Another week done!

Hello!

I hope everyone back home is well. I can't believe I'm now over a third of the way through my time in PNG! It's going to be over before I know it!

It has been another busy week. I'm now allowed to see patients on my own, just checking in with the other doctors before I prescribe/do anything to make sure that I don't make any major mistakes. I am rotating around the different wards for the rounds in the mornings and am currently on the adult medical ward. I take back what I said about no COPD here - there is loads! Most of the adults on the ward have some form form of lung disease, be it TB, COPD, pneumonia or a combination of the three! After ward rounds I see patients who come in through A+E, and when there is nobody to see there I see patients in the outpatient clinic. Having been here a couple of weeks now I am starting to see patients coming back for follow up which is quite nice as I can see them along their journey and hopefully see them improving!

The people here are all extremely friendly and kind, despite what the media may have people believing about cannibals and savages. Everyone I pass always gives a big grin and says 'monin' or 'appynoon' depending on the time of day (my pidgin is coming along leaps and bounds!). Handshaking is a really big deal here too, it seems to be used as a hello, goodbye, thank you and anything in between! Despite my improving pidgin I do have a translator called Judy who is lovely and likes to hold my hand a lot! Yesterday she brought me a 'bilum' that she had made for me. It is a kind of colourful, woven string bag that everyone uses here, mine is purple and blue!

There is obviously a darker side to the culture here too and sadly I have already had plenty of practice at suturing stab wounds and casting broken bones from tribal fighting or domestic violence. Having said that we have our fair share of gang fights and violence in the UK and I'm sure I would see similar injuries if I worked in certain areas of Manchester. 

I am slowly getting to know the other missionary families on the station. Not all are medical, there are a number of different trades including teachers for the children, construction workers who are currently building a new operating theatre at the hospital and also engineers who are in process of building a big hydro damn. This is so that hopefully the station will be able to provide it's own power instead of relying on PNG power which tends to go down a lot of the time! The hospital and some of the other houses have generators but there isn't one in my flat so when the power goes out it's reading by candlelight for me! This generally isn't a problem but when I've been using the gym and there is no water to shower afterwards it starts to become an issue!!

The water supplying my flat is rainwater that is collected off the roof and then pumped through some sort of water tank so it does still need power to flow. It has done wonders for my hair and skin though, I don't know why but my hair is really soft and my eczema has completely gone!! Maybe it is the lack of chemicals. 

Despite all of the creepy crawlies I really love my little flat. It is one room with a bunkbed and a built in cupboard in one corner, a table in the middle and a kitchen unit with sink, oven, fridge etc across the other 2 walls. Then I have a little bathroom with a shower and toilet. It's great, I've made it my home!

The gym is only a small hut but it has a surprising amount of equipment in. Andy has devised me a training schedule including bench presses, chin ups and all sorts! I am going to come back a changed woman!! I somehow got roped into a game of American football the other day too... I didn't have a clue what I was doing but I managed to score a touchdown at one point so was pretty chuffed!!

Last night there was a 'potluck' in the big communal house behind mine, which is basically where everybody brings a different dish ranging from starters, mains and deserts, and gets together to eat and chat etc. One of the school teachers gave birth a couple of days ago so apparently there was lots of cooing over the new baby, and somebody brought along a strange little pet (sugar glider?) which sounds a bit like the tarsiers that we are hopefully going to see in the Philippines.

All of this is hearsay however as I didnt actually make it down because I was on call last night! I finally left the hospital around 9pm (having been there since 7.45am) and was feeling pretty grumpy about having missed all the food and fun. It was chucking down with rain and the power was out so when I got back to my flat and the phone rang as I stepped in the door, my heart sank as I presumed it was the hospital calling me back to see another sick patient. However, it was Monica! The wife of the German couple who live in the flat next door. She was ringing to say that she had a big plate of food to bring round which had been specifically made and saved for me! I was absolutely made up! It was delicious and included vegetarian pizza, homemade chocolate chip cookies and cinnamon cake (it's a good job I've been going to the gym!). 

Apparently it has been spreading around the station that I have strange eating habits and everybody keeps saying to me 'I hear you eat real funny'. I didn't realise vegetarianism was that out of the ordinary!! 

All of the Americanisms continue to make me chuckle on a daily basis. This works both ways though as a lot of the words and phrases that I use are not understood here! For example the word 'poorly' is apparently not used in the States to mean unwell, only to mean 'performed poorly', so describing a child as poorly is highly amusing to Andy!

On the first Sunday of the month the chapel here on the station has an English service so I went along to that last week. It was nice as it attracts all of the local missionarys/expats in the area and I got chatting to lots of various people. It was interesting hearing what different people are doing out here. Tomorrow I am going along to a 'bush church' with some of the other missionaries which I'm really looking forward to, I'm sure it will be an interesting experience!

So, I think that is about all I have to say about this week. It's been another great one, I just can't believe how fast time is going. I find out my deanery on Monday so I will probably try to go online on Monday or Tuesday night to check that and will post something on here to let you know where I'm going to be spending the next two years! In case I forget to say it as well, Happy Birthday Maddie Muston for Monday! Love you loads!

Lots of love to everyone else too and I will write again soon! 

Tigz XXXXXX