I've arrived

1 week down and because I’ve been so busy and with limited computer/internet access this is the first time I’ve had a chance to write. My apologies- I definitely haven’t moved off and forgotten about you all. In fact today is the first day I am somewhat homesick. I’m sure partly because it’s my birthday and it felt weird not talking to any of my friends or family. I didn’t bother telling people here it was my birthday because I don’t really think they celebrate them given most of my patients don’t even really know what their age is. Mild transient homesickness aside, things here have been great.

So, from the beginning…

Day 1
I made it out of my apartment to get my 4 a.m. cab to the airport in typical Melissa Clark fashion- barely finished packing with a messy room left behind (great aspirations of course to leave it immaculate). Rather uneventful 3 flights to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. Coincidentally I sat behind a former Highland grad who was on his way to South Africa for safari, but had spent time years earlier doing medical work in Zambia. After about 34 hours of mediocre movies and trying to sleep I, shockingly accompanied by all of my luggage, was greeted at airport by Dr Johnson, the surgeon I am working with in the next 8 weeks. It wasn’t too hard to find each other as we were the only white people at the airport . Dr Johnson is a Jesuit priest so we stayed that night at some sort of beautiful property where young men called noviciates live during their training to become priests.

Day 2
Despite being completely sleep deprived woke up around 4 am. Waited anxiously for the sun to rise to get my first daytime look at Zambia- turns out it looked like a pretty typical backyard anywhere. Fell back asleep sometime around 6:30, woke to African songs and drumming about 15 minutes later. Breakfast (Zambian food experience #1) was good- normal oatmeal, tea, bread with mango jam. Very safe. Notably the boys were all cutting fruits the sizes of small football which I thought were large mangoes or something. As it was, their mangoes are the sizes of kiwis and they were cutting enormous avocados. Ran some errands in Lusaka (mob scene) and had a tour of the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, for comparison to what I’d see in Choma. Zambian food experience #2 was a little scarier. All was going well- did ok with my first Nshima- a cormeal based porridge/dough which is the staple of their diet. Nshima is usually served with some sort of “relish” which is usually a bit of meat or vegetables. Today was a fish dish. I thought it was just pieces of fish in a tomato sauce, then I looked closer to see hundreds of small fish eyes and realize these were actually 1 cm long fully intact tiny fish. It didn’t help my appetite when Dr Johnson told me they were not cooked but rather dried for preparation. I managed to finish my plate without gagging- strong work. Then tea with other priests (yes there is a bit of a priest, nun theme here- perhaps I will come back a nun) and headed for Choma. An 83 year old priest, not weighing much more than 83 pounds, made the 4 ½ hour drive with us in the pickup truck. Despite our begging, he insisted on sitting on a pillow in the back, IN THE RAIN, for the whole trip rather than sharing the cab with us. The ride was gorgeous- the parts I could stay awake for anyways. I was less embarrassed about my new onset of narcolepsy after Dr Johnson prefaced the drive with a story about the last student who would ask a question on the drive then invariably be asleep before he was even mid-answer. We drove through several different scenic areas on the ways with small towns about every hours or so. I was repeatedly struck by the fact there were so many people walking along side the roads in the 50 mile stretches between towns…where were they going? Quick dinner at Dr Johnson’s then he took me to the guest house “Racheel’s Lodge” which I will be living for the next two months. I fell asleep within 7 seconds of dropping my bags in my room.

Day 3- Saturday
…and again managed to wake up 5 hours later at 4am. When I had checked in the night prior (exhausted) I wasn’t sure how homey my lodging was going to be as my first impression was neon lights and black leather couches. In the morning (neon exterior lights turned off) I realized the place is adorable with a really cute garden and extremely gracious, friendly staff. I love the neighborhood (uhh, surrounding houses on the same dirt road) and have the most beautiful walk to the hospital each morning. Saturday morning Dr Johnson picked me up to go to the hospital at 8:30. Weekend are our light days when we just round or do small procedures. Dr Johnson basically doesn’t ever take a day off unless he is out of town as he is the only surgeon. Words can’t really describe the hospital- I’ll have to send some pictures (we’ll see how uploading them goes, my internet accessibility here is rather limited). There are three open wards that we work on- male, female and childrens. They are huge open rooms with about 30 beds in each.

day 4-7
Ok, well I only made it through 3 days of typing before running out of time- I'll post more later. The 3 line summary is that I've been working a ton and in my limited free time I've kind of turned into the pied piper in my neighborhood with all these kids yelling hello to me and wanting their pictures taken (if they know what a camera is anyways).

I'll post more as soon as I can- Read or ignore as you please. I'm sure it will probably be more medical in the future as I've been working 10-14 hours each day so far (and abut 4-5 on weekends) so sadly don't have much else of a life at this point. I've already seen some very interesting things in the hospital- definitely different pathology here. I've attempted to attach a few pictures- I have no idea what they are of as this computer just showed me a list of the hundred of so pics I've taken already, listed by number. I haven't deleted the bad ones- so we'll be surpised together by what shows up on the blog.

Miss you all- take care!

Melissa