We are back in Choma for the final leg of this trip. During the first two weeks back here, the students have clinicals at Choma General Hospital each day from 8 - 12, and 1 – 3. I have been going to clinicals most days from 8 – 12. In addition to the usual wards of Male, Female, Children, Maternity, Out-patient Clinic and ART Clinic ( Anti-retroviral Therapy) which is treatment for HIV/AIDS), this hospital also has a Psychiatric Ward. There is only one Psychiatric Hospital in Zambia and very few hospitals with Psych Wards. Their patient population and treatment is similar to what is seen in the U. S, although they do not have nearly as many patients who receive psych care as we do in the U.S.
I taught one of the Management-Leadership classes last week which was kind of fun for me, although this age group of students is very different from those I usually teach, all of whom have several years of nursing experience before they arrive in our classrooms.
Bud has worked on getting all the budgets ready to hand back to Erin who recently returned from the U.S. after having been gone for several weeks. Due to her involvement with another team who is with us, he did retain enough of the money to get the fruit and water needed for our team.
As you can imagine, our team of 21 people go through many bottles of water each day, so maintaining an adequate number of bottles and then trying to keep them fairly cool is an ongoing process. Each of us is encouraged to drink a minimum of 4-5 bottles of water each day in order to prevent getting dehydrated in this heat. I can testify that it is not hard to drink that many and sometimes more!!
We also go through many apples each day (all imported); many of the students and staff eat at least one apple for 1 or 2 meals daily. We have also enjoyed some oranges: bananas have also been a real treat until the past couple weeks when they have become unavailable. Mangoes are becoming available, and we look forward to being able to get more or them. We have been able to buy a few, but they are not in full season yet.
Bud and I had a date one day last week for lunch; we went down to the restaurant at the local museum. We had a good lunch and then went into the museum gift shop to browse and make a couple purchases. On Friday evening, the entire team went to the same place for dinner which was a nice break for all of us. Bud & I took a taxi while the rest of the team walked!
Saturday evening, the two students responsible for the entertainment that week sponsored a costume part which was a lot of fun! There were some very creative costumes since we had to use what we could find here as costumes. We played games, had snacks and a bonfire where they roasted marshmallows and cooked brownies in orange skins! It was a fun-filled evening, and I believe everyone enjoyed it.
We do have two different people (one student and one faculty) with malaria, but they started receiving treatment right away and hopefully will get well quickly. Now that the rains have started, they do cool things down which is wonderful, but they also bring out mosquitoes which are not so great. Pray with us that no one gets malaria during our short time remaining!
I’ll probably try to write one more time before we come home, then I’ll probably do something on the plane to describe our visit to Livingstone where we visit Victoria Falls and a Game Park.
Appreciate all the prayers and support during this leg of our African Adventures!!
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