OUR HUMBLE [AHERM!!] ABODE

[Sunday 25th March]
So. It’s not exactly the Ritz.

On the plus side – there are walls, there are distinct rooms, it has windows.  Also, it’s right by the hospital AND right on the shores of Lake Malawi. OK, this kind of sounds idyllic, right? WRONG! :P

[I’ve been sat here for 10 minutes trying to find more positives – I think that’s about it].

It’s the insects that get to me the most. I fully understood, expected and remembered that the physical infrastructure can be poor in Africa [especially rural Africa] and so the fact that some windows are a bit broken, that some doors don’t fit into their frames and that there are constant power cuts don’t phase me. The fact that I just had to stop writing this blog post because a cockroach the size of my foot just tried to crawl ONTO my foot, does. BLEURGH!

Danni went to bed with 3 cockroaches and a lizard, and I had none. Sigh. I’m also only marginally offended that the mosquitos don’t seem to like my blood/skin. Danni’s 34 [at the last count, in 24 hours] bites are staring at my like war wounds that I wasn’t cool enough to get. [Just kidding, apparently they itch like hell and they don’t look too pretty – so YAY!].

If I could find an internet connection fast enough, I would upload some pictures. For now though – stop complaining about a bit of mould on the wall [aherm, my house in oxford] and do NOT complain about not having an en-suite bathroom [although I currently do have one here, I wouldn’t wish it on any of you].

I’m having a seriously amazing time here, in spite of [because of] all this. Our first day at work is tomorrow. We’ve been sent to a Satellite clinic for a week [MKOPE MEDICAL CENTRE]. We are the only doctors there [and really, we are only doctors in the MOST literal of ways – we passed some exams]. A lot of women give birth here, but there are no operating theatre facilities [nor any forceps or ventouse] so if a woman needs a C-section we have to send her by ambulance to Mangochi. The only problem is that the only ambulance has no fuel. :-/ It should be interesting.

lots of love to everyone at home.