June 8^th (Friday)            

We woke up at 6:00am this morning to our phone alarms as well as the roosters crowing around the mission. It was a bit difficult to climb out of bed as the bed was warm and the house was quite chilly. We had a breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. We walked up the path to Kariba (the main hospital) where the work day (day shift, known as shift A) starts at 7:00am. We met the health care team and everyone was very welcoming and quick to greet us and give us a warm welcome. We were given a tour, although immediately in the morning the doctor and missionary nurses were discussing troubling news received about another doctor at a different mission station who died suddenly. We attended ward rounds with the team and met all the patients currently at Kariba.

There were many different cases, diseases, and types of patients across the 4 wards (Men’s, Women’s Children’s, Labour and Delivery) and the ICU and Emergency room. There are many differences comparing it to my clinical experiences in Canada. JR is a nurse and midwife (the locals call the nurses here “sister”) she is very knowledgeable and asked us what we haven’t done and what we want to build our confidence in, she is being very accommodating and showing us many things. Fiona was with her in the theatre (what the operating room is known as here, it’s a British term). Fiona was able to insert an NG tube, put casts on a child with club feet and give an enema. I was with Dr. Mwansa observing clinic and I was able to see a great many clients and cases as well as some diagnostic tests. TB, malaria, HIV, varices, fractures, eye issues and maternity issues seem to be the most common diagnoses.

Also, a regular routine is that we break for tea in the “tea room” around 10:00am each weekday at the hospital. We were invited to Kate and Joey’s house for lunch with Dr. Mwansa. We had sandwiches and potato wedges and we met their little boy, Owen. He was adorable and attempting to blow bubbles, hahaha! We finished the day when we were done seeing the people who were outside the clinic.

We then walked to Tiffany’s house where she let us borrow some clothes (Kate also brought us some things after lunch). We returned to the Annex and set about enjoying the sun on our back porch for a while and waving at some children across the yard. We started on figuring out what to have for supper. We didn’t plan ahead and therefore didn’t thaw any meat. Nicole came up with the idea of a macaroni casserole with tuna. While making supper the children knocked on our door and we introduced ourselves and they told us their names. They hung around the window watching for a while and finally said, “goodbye, see you tomorrow.” Our house’s caretaker, Thomas, watches the house as well as cleans and does other chores for a steady job provided by the mission. Thomas is supposed to keep the mischievous and curious children away from visitors as well, hahaha. I nearly forgot about my malaria med and since I don’t have my applesauce from my checked luggage I added it to a bit of casserole crushed and managed to get it down along with some fresh oranges that Ruth brought over for us to combat the taste, it was a struggle to get it down. After supper the 3 of us played some games in our living room and then went to bed around 10:00pm//