It was a tough day at the clinic today. Wednesday is the usual day for the malnutrition clinic at Bwafwano (which has miraculously continued to have some attendance in spite of not having food), so the MCH clinic had a decent turnout-- about 17 kids came in to be seen, several of which will be started on the feeding program once we get everyone trained next week. There was a big interruption toward the end of clinic, when Mr. Chello came looking for Rebecca and me. A child that was seen by him yesterday for diarrhea and dehydration was brought back [View Full Entry]

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At last! Today we went to the district health ministry, where we had been rebuffed on Friday when seeking a meeting with the person who approves new requests for RUTF. We had been scheduled for a 12:30 meeting today, but when we got there, to nobody's surprise, the person in charge was "too busy", would be so all week, and couldn't meet. At all. The entire week. Becca and I were not deterred. Through some minor amounts of skullduggery, we managed to convince the people that they needed to pay attention to us, and let Bwafwano have the RUTF IMMEDIATELY. Not [View Full Entry]

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I made a mass e-mailing to as many addresses as I could find, and I'll re-post it here for anyone who wasn't on the list (I promise it wasn't an intentional oversight!): Hi everyone, I put a bunch of people on this e-mail list, even though for the most part I didn't bother to ask who wanted to get these long mass e-mails. So if you're not interested in getting them, just let me know. Anyway, I touched down in Lusaka early Thursday morning, after two consecutive nights of flying (and, consequently, not sleeping). Becca was kind enough to be waiting [View Full Entry]

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This morning we went to UTH to visit the little girl (her name is Anna, by the way) we sent there on my first day at Bwafwano. She has gained a little weight, and thankfully she is taking fluids and formula by mouth and hasn't suffered any obvious complications from her malnourishment. I think this case is a perfect example of why it would be great to get the malnutrition program running at Bwafwano, because we probably could have managed this girl sooner as an outpatient. There really was no need for her to get this sick, or to require a [View Full Entry]

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Just an initial entry to get this blog started. I'll probably get it rolling tomorrow if I have access. I figure this will be much easier than mass-emailing all the time. [View Full Entry]

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I can't believe I've been here one month today (or tomorrow). The days have just flown; despite the odd trauma of being robbed twice, & the great inconvenience of losing my phone. Still, it's Friday afternoon, the sun is shining, and it's only another 10 days until I take off to Victoria Falls. I can't wait, not that there isn't a lot of work to get through before then. Two containers of stock have arrived that I need to go through & record next week, plus teaching the cooks here some new recipes (other than chicken stew & nsheema), measuring up [View Full Entry]

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Work- well, it's certainly not particularly onerous at this precise moment. This week's very quiet as most people are off on field trips, doing 'activities'. I'm sat here in a spacious office which have just moved into, playing music on my laptop and awaiting the return of an electricity supply. My job is to help the organisation sort out their documentation (mainly paper). There have been considerable changes of staff over the last year or so and the new recruits are finding it difficult to locate information prior to when they started. In addition, the overall numbers of staff have increased, [View Full Entry]

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The Zambian bank holiday was yesterday (yes, I know, odd to have a Thursday off & then have to go back to work), so after a very leisurely lie in (even with the power off so no coffee!) I went out to lunch in Katete with some of the med students & one of the doctors. Sadly, Fly, one of the cutest dogs in the hospital, decided to follow us as we walked up the main road to town- only to run under the wheels of a passing truck. It was pretty horrific, especially as her owners were devastated when we [View Full Entry]

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Off to Zambia - Vic Falls… A 3-day stop in Zambia to see Victoria Falls one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. And that it was, beautiful, absolutely beautiful! I stayed at the Zambezi Sun that was right next to the park. The greatest reason for staying here is the wildlife that wanders the grounds and the fact that you can walk right into the park as often as you'd like. Right outside my window there were zebra and velvet monkeys EVERYWHERE. You wanted to reach out and touch them but of course you couldn’t. Also crossed over to [View Full Entry]

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Yes, please note the above...you do not know how lucky you are to have uninterrupted power 24 hours a day, let alone hot water when you want it! Still, it could be classed as fun to have a cold shower in the dark at 6am- if you're insane! But at least it is sunny every day, I'm getting a tan, & new things are happening every day. Yesterday I wore scrubs for the first time ever. That was fun, I really liked wearing the green cap, but I'm glad I don't have to do every day I go into work. The [View Full Entry]

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