The harvest is in

Shelling groundnuts

Boy tending cows

Monday 3rd October 2011

We are having fruit every day at the moment, guavas, guavas and guavas, they are just so good. There is a very large tree in the Sister’s compound which is just laden. It’s not a fruit I have eaten before, only drank the juice. After no fresh fruit for so long, it’s wonderful!! You can have it with either salt or sugar.

Lots of activity around the market just now, wrestling competitions and dancing. No one seems to know if it is for ‘Peace’ or because it is the end of the ground nut harvest. Anyway it is good to hear happy cheerful people. Not heard a gunshot for at least 4 days…..

Lots of rain again on Friday, the worst I have seen it. A few trees came down and the roof caved in on the volunteer’s dining room. They have moved out until some tarps can be put up. It’s a thatched roof, and there will be no new thatching done until the dry season. Welcome, Ian!!

The other good thing that is happening is the hospital has received some more Hep B vaccines, so I’ve been busy yesterday and today vaccinating another batch of staff. So, all up, there will be about 60 people ‘processed’. That equates to 240 vaccines, 4 each.

As with any group of people, there was a small number (thank goodness) who were positive. They have been given counselling and will be checked again in 4 weeks. This is a big step forward for the staff at the hospital; all are at great risk of contracting Hep B, especially now we have the HIV centre in full operation.

I am now teaching the respiratory system and diseases. So frantically trying to illustrate how ‘things work’.
I found two balloons, put one inside the other (representing a lung), then blew the inner one up, then put a bit of water between the two ‘pleural membranes’ and called it ‘pleural fluid’. Think they got the picture!! Did you?

Spent a long time discussing asthma in the classroom; it’s not very common here. I suppose there are not as many triggers (pollutants, additives etc), but as luck would have it (for us, not the patient!!), a young man was admitted today having a severe asthma attack. It was good to see how the students knew what to do. I think a few ‘lights came on’ especially after giving him medications and he improved.

Another 14 students (one girl) started a new 9 week very basic nursing course today (‘the Greens’ due to colour of uniform). P is getting famous for this course - they are coming from far and wide for it. She has it running like clockwork. It’s such a shame it is not a government recognised course.

They are all put through bed-bathing, doing observations, bed making, caring for children with malaria. Then at the end of the course there is a written exam and a practical. They then return to their own clinic or hospitals with at least the grounding to become a practical nurse.

I am very happy to be able to teach and be part of this fulfilling course too. As you can imagine, there is always a shortage of teachers, but P makes this a big priority in her very busy day and is in the classroom on a regular basis, bestowing her vast knowledge of nursing in difficult countries like Sudan, India, and Ethiopia.