Malibustu
Brett Malone Joined: December 21st 2006
Logged in: February 13th 2012
Logged in: February 13th 2012
Travel Blog Posts
We just spent the weekend in Mozambique (29 for those of you keeping track), and it was fabulous. Touristy, absolutely. Overpriced, probably. Relaxing and serene, yes and yes. As some of you know, Manguzi is about 15km from the Mozambique border, so if we hadn't gone this weekend, then I probably would have tried to run across the border at some point. Luckily, that didn't have to happen because we set off for Ponta do Ouro last Friday. Ponta is frequently visited by the doctors here when they get some free time, and it is quite the tourist destination for many South Africans. I'm not entirely sure why they have to cross the border for great beaches and scuba diving, but they do. Ponta basically exists to cater to the tourists. The only way to get ... read more
Under many circumstances I find running to be a nice metaphor for life, so hear me out on this one attempting to relate my experiences over the past 2 weeks. I've gone running most days since I've been here. I'm sure you're all stunned by that. What you might find surprising is that most of the jogs have occurred with other people. I like to jog on my own. It's my therapy. It's my happy place. It's where God and I have it out (and where He puts me in my place). It's where I find my balence and often find my inspiration. Conversely, I like traveling on my own for many of the same reasons (peaceful, inspirational, arguments with God, etc...). Well I'm not alone on this trip (I have 3 other KU students with ... read more
Last week was a bizarre week. Nothing specific happened that made it so bizarre. Nor did I have any specifics emotions/reactions that made it bizarre. Which is exactly why it was so bizarre. I'm in South Africa. I'm in a rural village at a district hospital. I see patients with AIDS, drug-resistant TB, worms, etc... Diseases which I would never see in the US. It is 80-90 degrees in January. I am sunburnt in February. I just went on a game drive and saw lions, zebras, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, wildebeast, water buffalos, etc... I should have some emotion/reaction. The thing is I didn't/haven't. I'm not entirely sure why. The only explanation is that I've kind of already seen those things before. They aren't exactly new. They aren't exactly mysteries. I kind of expected all of those ... read more
This is a post of frustration. Don't get me wrong. I love what I'm doing. But I think it's okay to get frustrated and tired and maybe a little burnt out at times. I'll get out of this funk, but, for now, I'm in a funk. I think a big part of the problem is that over the past 2.5 years of medical school I have been just accumulating knowledge (actually it's been nearly 27 years of accumulation). Massive amounts of knowledge. However, in the current role I play as 3rd year medical student, there are very few outlets to release that knowledge. Tests are the most common, but I'm pretty sick and tired of them too. In my day to day activities, I have very few outlets. Consequently, it has just bottled up inside of ... read more
"Hi, my name is Brett and I'm a 3rd year medical student who will be seeing you during your stay. I'm a complete idiot and have no idea what I'm doing, what is wrong with you, or what we are doing to try and help you. I hope you're okay with me just being a glorified voyeur on your medical stay and learning from all the crappy things that happen to you. Could you tell me what brought you to the hospital today?" So, I obviously never said that, but I really should have in order to have full disclosure. The learning curve has been massive over these first 4 weeks. It's been a buffet of lessons in medicine, life, faith, society, ... To me the turning point occurred about 2 weeks in. It was at ... read more
This is probably the first of two posts, just to let you know. This one may be a bit more somber while the other one will probably be a collection of lessons. I finally got motivated to write today and I thought, you know, it really makes more sense to write monthly or bimonthly rather than daily or weekly because, honestly, everyday seems to be the same -- get up, go to the hospital, see patients, go home, go to sleep, repeat. It is only when I can step back and get the big picture that I realize what has just happened. So I've had this thought for some time now, but am finally putting it into writing. If you are in the hospital, you really don't want to be my friend. I think I'm a ... read more
So yesterday was my first day of my 3rd year of medical school. Kind of felt like I was jumping off of a cliff. I was ready and excited, but also terrified and needed a bit of a push. It's the kind of thing that, for me, seem to be easier when you can kind of jump on your own terms without a lot of fanfare, so it's a good thing that I live by myself. The last two days have been fairly unremarkable. I'll give you a brief rundown of what the days are like and then maybe give some parting shots. Wake up and get to the hospital between 7 and 8 am. Look up new information on my patient(s) and then go visit with them (now I only have 1 patient, but I'll ... read more
Just in case you didn't get the e-mail. Here is a URL to some videos: http://www.perceptionfunding.org/Perceptionfunding/Haiti_Relief_Blog/Entries/2010/3/15_Haiti_Relief_Videos.html... read more
Tent City
As many of you know, I just spent the last week volunteering at a hospital in Port-au-Prince (PAP), Haiti. Actually, I was in Petionville which is basically just a suburb of PAP. Just now I found the website for the hospital (http://www.haitihosp.org/lHopital_de_la_Communaute_Haitienne/Home.html) and became a fan on Facebook. Feel free to check both out if you want. As for my experience, I am still digesting most of what I saw, smelled, heard, and felt. The destruction in Petionville was relatively scarce compared with the utter devastation in downtown PAP. When we drove through downtown last Saturday we passed by blocks and blocks of crumbled, flattened, and teetering buildings. There were vast stretches where literally every building was affected and nobody was inside. After seeing that, I began to understand why even our ICU patients moved their ... read more
