26/10/11 - Sick, pool party and visitor coming

Lucky

Buddy

I have been sick for two days now. Stomach trouble. No fun at all. Every time I put something in my mouth I have to run to the toilet... Exhausting! I have no idea if it is something I ate, but my mum thinks so, she says I eat too many strange things.
I am feeling a bit better today, so hopefully I can go to work tomorrow. And I am sick of my bed and my room, my computer and True Blood and water and ORS (Oral Rehydration Solution that tastes like shit!) and dry bread and my toilet. And the fact that I have a beautiful garden and pool but don’t have the energy to use it!
At least I am in a new room here, we changed on Monday, so now Tone and Frida has a bedroom each upstairs, together with Kari and Ole in the master bedroom, and I am downstairs. I really like my new room, and finally I can make it a bit personal and decorate it, I didn’t do that before, because I knew I was gonna move.
There is five people in the house now. Last week two new people arrived, Kari, a midwife for Voss, and Ole, a gynecologist from Voss/Denmark. They are both gonna work in Ethel Mutharika Maternity Wing, the same wing as me, but Kari will be in the labor ward, and I think Ole will be in Gynae with me.
This weekend we had a pool opening party at the house. It was really nice, the weather was of course very nice, and people came from Nkhoma (Gunhild and Webster) and I also had some friends from town here. We had prepared snacks and there was a lot of drinks. We really enjoyed, and later on we went out to a club, Tone, Anne, Gunhild, Webster, Mike, Rich, Ben and me. We went to Zanzi Bar, there was a DJ from South Africa, DJ Cleo, playing, and it was so crowded! We could hardly dance for the crowds! But it was fun! We also met more friends there.
Sunday we all spent the day by the pool, I of course got my first real sunburn now, on my back, nowhere else, cause I spent most of the day on a floating mattress in the pool.

We have a maid in the house now, she is here every weekday, and she cleans and dusts and irons. I love the fact that I don’t have to iron my uniforms. The other stuff is OK, but ironing, I hate it!
And we have two dogs! One we have had for a while, Buddy, but on Sunday Tone went and got us a puppy! She is so cute! Lucky. They are both from Lilongwe SPCA http://www.lilongwespca.org/
Buddy was about to be buried alive, after a life with abuse and neglect, when he was rescued by someone that had contacted LSPCA.
Lucky was being sold by the road. People do that a lot here, you see it almost everyday, people standing by the road, holding up cute puppies or kittens, to sell them, something that is illegal in the country. So every time we see someone that does this, we call the LSPCA and they can collect the animals.

Last week I got a nice message from Merete from Finse. She is coming to Malawi, to visit me and also to go to Mozambique and other places. Its always nice with visitors! Especially since I haven’t seen here in at least two years! And I will get my “Norway Bag”, a bag full of things from Norway! Makrell i tomat! Mårpølse! Melkesjokolade! Nam nam!

19/10/11 - Kamuzu Central Hospital

I have finally started work now, after almost four weeks of holiday.
I now work in Kamuzu Central Hospital, at the Gynecology ward. It is a big ward, divided in to two, one for the critically ill patients, and one for the stabilized ones. There are 36 beds on each and from 7.30am to 4.30pm there are six nurses working there. From 4.30pm til 7.30am there are two... Imagine! Working for 15 hours straight! Of course they rest on shifts during the night, but anyways! I feel I have been taken good care of since I started, but there isn't much of orientation to talk about. If I want to know things I have to ask. But everyone is friendly and easy to talk to, so I feel its good.

Kamuzu Central Hospital is Malawi’s second largest hospital, after Queen Elisabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, and they have 750 beds. They have different wards, Childrens (medical, surgical and NRU – nutritional resuscitation unit), Medical (female and male), Surgical, Burns, Eye, OPD (Out Patient Department), Lab, X-ray, Pharmacy, and the Gynecology ward that I work in, that has several different units, Labor, ICU, Gynae (my ward), Antenatal and Postnatal and Private ward.
The most common diseases we have in the ward, is incomplete abortions (both spontaneous and “criminal”, as they call it here), total abdominal hysterectomy ofogdifferent causes (cancer, fibroids, complications after birth), ovarian cysts, different pelvic abscesses and anemia in pregnancy. So this is a completely new area for me! But I like the challenge, and I think I will learn a lot! And about that; I have to do my CPD (Continuous Professional Development) for Nurses and Midwife Council of Malawi, that means I have to find different aspects under 1. Skills, 2. Knowledge and 3. Appearance. And I have to find goals and things I don’t know much about, and things I want to learn. This is something the nurses here have to do every year. I feel like a student with workplans again! That my teacher have to approve! Well, I just have to do it, so I will. And I had a meeting with the Matron again today, and she helped me a lot with how to do it and what goals to have, so I don’t see it as difficult as I did before.

