superdha in zambia

hello everyone!

it's only been a week since i left new zealand, yet it feels like so, so much longer!

here i am in chipata, a rather big town an hour and a half drive from saint francis mission hospital, which is where i am working at the moment. i've come here to chipata for one thing - internet.

ok. so much has been happening - i really don't know where to start! i will have to type quickly, so i am afraid that grammar, spelling and poetry will not have the highest priorities!

it's been a really great experience so far! i love being back in africa! the warmth, the dust and open landscapes that stretch out before you for miles and miles, the vitality and vibrance that beats around you all the time like the african drums themselves. the hospital is - amazing. i am on the male medical ward at the moment, with an african doctor and an irish doc (a 2nd yr house officer). words cannot begin to describe the things i am seeing and doing here. in my first day i saw more pathology than i think i have seen in the last two years back home...

- HIV/AIDS - almost everywhere
- Tb - pulmonary, miliary etc.
- Kaposi's sarcomas - the craziest KS ever, and disseminated KS
- severe cardiac failure
- 4L of empyema
- 4L of ascites
- Kwashiorkor
- horrific trauma
- meningitis - all the types, and lots of cryptococcal meningitis
- candida like one has never seen candida before
- herpes
- syphilis
- leprosy
- malaria - how could i leave this till last

and heaps more. i think i have made a list of about fifty things so far.

sorry for the medical blah. i was going to do a leo's email and explain it all in great detail (and with a slightly patronising tone) but i simply don't have the time just yet, i am afraid.

it hasn't been easy though. it has taken a lot of getting used to. and there are ups and downs. yesterday was a fantastic day. i did so much - ward round, HIV clinic, LPs and pleural and ascitic taps - and i felt like i really was doing something, you know? like i was really helping people. people appreciated me, and what i was doing, no matter how simple it may have been. i was helping people, and they were grateful.

i felt like a doctor. i feel like a doctor.

i feel like - i can do this.

but as i said. there are ups and downs.

i miss home so much. i miss my friends. i miss my mother and father.

i miss tracy.

it is a physical emotion now - it knaws at my insides.

i have to go now... i will try and write when i can. please write on this blog, and include some meaningful things sometimes! i appreciate every word!

take care everyone, and i hope you're having a good elective ilia,

i miss you all, and can't wait to be back,

till then i'm going to savour this as much as possible!

-superdha