Well so much has happened since my last entry. We worked a week of night duty at the end of July, which involves 7 shifts of 14 hours (6pm to 8am). Whilst going through them it felt like they would never end but when we were finished it didn’t seem to bad. When all the patients were settled and sleeping we watched 6 feet under to get us through the hours usually of 11 till 4. At 4 then we made the porridge and medication rounds etc. Most nights one of the little babies spent the night in the clinical room in one of our arms whilst we giggled up and down to try and get her to sleep. She seemed to prefer to sleep in one of our arms then her bed. On the last night though she slept the whole night through without a peep.
So after our nights we had 7 days off. We headed down to Lusaka where I had my first latte in a month and we even ventured to the cinema to see the Dark Knight it was a treat. On the Monday we headed to South Luwanga National Park, which is in the eastern province of Zambia and rather then traveling the bumpy 2 day ride by bus we opted for the 1 hour plane journey. Equipped with tent, mats and sleeping bags we arrived at our campsite. We were staying in Flat dogs campsite, we put up our little tent and went explored it was well set up with bar, restaurant and swimming pool. We spent a lot of our week by the pool reading. We did go on a game drive, which started at the early hour of 6. As we drove sleepily through the camp we got to see elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, hyenas, buffalos and other birds and animals. Michelle went on an evening drive and got to see lions eat their supper of a Zebra. However one did not really need to go on a drive, as elephants, hippos and giraffes were regular visitors around the camp. It is amazing to see animals in the wild. We had a scary experience one night I woke up and realised that an elephant was out side our tent. I woke poor Michelle who was in dreamland and we both lay there with adrenaline running through our bodies as this elephant sniffed our little yellow tent thinking what if he decided to stand on our tent. He didn’t though. The next night I think it happened again but we didn’t pay much attention to it.
We were back to Kabwe on Friday and back to work on Saturday. This week the influx of Irish continues there are 6 medical students and two doctors and their children all visiting the Hospice (all Irish).
This week we had an issue around breastfeeding with one of the mums. Breast milk contains a high percentage of HIV viruses. In the west women are told not to breastfeed. Here in Africa that is impractical as sterilizing bottles and clean water are not always available and powder milk cost a lot of money. So women here are advised to breastfeed till the baby is 6 months and then stop totally. In the west mother to child transmission is as low as 1-2%. Here not every child contracts HIV from their mother but it is higher due to breastfeeding.
We are off today as we start nights again tomorrow. You may ask nights again so soon. It is because Donna arrives next Sunday and Michelle leaves in two weeks and wanted to go to see Livingstone and Vic falls before she goes. So rather then me going once with Michelle and once with Donna we are all going to go together next week.
Well so much has happened since my last entry. We worked a week of night duty at the end of July, which involves 7 shifts of 14 hours (6pm to 8am). Whilst going through them it felt like they would never end but when we were finished it didn’t seem to bad. When all the patients were settled and sleeping we watched 6 feet under to get us through the hours usually of 11 till 4. At 4 then we made the porridge and medication rounds etc. Most nights one of the little babies spent the night in the clinical room in one of our arms whilst we giggled up and down to try and get her to sleep. She seemed to prefer to sleep in one of our arms then her bed. On the last night though she slept the whole night through without a peep.
So after our nights we had 7 days off. We headed down to Lusaka where I had my first latte in a month and we even ventured to the cinema to see the Dark Knight it was a treat. On the Monday we headed to South Luwanga National Park, which is in the eastern province of Zambia and rather then traveling the bumpy 2 day ride by bus we opted for the 1 hour plane journey. Equipped with tent, mats and sleeping bags we arrived at our campsite. We were staying in Flat dogs campsite, we put up our little tent and went explored it was well set up with bar, restaurant and swimming pool. We spent a lot of our week by the pool reading. We did go on a game drive, which started at the early hour of 6. As we drove sleepily through the camp we got to see elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, hyenas, buffalos and other birds and animals. Michelle went on an evening drive and got to see lions eat their supper of a Zebra. However one did not really need to go on a drive, as elephants, hippos and giraffes were regular visitors around the camp. It is amazing to see animals in the wild. We had a scary experience one night I woke up and realised that an elephant was out side our tent. I woke poor Michelle who was in dreamland and we both lay there with adrenaline running through our bodies as this elephant sniffed our little yellow tent thinking what if he decided to stand on our tent. He didn’t though. The next night I think it happened again but we didn’t pay much attention to it.
We were back to Kabwe on Friday and back to work on Saturday. This week the influx of Irish continues there are 6 medical students and two doctors and their children all visiting the Hospice (all Irish).
This week we had an issue around breastfeeding with one of the mums. Breast milk contains a high percentage of HIV viruses. In the west women are told not to breastfeed. Here in Africa that is impractical as sterilizing bottles and clean water are not always available and powder milk cost a lot of money. So women here are advised to breastfeed till the baby is 6 months and then stop totally. In the west mother to child transmission is as low as 1-2%. Here not every child contracts HIV from their mother but it is higher due to breastfeeding.
We are off today as we start nights again tomorrow. You may ask nights again so soon. It is because Donna arrives next Sunday and Michelle leaves in two weeks and wanted to go to see Livingstone and Vic falls before she goes. So rather then me going once with Michelle and once with Donna we are all going to go together next week.
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