Red Face

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Hi All,

I've had a lovely weekend and there hasn't been much rain hooray!!!! I'm struggling to remember exactly what happened on Thursday and Friday but I'm going to do my best for now.

Thursday- Dr. Anderson has now arrived from the UK, she is the consultant on the ward and specialises in paediatrics and research but was looks after everyone in the ward. She sat in on the hand over in the morning to listen to the new cases that had come in and offered some words of wisdom on how the cases should be managed. After that I accompanied the other doctors on the ward while she had meetings. The ward round was long but fairly uneventful we even managed to go for lunch at a reasonable time. When we got back to the ward one of the babies was being christened as it was it's 7th day of being alive so we were given a 2nd lunch in celebration. Apart from that the day was fairly slow and we finished around 4pm. I decided it was necessary to go and get some cash as I was running low so I went for a walk and thought to bring my camera with me so that was a success. I reached the cash point and was just walking towards it when I realised I'd left my cash card in the locked drawer of my desk. At least I knew it was safe. I walked back taking a few more pictures and bought a mango on the way home so all was not wasted. We had afra for dinner which is BBQ meat with vegetables and was very nice, all in all a chilled evening.

Friday was a fairly busy day as it always is because everyone wants to finish for the half day, as seems to be the trend, this did not happen on the ward, unfortunately patients don't choose when to get sick! We did the ward round with Dr. Anderson who made herself well acquainted with each patient asking us a few questions as she went along. We'd had a very long handover that morning as an 8 yr old boy had died that morning from a complication of meningitis. From this event the students were given a task each to educate everyone about, mine is on the management of status epilepticus so I have spent some of today (Sunday) looking that up. At just after 12 the students were told to leave the ward round to go hear a lecture, I heard most of it but it wasn't the most interesting thing I've ever heard. We got back to the ward and discussed patients and discharges and timetables before leaving at about 3:30. I got home just before the heavens opened, I was so glad as I really didn't want to get wet!

Friday evening we met with Dr. Laing again and she treated us to dinner at a restaurant called Calypso, it was nice food and a nice evening with good weather but a few too many mosquitos, I now have a lot of itchy bites!!!! The restaurant came equipped with it's own lagoon type area where crocodiles lived, they didn't come out the water but I got a menacing looking picture of one of them!

Saturday we volunteered to help Dr. Laing with some of her research, this did mean sacrificing our weekend but it was interesting research and gave us a chance to see a bit more of Gambia. We spent a good few hours inputting data before heading to her hotel for a cool drink then driving the 40 minutes or so to tangi (not sure how to spell it) where we saw all the fisherman coming in on their boats. It was a great experience with a lovely atmosphere, we were the only tourists around and weren't really bothered that much either. It certainly didn't smell too great but I have some lovely photos. We got home and chilled out for a bit and then I made dinner for myself, rice with tomatoes, sweetcorn and baked beans, surprisingly nice if a little bit odd, I needed to use a few odds and ends I had left. Everyone had been at the beach all day and when they got back they were planning on going out dancing, I said I might join them for a bit but when by 11:30 nothing had happened I gave up and said maybe next time as I knew i needed to get up the next day.

Today has been a lovely sunny day. We finished the data entries by 1pm and headed back to Dr. Laing's hotel where she treated us again to lunch to thank us for giving up our weekend and then we stayed and swam in the pool at the hotel she is staying at. It was lovely, I haven't made it into the sea yet so to be in water was such a good feeling! We stayed around for a good couple of hours sitting by the pool and swimming, that's why I have a very red face but I'm sure i'll be going brown by tomorrow! We walked back to the MRC which took about 45 mins going through bakau market which was nice so I have a better idea of where I am going and what to look at. We are just before tourist season here so I have hoping to grab some good bargins soon.

So now all I am doing is a little bit of research on my topic and making sure I am reading for tomorrow. Mum and Dad have text me to tell me they will ring soon when they are off the boat so I am waiting to hear from them and then i'm going to read more of my book before bed. It's been a great weekend and I am just about ready for the week ahead!

Bye for now! x x x

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Comments

[Alice]

Sounds like you are doing a lot of weather watching! Can't wait to see the photos of the croc!