Arrived
Algol
Hamish Tait, Robin Hastie & Jim Hepburn
Sun 6 Jul 2008 11:56
I'm really enjoying the work here, it is a wee bit of a struggle with a lack of equipment, I have boxes of equipment that I had managed to acquire from work, but they are apparently still with Customs, 4 weeks later! The people here have an amazing ability to adapt and cope though, much better than the Brit's! They're teaching me a thing or two! My plan is to start a bit of teaching with the nurses this week, but Dad wants me to do a presentation to everyone, yikes no pressure there then!
The language is fun, I have next to no french so Mum translate in to French, then one of the nurses translates in to Fulfulde, We've had a couple of cases where a fourth translator was needed! The patients seem to find it hilarious, especially with lots of added sign language to get the point across.
The patients are generally very motivated, there have been the odd one or two that have been removed from the hospital against advice and I've found that quite upsetting because they haven't been given the chance to reach their full potential. It's something I'm going to have to get used to unfortunately though.
On a lighter note, mums brief loss of hearing was good fun for Dad and I, we got a lot of mileage out of it! Seriously though, it's great to see her back to normal, she always says she needs to try everything once! Hopefully niether of them will get it again, despite the mosquito's trying to take over the world! No wonder everyone here is anaemic, the mosquitos inject some kind of blood thinner in to you so that they can suck as much blood out of you as possible! Leaves a lovely bruise!
Mum has consistently tried to steal one of the Garde Malade's Baby's, I keep having to stop her, it's embarrassing! Seriously though, we'll need to get a picture of him for the blog, he's gorgeous and does look as though he'd quite like to come with us!
Finally, Mum and Dad are pushing their luck if they think that I'm going to eat Godfrey, last time I came back from Africa I became a vegetarian and I think I'm doing well to still be eating meat this time!
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