This is Mathias (Mah-tee’-ahss), the new head of the main pharmacy/depot at our mission hospital. The previous guy, Sims, is leaving for opthalmology training in Kinshasa, DRC. At this point, I am being kept MORE than busy, training in Mathias and still also Gaston the bookkeeper. I’m learning that it’s all about standing alongside them and waiting for them to push the computer keys or discover the error or find the med on the shelf to fill the order. This is a hard lesson to learn for someone who likes to fix things fast. Last week we thoroughly cleaned and rearranged the meds in the storeroom in anticipation of a LONG awaited med order. In so doing, Mathias handled every single bottle of medication, as he was the one designated to place the meds in new alphabetical order on the shelves. (No silly, we don’t have a “new” alphabet, we just arranged 3 sections into one continuous one.) Susan was a great help with the shelf cleaning and the removal of the old name tags, and after we all got everything clean I helped with the estimation of space needed for each type of incoming med as M placed them. Now he has a better idea of what’s there and what isn’t! Please pray for him, he is a newly graduated nurse. Pray that he will be able to handle the pressure of being responsible for lots of meds and money, and dealing with nurses older and more experienced than he.
