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Published: April 29th 2009
Hey guys!
Sorry I haven't written in a while but have been quite busy here so got loads to tell you....you might want to get yourself a cuppa because this could take a while!
The first Monday I was here was Easter Monday so no-one went into the hospital. It was also Brian's (one of the medics) birthday so to celebrate we had a sunset dhow ride from Stone Town. It was really nice and there was a band playing as well as lots of wine! When we came back we had a bbq and a house party (which involved 6 litres of spirits and a lot of sambuca!) It was a really good night and I think Brian enjoyed himself. I think we were supposed to have our Stone Town orientation on Tuesday but because of the copious amounts of alcohol drunk the previous night, Tuesday was oficially lala (sleep) day! Just laid on the beach then got a very early night!
We did have our Stone Town orientation on Wednesday where Rashid (one of the work the world guys) showed us everywhere important in town then took us for lunch. In the evening Karl, Tor and
I went to our local bar to watch man Utd vs Porto.
Thursday we had our hospital orientation. This was looooong and painful!!! Kassim (the main work the world guy) insisted on showing us around every single ward and talking to all the nurses in Swahili! I think after that we definately deserved the afternoon on the beach!!!
Friday is supposed to be "study day". There is nothing going on in the physio department on Fridays anyway. In the afternoon we went on a spice tour. Zanzibar is supposed to be the spice island and their biggest income (after tourism) comes from cloves. We also saw loads of other fruit and spices such as vanilla, saffron, cardamon, pineapples, ylang ylang, jasmine, and papaya. They made a little basket for us so we could keep a little bit of all the spices on the way round. When we were finished with the tour, one of the local boys climbed a coconut palm and chopped down loads of coconuts. They then chopped them open so we could drink the milk and eat the coconut! We then did some fruit tasting where we had orange, mango, banana, watermelon, papaya, and passion
fruit. As a parting gift, they gave all the girls a frog necklace made out of a palm leaf and the boys got a hat and tie!
Saturday we did this thing called "safari blue". It costs about $65 if you're doing it with a tour company but we called one of the taxi drivers we know who agreed to call his friends and did the exact same thing for about $35! We left in the morning on a Dhow from Fumba and sailed to a sandbank about 30 minutes away. It was absolutely amazing...white sand, crystal clear water. We were allowed to do some snorkeling at the nearby reef or just sunbathe and swim. At about 1 'o clock we got back into the boat and went to a nearby island where a lunch had been prepared for us of calamari, tuna, octopus, crab and lobster with chips and salad. The food was delicious and we all went for a swim after to work it off!
When we got back to Stone Town in the evening we went to the night market again and had an early night!
On the weekends we don't get food so
for Sunday lunch, Karl and I decided to cook pasta for everyone! We cooked vege pasta in a tomatoey, cheesey sauce and it was actually really tasty considering we cooked for 12 people!
Last Monday was my first day at the hospital. They didn't exactly ease me in gently! I met my supervisor who then said "hello, here is your bed" and called the first patient over! Since I only really know "hello" in swahili, I had to rely on them knowing some basic english words and a lot of body language to get me through! The way they do it there is all the patients turn up in the morning and we work through them until they've all been seen. We can also refer for x-rays and to other departments which is quite good. Everyone in the hospital usually finished around lunchtime (all the student medics are usually done by 10.30 every day!). I got done at about 11.30 which meant I could come back to the beach for the afternoon!
Mondays and Wednesdays are adult outpatients in the physio department and Tuesdays and Thursdays are paediatric outpatients. There doesn't seem to be any physio presence on
the ward, therefore I talked to my supervisor and he agreed that I could spent Tuesdays and Thursdays up on the wards or in the orthopaedic clinic. I talked to the orthopaedic surgeon who showed me a couple of patients I could see on his ward then I did some observation in the fracture clinic. There was one little girl, she can't have been older than 3 who had an open displaced tib/fib fracture. The plaster technician literally just got some iodine on a gauze and put it over the open wound then manually straightened the leg and plastered it! The poor girl was screaming the place down because she didn't get any anesthetic and I have no doubt that the bones aren't aligned. Its just so sad to see a girl that young have to go through that and to know that she'll probably have trouble walking for the rest of her life!
In the evening on Tuesday we went to watch the Liverpool/Arsenal game...what a match! karl and Tor are both Liverpool fans and Rashid is an Arsenal fan so there was a lot of banter! For all you Americans, it finished 4-4 and Liverpool equalised in
the last minute!
On Wednesday I saw about 8 outpatients in the morning then we went to Nungwi (a beach resort in the North of the island) with Mike, Becky, and Jen where we had a bottle of wine in the beach and watched the sun go down! A massai came over to sit with us and tried to sell us some bracelets then when he left, Becky noticed he'd taken her phone! She chased after him while Mike called her phone. He looked at it ringing in his hand and Becky just said "can I have my phone back please?" and he gave it back! All the locals then ran after him and dragged him back but Becky said she didn't want him to go to the police cos she'd got her phone back!
In the evening we had another bbq and houseparty. I spent most of the night talking to the girls who drank too much then proceeded to cry about nothing! I guess it was a good thing though because I didn't have a bad hangover in the morning like everyone else!
In the afternoon on Thursday a few of us went to Kizmakazi where
you can take a boat out and hopefully see some dolphins! it was really windy and the sea was dead choppy so the boat ride was really good fun (at least I thought so, Jen was sick!!!). Unfortunately we didn't see any dolphins but we had a really good afternoon and they cooked us some really nice fish and chips after!
Friday was a bit of a let-down. I went into the hospital because the orthopaedic surgeon told me that was when he did his ward round but it turned out that he did it on Thursday because there was a new doctor there. The rest of the house had already left for prison island when I got back so I just sunbathed on ourbalcony on my own for the afternoon.
On saturday it pissed it down ALL day! I went into Stone Town with Tor and we got soaking! This isn't like normal rain, this is monsoon rain coming over from India! The roads were like rivers and we were wading through ankle-deep water..to be honest, I won't be surprised if I've got some kind of tropical disease!
We went up to Kendwa in the afternoon. Kendwa is supposed to be this picture perfect beach resort with white sand and crystal clear sea, however we didn't see any of that because it rained all afternoon, all night, and all of the next day! We went to the beach party in the evening but the combination of the monsoon and too much Rihanna made for a miserable evening! We came back from Kendwa on Sunday morning damp and a bit depressed that it had rained all weekend! In the evening though we all went out for a really nice indian at The Silk Route which made up for it a little!
That takes me to this week which has been pretty standard really...hospital in the morning then beach in the afternoon! We did go to watch the Barca/Chelsea game last night then came back and had a mini houseparty where I didn't get to bed til 5.30! We somehow thought it was a good idea to put baby powder on our faces and dance around on the dining room table!!! Made for some good pictures though!!!
I've tried to make this blog a bit more upbeat than the last one but I've definately decided to skip out working in Australia. I should, therefore be back on July 10th!!! Am really excited about being back home and not being stared at for being white (well slightly tanned now!) but it also means I can enjoy the rest of my trip more because there is an end in sight!
I'll try to write next week so the next entry isn't this long lol!
Hope everyone is ok...Miss you all loads!
Jane xxx
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Charlotte
non-member comment
HI
Hi Jane, your blog sounds amazing. I have booked to do a split placement between zanzibar and tanzania next april with work the world and finding this blog has made me even more excited. x