Muli Bwanji!
We have arrived back safety from our weekend break. Cape Maclear turn out to be such a seductive westernized haven that we extend our stay for an extra day :0). Cape Maclear is a beautiful area of the lake – with mountainous scenery and fantastic sunsets, it has been developed as a tourist resort and is composed of a number of lodges, pub and restaurants oddly set within an African village. It feels quite strange and cannot be classed as ‘real Malawi’, but the Western comforts of hot showers and pizza were greatly enjoyed by all :0) We caught up with a couple of other medial students from our uni who are based in Cape Maclear. They are working at a clinic there which is staffed by western volunteers. Cape Maclear is possibly the best place to get ill in all of Malawi - there are more medical degrees per person there any other place in the country! We spent the weekend looking at the curios (wood carvings - Malawi seems to have some of the best wood craftsmen in Africa), going on boat trips, watching the fish eagles and snorkeling.
On our outward journey we started early (7am) and we managed to make it there in 7hrs with a mix of matolas (mini buses that are quite literally falling apart in front of your eyes) and the illusive AXA bus (oh for a timetable). On our homeward bound journey we foolishly thought we could achieve the same time but leave later (only 8-8.30ish). After a dusty bumpy ride down from Cape Maclear on the back of a truck containing at least 30 people, a few bikes and empty fuel barrels we arrived in Monkey Bay to find that all the AXA buses had alluded us once again. So commenced a challenging day, which ultimately consisted of 6 ‘buses’, hefty amounts of prayer and took us 11hrs to reach Nhkotakota. We abandoned one of our matolas after the driver had spent over 1/2 hr having a friendly chat with the policemen about his apparent lack of a driving license! Anyway all ended well – lesson learnt – start your traveling early.
We received our results this week and fortunately all 3 of us have passed so we are able to remain in Malawi and complete our elective – yay!! We are hoping to be able to spend a decent amount of time at the government hospital in Nhkotakota next week, as I for one am finding the lack of patients at St Annes a little limiting at present.
Friday, 8 May 2009
Thursday, 30 April 2009
(sorry this is a repeat if you are getting my emails - no time to write anything different!)
Hello from Malawi. We are coming to the end of our second week here. Tomorrow is the first of May and is still celebrated as a holiday here. So we are making the most of the opportunity and heading down the Lakeshore road to Cape Macclear, Malawi’s backpacker Mecca, to soak up some sun and meet up with some other medical students from Birmingham who are also on elective in Malawi.
Things have been going pretty well at St Annes, the hospital has seen a huge reduction in the numbers of patients it receives since about July last year when the new government hospital opened just a few kilometers away. Initially I was worried that this might mean we had nothing to do. However St Annes has managed to keep us pretty well entertained and the small number of patients has allowed us a steadier introduction to Malawian medicine. I was on the paeds ward for the first week (they all have Malaria and/or asthma!). The clinical officer in charge of paeds last week was Mr Gama who was a great teacher, but also good at pushing me into the deep end, announcing on my second day that he didn’t intend to touch a single patient, or write any notes during the ward round.
Our morning at St Annes are normally taken up with a morning report at 7am (that’s an African 7am – more like 7.15 to 7.25!). We then split up for ward rounds that are probably completed by 9-10am. We then head over to the Out Patient Department and see whatever patients have come that day. We break for lunch at 12ish, and then the afternoon technically begins at about 2pm, but there is little to do in the afternoon and we generally find that we are getting rather hot and sleepy
Today we visited the new government hospital, having been invited by one of the hospital anesthetists, whom we met in theatre at St Anne’s yesterday. It really is an amazing establishment and puts the dingy wards of St Anne’s to shame (although I have yet to see in the wards at the district hospital as we spend our time in theatre today). Aesthetically it but many of our Birmingham hospitals to shame – with its new finish and airy, shaded walkways. We saw a C-section this morning, as well as some other gynae surgery and a hernia repair. I decided to be anesthetically enthusiastic and intubated a patient. We are hoping to have the opportunity to spend more time at the government hospital in the next few weeks.
Anyway I must be off, internet goes off at about five so I’m typing against the clock at the moment!!
