We’ve now been in Katete for 3 weeks so thought it was time
for an update! The rains seem to
have set in here, although there are usually a few nice days followed by some pretty wet ones so not too bad. We
are settling into a quite a nice rhythm of busy days at work, dinner in the
mess and then some relaxation time. We had ‘curry night’ on Monday and managed a chicken Rogan Josh
(of sorts, not a patch on a Selly Oak curry though) and Nat one of the other
doctors made a delicious butternut squash curry. After alternating meat and
chicken stew it certainly makes a change.
Life in the hospital is getting busy. We have just finished a 12-day stretch
before a weekend, so feeling fairly exhausted. I started off working in
paediatrics and having never done any paeds before this was quite daunting.
It’s the busy time of year for paediatrics as rainy season equals malaria
season (because mosquitoes breed in stagnant water collections), so the ward is
fairly full, often with more than one child to a bed. The ward (called Mbusa) has about 60
children on at the moment and is expected to get busier. It is divided into an ITU (so called
because there are 2 oxygen concentrators), a malnutrition area and then some
general paediatrics bays. Most
children are admitted with malaria, pneumonia, gastroenteritis and dehydration
or quite often a combination of the above. Although the nurses are very good,
the children often present late and so sadly the mortality is fairly high. This
has taken a bit of getting used to (and I suppose it’s not something you ever
want to get completely used to) and what is often hard is the feeling that if
we had the facilities a lot of these children could survive. They are dying
from preventable, treatable conditions which is pretty tragic. On the plus side, plenty of really sick
ones where the outlook seems bleak
in the evening turn the corner really quickly and can be sitting up
playing the next morning. The
weekend I just spent on call for paediatrics was definitely one of the toughest
things I’ve had to do (neonatal resuscitation is not my area!) and I was relieved
to return to the adult ward which I’ll now be on during the week to balance out
numbers.
Our exciting project of the week is that we are in the
process of having a garden made!! Our house is all one room, so we thought it would be nice to
have some outdoor space where we could sit in the sun in a bit of privacy. Our gardener Nelson has so far fenced
off a bit of grass or rather scrub with rather a nice straw and wood fence
(photos to follow…). I think he is
rather bemused/perplexed by our wish for ‘grass to sit on’ and so we came back
at lunchtime to find him digging up(!!) our nice bit of newly fenced off grass!
So we have compromised and he is
only cultivating one third of it to plant crops (eggplants or maize I think). I guess the idea of having a patch of
land for recreation rather than sustenance is rather an extravagant one..
We are very excited about our trip to the great metropolis
of Chipata tomorrow, for some much needed supermarket indulgence, as well as
swimming and burgers at a hotel (luxury!)!
Becca xx
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