Being out and about...

So, the weekend, long awaited after our nightmare few days! We picked up a car, then loving having our freedom back, we pottered around Blantyre, doing useful jobs. Got tooted at by the Matola drivers, missed most of the pedestrian crossings and generally made a bit of a hash of things –got stopped by the police within 5 minutes of being on the road – nothing serious…just one of the standard ‘waste of time’ checks! It was great being out being out and about though!
With Antonio at the Lake for the weekend, and Ali not feeling so well, Kim and I set off on a magical mystery tour…the plan was to go to Michiru Mountain, but we couldn’t find the road, so we decide on Chiradzulu instead, another Moountain but the guide book sent us off in the wrong direction – just before we got to Zomba, about 90kms from Blantyre, we twigged we might just have missed that opportunity too! So on to plan C – called another VSO volunteer, picked her up and scooted up Zomba Mountain instead. It was beautiful. We walked to see a little waterfall (got nasty pants in our pants there too) bought some baskets from the kiddies on the side of the road and also some delicious strawberries and gooseberries.


Week 2 started with a little jolly - VSO nurses Conference at the Lake - very nice! We made it out of Blantyre nice and early so we could get there in time for a bit of sun and sand...We drove through Salima looking for our accomodation and got increasingly worried that we'd be staying in some flea bag motel as it looked like a bit of dead, one horse town. We found ourselves at the end of the road which is also the entrance to a pretty big hotel, one of the oldest on the Lake, so we had ourselves some lunch and a sit on the beach! Sharp eyes Ali spotted some other people looking suspsiously like VSOs, which they did turn out be...some other nurses in fact who gave us directions to the cottages we were staying in. They were actually very nice, lovely grounds, trees and grass and flowers all around, deck that looked out over the water towards a island - not sure what called but pretty all the same. I got up for dawn at 5.45ish next morning and it was beautiful...the waves were quite rough so the light sparkled on all the tops and refelcted up the wet sand - it loked totally different the next day when it was really calm. We had a little trip out to the curio stalls in the afternoon - got me a lovely mat and hat and shopping basket!!

Pity it wasn't longer but it was nice to meet all the other nurses in the country, we have these meetings every 4 months or so it seems so i wonder where we'll be off to next time? Can't believe it still counts as work! We did have to get back in the real world for the rest of the week though - still struggling through orientation at Qu E. I was on the female surgical ward - mostly broken bones but some other surgery too. One lady had a broken neck from tripping over with a pot of potatoes on her head which fell onto her back as she hit the floor - they want to put a Halo on her but when i asked if it was something they did quite regulary the Dr said, 'no...this one will be a first practice - we had a lecture on them last week and we want to try'!! There were two other ladies in for similar accidents - I wonder if any of them will be told of their guinea pig status?!

Next day I was on the Burns Unit - i can't tell you how horrific it was hearing 50 children scream as thier dressings were taken off but not nearly as bad as the smell and the sight of these children's bodies, all pink and raw, skin hanging off or blistered from where they have fallen in open fires or been burnt by paraffin lamps which catch light. The most awful was a baby, can't have been more than 6 months old, whose whole face was burnt - no hair either just two little eyes streaming with tears as its mother held it tight and the bandages were unwrapped.

Now, I'm going to tell you about something a bit gross so don't read the next paragraph unless you had lunch quite a while ago!! Sometime during the morning I found myself helping to assess the burns and decide the plan of action - I did say I didn't have much experience in this area but it didn't appear to matter that much...The Sr did a few consultations with me and then disappeared and left me to it! (Please don't tell the NMC!) The first kid I saw had a burn on his arm, just above the wrist, that was pretty much healed, just a few bits of dry skin round the edge which the mother picked off and flung on the table in front of me - lovely! Now, I'm not that good with wounds and scabs and all, my tummy goes a bit funny, but not half as funny as when the next child came in, picked up the bit of skin from the table and popped it in his mouth! I could have barfed right there and then but being the professional I am, I swallowed hard and in my best Chichewa greeted the mother and asked how the child was getting on!

Consultations done, I popped back into the dressings room to watch them all being re-bandaged - they don't have a lot of choice about what to use, everything gets cleaned with chlorhexadine or vinegar (ouch!) and then dressed with either vaseline gauze or a honey and ghee mixture which one of the nurses showed us how to make at the beginning of the shift - bit like a cookery lesson it was! Carefully measured out all the stuff and then we took turns in having a stir!

And then it was the weekend again...marvellous! Everyone should work a 2 day week! In a very un-VSO fit of feeling rich we hired a beast of a 4x4 and set off for a couple of game parks...