Love to you all
God Bless
Please keep us in your prayers - esp this weekend for our safety and protection as we travel
Hello from Malawi. We are coming to the end of our second week here. Tomorrow is the first of May and is still celebrated as a holiday here. So we are making the most of the opportunity and heading down the Lakeshore road to Cape Macclear, Malawi’s backpacker Mecca, to soak up some sun and meet up with some other medical students from Birmingham who are also on elective in Malawi.
Things have been going pretty well at St Annes, the hospital has seen a huge reduction in the numbers of patients it receives since about July last year when the new government hospital opened just a few kilometers away. Initially I was worried that this might mean we had nothing to do. However St Annes has managed to keep us pretty well entertained and the small number of patients has allowed us a steadier introduction to Malawian medicine. I was on the paeds ward for the first week (they all have Malaria and/or asthma!). The clinical officer in charge of paeds last week was Mr Gama who was a great teacher, but also good at pushing me into the deep end, announcing on my second day that he didn’t intend to touch a single patient, or write any notes during the ward round.
Our morning at St Annes are normally taken up with a morning report at 7am (that’s an African 7am – more like 7.15 to 7.25!). We then split up for ward rounds that are probably completed by 9-10am. We then head over to the Out Patient Department and see whatever patients have come that day. We break for lunch at 12ish, and then the afternoon technically begins at about 2pm, but there is little to do in the afternoon and we generally find that we are getting rather hot and sleepy
Today we visited the new government hospital, having been invited by one of the hospital anesthetists, whom we met in theatre at St Anne’s yesterday. It really is an amazing establishment and puts the dingy wards of St Anne’s to shame (although I have yet to see in the wards at the district hospital as we spend our time in theatre today). Aesthetically it but many of our Birmingham hospitals to shame – with its new finish and airy, shaded walkways. We saw a C-section this morning, as well as some other gynae surgery and a hernia repair. I decided to be anesthetically enthusiastic and intubated a patient. We are hoping to have the opportunity to spend more time at the government hospital in the next few weeks.
Anyway I must be off, internet goes off at about five so I’m typing against the clock at the moment!!
Love to you all
God Bless
Please keep us in your prayers - esp this weekend for our safety and protection as we travel
Friday, 17 April 2009
We've arrived!!
Hi
Just a quick update - we arrived in Lilongwe Airport after a long 13 hours travelling and we're met by the hospital ambulance which drove us to Nkhotakota (my first ambulance ride!). We are staying in a lovely guest house a short walk from the hospital. We had an orientation this morning , everyone at the hospital is very friendly and welcoming, and the hospital has good internet provision, yay!! There are fewer patients at the hospital now because a large government hospital was opened in the town last year, even so we joined an interesting ward round this morning.
We are hoping to explore the town a little this afternoon and workout what to do with our weekend :)
Bye for now
Just a quick update - we arrived in Lilongwe Airport after a long 13 hours travelling and we're met by the hospital ambulance which drove us to Nkhotakota (my first ambulance ride!). We are staying in a lovely guest house a short walk from the hospital. We had an orientation this morning , everyone at the hospital is very friendly and welcoming, and the hospital has good internet provision, yay!! There are fewer patients at the hospital now because a large government hospital was opened in the town last year, even so we joined an interesting ward round this morning.
We are hoping to explore the town a little this afternoon and workout what to do with our weekend :)
Bye for now
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Dear Readers,
I am experimenting with new ways of keeping in touch with you whilst I am travelling - I don't know which mode of communication - the round robin email, or the internet blog will prove to be the most successful...so watch this space :)
So what is it that I am doing? Well the time has come for my medical elective and I am heading off to Malawi, specifically to a town called Nkhotakota on the shore of Lake Malawi (see the map). I am going with two other friends (Liz and Lizzie - yes confusing!) we will be based at an Anglican mission hospital called St Anne's. We will have 5 weeks at the hospital and then will be travelling around the rest of this beautiful country for a couple of weeks, before heading home to commence our 5 year.
Your thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated and I will try to keep you up dated as much as possible, there may even be the odd photo if your lucky :0)
Bye for now – must finish the packing!
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