Sunday-Tuesday

Hi all!
So Saturday night and Sunday it rained A LOT. I couldn't believe the sky had any left!
Sunday morning Church was a special ordination service for 10 pastors. This was actually really cool, and I enjoyed singing along to some Pidgin songs too. However it did mean sitting on the wooden floor for nearly 4 hours - ouch! I also had to use the worst toilet ever! It was a standard icky hole in the ground, but so much worse: 1) because it was mildly flooded, 2) because someone had just pooed next to the hole, and 3) because I was not wearing shoes!! (you rarely do here). I used water, a handwipe and antibacterial gel to wash my hands and feet, then washed and changed as soon as I got back to the house!!!! I then sorted out a bit of an ant infestation where they had gotten into a box and chewed through some foil wrapping. I do not like the ants.
On Monday (yesterday) I had my first proper day at the hospital! I went on the ward(s) round and saw lots of patients - lots of TB, pneumonia and various ulcers. One old lady had a very advanced ulcerating anal cancer, and there is a young boy who came in fitting a month ago with TB and meningitis and is yet to regain consciousness. Other interesting patients include a couple of albino people, and a little girl with a congenital heart defect (ASD and VSD for any medics! and she has amazing clubbed fingernails!). The ward round is actually pretty amusing as there is no privacy at all - all of the patients in the ward are involved in each patient's consultation! The hospital chaplain is also on the ward rounds, which I think is cool, as he then knows the patients' situations and is able to chat and pray with them afterwards.
On Monday afternoon I went to a staff TB meeting as they are going to start doing 'treatment supervisors' for when patients go back to their viallges and need to make sure they keep taking their medication. After this I helped to hang up a guy's arm in traction for overnight, as he has broken and dislocated it but it is really swollen. Our xray machine is broken, so he had to go elsewhere the next day, but the swelling needed to go down a bit first to help with the fixing!
Today I went to market at 6.45am!! I managed to buy some bananas, pineapple, potatoes and some kind of pumpkin thing that resembles an odd-shaped marrow! There were not the usual greens for sale because they grow on the riverside, and apparently people are not eating those right now. Which leads me onto the promised update on the fish-river-fridge situation: Currently, the company responsible for the leak has said they have tested the water and it is fine (but they would say that...), but the local people are saying it is not ok and they should get compensation (but they would say that...). The doctors say that the fish shouldn't be in the outpatients dept. fridge (but they would say that...!)
My main wildlife contamination worry is that this morning, I found an ant on my toothbrush. not cool.
Anyway, back to today. I had a very good day in theatre! I was scrubbed in assisting on a little boy having a skin graft onto his arm as he had lots of flesh cut away due to a Buruli ulcer. This was my first experience of doing a skin graft, my first experience of a ketamine anaesthetic, (indeed, my first experience of anaesthesia being done from a textbook!). It was also my first surgery done with an insect crawling out of a bundle of supposedly sterile instruments, and my first surgery done in a theatre with a fly-swat on the wall! It was a long and tricky procedure, but really interesting and a great experience to assist in! There was then another skin graft on an ulcer (done under spinal block), then a clear-out of a uterus of a lady who had miscarried at about 12weeks pregnancy.
All very interesting and stimulating stuff so far, and so varied. I'm enjoying getting stuck in and being able to get involved :)
Lots of love to all xxx