The hospital is quite different from what I’m used to. Not only the size, but mostly the standard. Yes the building I work in is new from last year, but already it looks like crap! People in this country is not fond of keeping their workplace tidy! There is mess everywhere, and they don’t even try to keep it nice. And this is something I want to try fix!
And the other thing in this place, since it is a government hospital, they don’t have a lot of money. So things are out of stock all the time. There is so much things missing, there is hardly any gloves at the ward, and surgical gloves not at all, the only cannulas they have are grey, sometimes you can find a green one, the strapping we use is useless (!), but what is most disturbing is about the medications. This week there is no Paracetamol, Ibuprofen, Pethidine, Ceftriaxone, Metronidazole, Ciprofloxacin, and these are all crucial medications in so many of the cases we have in the ward. But the medication is just not there. So what can we do? Our best...
The post-operative patients gets pain relieve from Tramadol or Diclofenac. And this is some heavy shit surgeries they go through! Today I met a girl, 16 years old, at 6am this morning they fixed her ileus, open stomach surgery, (why she was in my ward is a mystery), and this morning at 9am we came to do her bed, and she was told to sit up and get mobilized, and to take deep breaths to prevent pneumonia, and this girl didn’t even make a sound. I couldn’t even see at her face that she was in pain. The people here (especially women) are so tough, they take pain so different from us, they don’t even cry giving birth. And when we came to the next bed, there was a lady who has had a different surgery yesterday, and a different scar, she complained trying to sit up, but the nurse told her to not complain, “cause look at that other girl, she had a bigger surgery than you”, and she didn’t complain. She just kept quiet. I think it will be very challenging. And yesterday we had a girl who was to drain an abscess, and when giving the local anesthetic she was in so much pain, she screamed so loud, and then she just lost it. She was not completely unconscious, but didn’t respond to any pain or verbal approach. Her pulse was OK, respiration a bit fast, and I wanted to take a bloodpreassure. But could I find a stethoscope? The doctor that was there didn’t have his, and there was no in the ward, and no one knew where I could I find one. So I couldn’t take her bloodpreassure. We gave her intravenous fluids and after a while she came to herself and was completely normal. I don’t know what happened. Maybe the pain just knocked her out!?

I started off good yesterday by walking from work, and today I walked to and from. It is a 50 minutes walk, and I enjoy walking long distances again. At home I walk alt, but the time I have spent in Malawi, and last time, I hardly move around on my feet. We drive everywhere!
And this week I tried the pool for the first time, cause the weather now is very nice, a bit too hot in the middle of the day, so it was so nice to come home yesterday, hot from walking from work, and jump in the pool! I will try to keep it up, and do some rounds with swimming, its good exercise!

Enough about work. Last weekend I was at the lake with Gunhild and Ingrid, and we enjoyed! We went to Cape McClear and Mufasa Lodge, it was a cheap but nice place, and nice people. We mostly relaxed and enjoyed the sun, and came back Monday relaxed and ready for a new and exciting week.

11/10/11 - Enjoying the last days of the holiday

Lunch at Mr Banda's

Nkhoma Saturday market

Dancing at the birthdayparty

Gomez with her Gift

Bertha preparing a chickenfoot for the braai

Things are now starting to settle here, holiday is coming to an end, and the real life here must start soon. I had a meeting at the hospital last week, with the Matron at the ward where I'm going to work, gynecology ward, and she was a really nice lady and had a lot of good plans for me and my stay.
And she also told me I had to go to Nurses and Midwives Council to register, something I had hoped I didn’t have to, since I did it last year, but this is actually something every nurse in the country has to do every year. So I mentally prepared for a long day of waiting and planning and organizing, and I showed up at the office, but then they say that registrations are only on Wednesdays, so I had to come back. I asked very nicely to please have it done today, and as the system here is not always so easy to come around, I was surprised when she told me OK, but come back after lunch.
So I came back after lunch, at 2.30pm, and the lady I’m supposed to meet is not there. Where is she, after two and a half hour lunch break? Out to get a snack!!! So I waited, for 30 minutes, and she returned from her snack break. I got my papers, and I have to write a log to document my achievements and goals, and return to them after a while. So I got my things and went off to pay my fee (20,000MK, approx 700NOK, 120USD). But the guy at the account office was not there, and nobody knew where he was. So I waited... And waited... He finally came back, I payed and was happy it all was over. I was actually surprised that I could do it all in one day!

