2 months in and time is flying
on Rachael's VSO experience (Malawi), 09/Apr/2011 09:23, 34 days ago
So as the title says I am now two months in and time really is flying. This week we had no salbutamol in the hospital, we eventually (after 2 days and a lot of shouting!) got some solution for nebulising but still no salbutamol tablets. I've never seen a salbutamol inhaler here apart from the ones that I brought out with me. I haven't resorted to buying medication for the ward but I got very close this week. You can buy about 100 salbutamol tablets for about£2 over the counter with no prescription, I think the view is that if you can afford to buy it you know what to do with it!Unfortunately as rainy season is coming to an end we are heading towards winter which means all of our nurses seem to be getting sick. One Wednesday two of the 5 nurses on the shift text in sick. On an aside I think texting in sick is the way forward!! So in the end I had to swap around all my plans for the week to cover staff sickness so pretty much all week I have been on the ward working in HDU. Lucky me... although no one died so hey what more do I want....Life has been very quite this week, I've been proposed to twice which was very flattering obviously I declined. I was told by a very sweet child that she thought I was an angel because I was so white, now that is much better than being asked if I'm a ghost!! My tumbuka and chichewa are coming along very slowly, I can understand very simple things normally aided by a lot of pointing. The kids love it and often spend a long time teaching me silly things but it keeps us all entertained. I can still make the guardians laugh most mornings when I hand out the childrens files, they find the funniest thing that I normally say the names like a question because often I am asking if I'm pronouncing it right!! so I'll say“Loveness Chirumbalitso?” and then they laugh and all copy me by making their voices go up at the end. Luckily I find this very funny so then try putting on any kind of voice. I'm sure most of them think I'm crazy, or maybe that should read most of them know I'm crazy. Some names I have down Ngoma, Phiri, Chirwa and most first names I can say, you just have to remember to accent the second syllable and they tend to get it!! It can be very frustrating to not really understand what people are trying to tell you but I force myself to speak to the parents and then force a nurse to translate what they've said so I know what is happening. Generally I ask Mwagona uli namwana? How has the child spent the night? and they know to respond with OK not OK or getting better! It's very frustrating at times and very patronising when you have to resort to hand signals to help people understand you. Although it does mean I forget some people here speak incredibly good English.Sorry for the short blog but it's been a quiet kind of week really