Sunday 18 September 2011

The Beginning of the Adventure

Hi and welcome to my new blog.  I've never done this before so we'll see how it turns out.

I'm not sure how accurate the title is to this post.  It is the beginning of my time out in Kenya, but really there has been much happening before this.
Just to fill in anyone who doesn't know, I am a junior doctor having completed my 2 foundation years working in West Yorkshire. I have decided to take a year out so that I could come back to Kenya.  I came to Tenwek Hospital for the first time 3 years ago for my 2 month elective as a student.  I learnt a lot and really valued my time here.  As I left I felt in my heart that God would bring me back here at some point.  I decided to have a gap year for a multitude of reasons, not all good to be honest, but one of the main ones was to come back here.  I originally wanted to spend the first 6 months in Australia or New Zealand and then come to Kenya for 4 months at the end of the year.  (Medical years go August-July, rather than Jan-Dec.)  The Oz/NZ thing didn't work out and so I've ended up relying on my backup plan - to come to Kenya twice.  However, I do believe that this is what God intended (and I have a couple of close friends who will help back my up on this when I'm wavering).  I did get a paediatric training post in the UK to begin August 2011, but really felt God told me to turn it down, even though I was very tempted to take the easy option and just continue in the UK with no (well, less) scariness.  God placed Africa on my heart over a decade ago and I have believed since then that I would have opportunity to work in this continent.  This is not just a sudden decision to go and do some travelling, but has been a work in progress for a while.

Anyhow, I got here safely on Tuesday after a smooth journey (despite lots of traffic near Heathrow).  I am staying in the guesthouse which is a 2 minute walk from the hospital and I'm not missing the commute in the slightest.  Still wouldn't choose to live in at home though.  There are various other visiting doctors/medical students staying here too.  I am working in Paediatrics at the moment.  I'm enjoying it so far, but as I've had minimal post-graduate experience of paeds it's all new.  To be honest it's very different from the UK anyway with a significantly different spectrum of diseases.  Many of the children on the ward are HIV positive and meningitis can easily be due to TB or cryptococcus in these children rather than just the more common bacteria.  I am enjoying working in the nursery with the neonates again.  We admitted some tiny twins born at home at 30 weeks this morning.  They are surprisingly well.  I find it very strange when interns refer to me as a "consultant".  I'm not going to truly win this title for at least another 9 years.  I'm learning a lot and studying more than I have done for the last 2 years (though that's easy to beat)!  At some point I am likely to do some obstetrics.  I'm really hoping not to do medicine because I think I would have no clue.

Most of the people who aren't Kenyan are American.  I'm currently the only British person here (and that's likely to stay that way).  Occasionally I have to rephrase things so that I don't use too English a term eg "vital signs" instead of "obs".  In some ways I like this.  For instance, I have an accent here - I don't at home.  But sometimes I can really tell that I'm from a completely different place.

The weather is tending to be warm and sunny in late morning/lunchtime, but then often gets cold, cloudy and rainy in the afternoon/evening at the moment.  Though cold as in English autumn cold rather than English winter cold.  I remembered to bring more jumpers this time.  I got bored of wearing the same one jumper last time.

Anyway, on the whole it's going well.  I'm making friends and catching up with a couple of old friends.

For those of you who are praying people I would love it if you could remember the following:
- thank God that I got here safely and that I'm settling in and getting used to life here again.
- pray for the electricity around the complex by the hospital.  Some people down the hill aren't getting any and the generator up by the hospital keeps kind of restarting itself.
- pray that the CT scanner will work.  There's been a problem with it, but apparently it's just up and running again.  Please pray that there will be no more problems with it.
- pray that I would continue getting to know people and that I will become fully integrated into the community here.  I am here for 3 months now and another 3 months from April so this is a really important point.  I felt like this was my home by the time I left last time.  I pray that it would feel even more like that this time so that I can really look forward to returning in April.
- pray that God would guide me at work so that I can give the best I can for my patients and that at times when I have little backup that it wouldn't be too busy.  Also that I learn a lot and am able to apply what I learn to my practice.
- pray that God would show me more of His plans for me in terms of African medical mission in the future. I believe that when I decided I wanted to be a doctor when I was 13 or 14, that God put Africa on my heart then.  I think that I will come back to Africa at some point after this year, but I don't know whether that will be long- or short-term trips or whether it will be Kenya or somewhere else.  One of the long-term doctors here has already worked out that I'll finish training in 2020 and can come back then.  Lol.
- pray that I continue to remain physically well.


I will be on facebook regularly so please talk to me on chat and hopefully I'll be able to access the internet on my laptop soon so I can use skype as well.

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