Day 11

We hopped out of bed at 7 this morning to conduct some responder interviews, only to have a text from Chika at 7:30 that she wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be able to make it. So we went back to the hotel for a nice breakfast of pancakes, toast and an omelette. Aayush was devastated to learn the complimentary hot chocolate drink doesn’t come with a pack of Cadbury mix, but some chocolate energy drink that he said was actually alright. Aayush has started a new fixation on CPD (calories per dollar) and he doesn’t care about coffee for the sole reason it has a low CPD. He’s challenged himself to work the concept of CPD into our radio interview tomorrow. 

Unfortunately we were already ready for the day and couldn’t go back to sleep but we chilled in our rooms for a bit doing work. Some fun facts we learned, Mary doesn’t like chocolate or cheese which deeply offended Haleigh as those are her two favorite foods. Mary also isn’t on board with our crossword competition (6-2 now unfortunately), but bragged about her word search skills. 

We arrived at the office by 10, and introduced everyone to Mary before leaving for our first meeting of the day back at Lagos University Teaching Hospital to interview clinicians. While waiting, Aayush decided Haleigh is a combination of French and British with a dash of Czechoslovakian. Mary wants to do 23&me because she “feels like her blood isn’t fully Egyptian” (another fun fact, Mary was born in Egypt and lived there until she was 6!) Mary has mentioned this fruit we are getting today from the supermarket at least eight times, and was also appalled to learn Aayush doesn’t like fruit. In fact, the plantain we had last week was likely the first fruit he’s eaten in years. A lot of hot takes on food today. 

We were brought to the accident and emergency department of the hospital to interview clinicians. We met with the chair of  the department, who provided valuable insights on his thoughts on prehospital care systems. The general theme we’ve been hearing is increased awareness of potential interventions, specifically related to airway and circulation, as well as a willingness to help by the responders and knowing who to call for help. Responders may be stopped by police for helping, so incorporating those stakeholders as well. Some other feedback included minimizing the lecture components of our course for more practical sessions, and informing about the dangers of seeing non-trained medical providers, such as bone setters (many people opt to go to bone setters instead of orthopedic doctors in order to fix their injuries, but they can often make them worse). We also talked to the surgery chief, an obgyn, and a medical doctor, and heard pretty similar comments! We also saw the same doctor we interviewed last week working at this hospital now, as well, who was very excited to see us again!

Mary got asked if she was Indian by one of the doctors, while Aayush was right next to her. We also learned Mayowa’s favorite Taylor Swift album is 1989 and his favorite song is wildest dreams. 

We did some more work at the office, before finally fulfilling Mary’s yearning for fruit at a market stand on the side of the street, getting pineapple, watermelon, and apples. Around 4 pm we ate lunch at an authentic Nigerian restaurant across the street from the office. Haleigh and Aayush split okra soup and afang soup, which is water leaf vegetables and spinach, with a bunch of other ingredients. We saw some fish in the afang (even though we requested both without fish or meat), so Aayush opted for the okra, which was delicious. Nigerians often eat their soup with “swallow”, which are starchy solids with a dough-like consistency that soak up the soup. Nobody will let Aayush try the one called “fufu”, which is made from cassava, so they ordered the pounded yam version for us, which is much lighter. It very much helped Haleigh with the spice, along with her pineapple-coconut juice HEI Mary generously bought for us! LFR Mary wanted to try the jollof rice, and they also brought her beef, chicken, and fish, all of which were very spicy, but she powered through. She’s starting a 9 day challenge to increase her spice tolerance so stay tuned for those detailed daily updates. Haleigh awkwardly was 2,000 Naira short to pay for our meal so we owe HEI 2,000 at one point, but in her defense, the ATM wasn’t working yesterday.

We stopped by the HEI office to say bye and confirm our 7:45 arrival time tomorrow, and then headed back to the hotel for some rest. Aayush and Mary both took naps, rookie mistake because now they’ll be up until 3 am. We congregated downstairs to do some responder interviews from our own phones, hoping that people had what’s app numbers. There’s no option to just dial a number on what’s app, and Haleigh’s phone was not vibing with her trying to save them, After calling five people and not even receiving a dial tone, we miraculously actually reached someone, who was good for the first four questions but went on unrelated tangents when asked about his confidence level. So a half success. Aayush would like it to be noted that he graciously volunteered to conduct the first interview and has been conducting a lot of the interviews. A bunch more numbers weren’t even on what’s app but one responder we called earlier called us back. Haleigh was doing this interview but after a minute or two, he said he couldn’t hear us and if we could text him the questions. This ended up working out super well, since our questions are mainly quantitative, and Aayush made a new best friend.

Idk why we have so much Aayush content today, but he also got asked by the restaurant while ordering dinner if he wanted no spice and he was offended. And then his noodles were incredibly spicy, Haleigh had a singular noodle and could still feel the spice in her mouth five minutes later. Aayush ended up pacing to distract himself from the spice, and Mary is one more step on her spice journey with some spicy chicken. Aayush’s laundry was only $12, $9 less than Haleigh’s exorbitant cost and he wanted everyone to know she is draining the LFR bank account and he is simply maximizing WPD (wash per dollar).

Aayush was appalled that Haleigh decided to include this picture in the blog but we needed to start a series of getting to the office and it being locked

Our decadent breakfast, featuring Aayush spilling the hot chocolate packet all over the table and the incredible dim, purple lighting

Haleigh and Aayush did the crossword in real time today, kids these days….

The nyt connections ARCHIVES…. Taken from a sketchy website on Reddit ….. I rest my case 

Some hospital beds at Nigeria University Teaching Hospital

Our standard post-meeting picture, this time with the Chief of the department, one of our interviewees. Mary dressed up nice today and Haleigh and Aayush opted for business shirts with casual pants (and both had an intense dilemma because business pants with a casual shirt doesn’t look professional but it’s better to reuse business pants than business shirts)

A grand selection of fruits, including pineapple, watermelon, and a derivative of eggplant that chika told us goes well with Nigerian peanut butter that we need to try!

“Who said I didn’t eat fruit” - Aayush

#phoneeatsfirst

Haleigh is so done but Mary was doing great on the interviews! #personalitypic