself that death was on the doorstep, I fell back to sleep. Miraculously, 2 hours later, I had cured myself of the dreaded malarial infection, with nothing more than pain killers and some water. So maybe it was the MSG...who knows!
Tonight we've been told that we are going to a Brazilian BBQ joint. I have no clue what that means, but if they bring out hot wax and small strips of paper my ass is outta there!!!!
The video may not have uploaded right. I'll try to fix it later when I have a faster connection.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good day! Can't wait to hear about the Brazilian ;)
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