Getting to work

Alright, it's been two weeks now, and I'm settling into sort of a routine, although one of the first things I ever learnt on a mission is that whatever plans you have, God probably has other ones, so you learn to be flexible :-).  It's actually incredibly refreshing to be able to wake up in the morning and simply be open to doing whatever is needed, because that is when amazing things can happen.

Thank God, I seem to have found a balance between medical work and other service, which I'm really glad about.  I have to cover the Hope Centre (HIV unit) on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and I have one day on call a week.  I'm still only scratching the surface of learning about HIV but it's getting a little easier, although I still have to call the Infectious Diseases specialist at least 5 times a day for advice.  On call is crazy, cos anything can turn up through the door and like i said before the resources for investigation are severely limited.  You get by, and it hones your clinical skills to know that there is no other way to find out the answer most times.  In the end though, I still need a lot of help, and it's a team effort so we all tend to discuss the tricky cases together.

The rest of the time I help where and when I am needed.  Somehow saying that I have done a bit of Paeds has made me the person to call to resus the babies from Caesarian sections.  Thank God, all so far have screamed as soon as I got them so no work for me :-).

The great thing about this set-up is that it leave me time to take on other projects or just helping out members of the congregation with little things.  Something I'm working on at the moment is to have a health surveillance and health promotion program for the kids at the school for orphans and vulnerable children.

Today we visited one of the villages near the city and it's amazing the transition from the city to the village.  It is incredible poor there and a lot is needed to help support the people there.  It was eye-opening and a great experience, cos the people there are really lovely and so glad to be able to come to church for encouragement and fellowship.  Their voices are amazing, and as with most African people, they love to sing.  We're planning to go there soon with a supply of medications and people for a medical campaign to help where we can.  There are obviously far more and longer-lasting projects that need to start so pray for us to be able to.

From tomorrow it will be a whole new experience again because a group are coming from the US so we'll be in a different area of Zambia with them and I'm sure that the energy they bring will transform things.  Then later in the week we'll go on a 12 hour drive to Congo.  Apparently the border crossing can be a bit tricky so it should be pretty exciting :-).  Don't know what to expect at all in Congo but I know that the infrastructure there is vastly less developed so it will  be a very different experience.

Anyway, enough blogging for now I think.  Before I forget though, thank you to all those who prayed for my UK medical registration exam; I received the results today and I passed thank God.  Still have the second part to go when I get back to London.