So next week I'm planning to start work, and tomorrow I will go to the hospital for an orientation. Just to get to know the hospital and routines, and meet my coworkers.

Last weekend I was in Nkhoma, to spend some more time with Isabelle and the other people there. I came there in the afternoon, and it was Gomez's birthday, so she had a party. And as all Malawians it was a late party, supposed to start at seven, started at eight or even later. It was a braai, good food, sausages, chicken, buns, salad and non-alcoholic drinks. We danced, chatted and had a lot of fun! It was a different birthday party than what I’m used to. Finally there was cake and birthday song for Gomez.
Saturday I want to the market with all the azungus (white people) and we did some shopping and after a while I had lunch at Mr Banda's restaurant with Isabelle, James, Sarah and Louis. Louis is a five year old kid that really know how to eat nsima (the traditional local dish, maize mash). The five of us ordered the same amount of food, he was the only one finishing! Imagine! It is really heavy food, gets you full very quick if you are not used to it. But this small boy has a good appetite!

In the evening I just spent time with Gunhild and Ingrid, as Isabelle had dinner at the Vietches house. Sunday morning Isabelle, Jessi, Ute and me went for a walk to Linthipe river. Its a nice walk through a lot of different villages, and the nature is beautiful (even though its quite dry and brown now). After this I took a minibus in to Lilongwe again.

The pool we have here is now filled with nice clean water, it was ready this last weekend, but I have still not tried it. The weather is not too nice, a bit chilly some times, and the sun has not been out today, so it still has to wait. But I’m sure it will be a good thing to have the coming months!

The weekend I will spend by the lake, in Cape McClear, with Gunhild and Ingrid from Nkhoma. Hopefully we will leave on Thursday.

4/10/11 - Lake Of Stars

Thursday we picked up Isabelle at the airport. It was so nice to see her again, missed that sweet girl! Its sad shes not staying for more than two weeks, and that I am not in Nkhoma to spend more time with her. I will try to go there more this week to see her and the others, since I'm not starting work yet.
I spent Thursday to Friday in Nkhoma, had dinner at jessis house, and slept at Gunhild and Ingrids house. Gunhild and I left early to go to Lake Of Stars. Its a long trip to Mangochi, about four hours driving, its hot and sunny, but the roads are not too bad.
We arrived around 1pm, and the place is just as beautiful as I remembered! We set up our tents and jumped in the water. More people came later that afternoon, and the party started! There was a lot of good concerts, and we just sat in the sand listening, sometimes up dancing, and the mood is just perfect! Everybody is so happy and chilled, and the whole festival is just perfect! That night some of us just stayed up all night dancing and enjoying, and the next day was a bit exhausting. Chilling in the shades, sleeping (in the shade!) and the evening came with more good concerts, and the best was Freshlyground, a big band from South Africa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nUAarErp5Y
This evening was not a late one for me. I went to bed around midnight, Slept like a baby all night through, and was ready and fit next day. We spent some hours in the sun, in the water, chatting, chilling, and most Nkhoma-people wennt back earlier. Since I was going to Lilongwe I didnt go with them, cause I went with Mike and his friends that also was going to Lilongwe. But in the afternoon they all found out that they where not going this day, because the driver was too tired, and I was happy to hear that, cause to go that far, and even at night, with a tired driver, does not feel safe. So the responsible driver he was, he went early to bed that night, and was ready to leave the next morning at 7am. The others of us stayed up late, dancing, chilling, and there was stilll a lot of people there, and also my friends from Holland, Piet and Enno.
I think I could stay at that place forever, its so beautiful, and so much fun. Wish we had festivals like that at home.
Monday I spent the afternon at home, just went to town to do some shopping for dinner, and I made fish fingers and rice for Tone and Frida. But I didnt manage to finish the dinner completely before there was a blackout, but we had a few fish fingers and the rice was finished.

This week I hope to have a meeting with the nurse in charge of the ward i'm going to work in, I emailed her so we'll see when I get a response.
And I hope to go to Nkhoma.

I have now a postbox here, so if you want to send me something, I recommend to send not to big packeges, and I think it will be good if it looks kind of official, it tends to come faster then.

Linn-Kristin Hatlebrekke
P.O. BOX 3360
Lilongwe
Malawi

And my phonenumber +265991590095