Squatter bug...

Well the bug that moved in during the graduation ceremony some weeks back is still around. It went away for a day or so, then came back with a vengeance two weeks back- runny nose, body aching, extreme tiredness, the racking cough at night... no sleep, painful chest/abdominal muscles from all the coughing during the night. By this past Sunday i'd built up a sizeable sleep deficit, and couldn't go on any more. The good doctor booked me off this whole week - for which i'm so grateful. Penicillin didn't do much for the superimposed bacterial infection. I'd been through Red clover tea- which helped some- but soon lost it's effectiveness - wish we'd had some echinacea - i'm sure that would have done something. Any how, i moved over to elder berry flower tea, grapefruits - great expectorants, but the thing kept up a tyrannical nightly invasion. the kind doctor living next door to us loaned me her Vicks cough mixture - a potent aniseed extraction in 10% alcohol...! It took the breath away never mind the cough- worked for about an hour then the coughing was back, hacking as ever. I took to supplementing the cough mixture with chewing some actual aniseed seeds - they worked longer... Then yesterday i finall resorted to doing my own artificial fever therapy (don't try this alone at home... there must always be some one around). My old Mum and the maid were around, so i climbed into the hot bath and raised my temperature to 39.5*C for half an hour. Sweated real good, then showered down with invigorating cold water - like you can only get in Lesotho... I lay around in some towels for another couple of hours, watching 3abn, dosed now and then, and surfaced just before lunch. Took a warm shower and washed all the sweat out of my hair, and got lunch on the go. never felt better! and for the first time in weeks i slept through last night!

Graduation

The Maluti Hospital School of Nursing recently held their graduation ceremony for student nurses and midwives. They had the little first years march in first, all neatly togged out in their whites with identical pen sets in their pockets. The graduants then follwed in their black gowns, followed by the tutors. The main speaker for the day was the man in charge of education for the local church conference - a most inspiring delivery! Other speakers included the Lesotho representative for the Lesotho Nursing Association.

I had to leave half way through to relieve the girls in the wards - but i was also beginning to feel very 'fluey'...

Drivers in training

one, two, Three n up...! Our Maluti Hospital drivers get to do call out on the hospital's ambulance from time to time when there's an accident near by, and they usually end up having to help extricate and load patients. So some basic accident scene management training was hugely appreciated - and enjoyed by the men - and a pretty sharp bunch they were - caught on real quick!

Some of the boys remebered their Path finder knot training... but

we did some reviewing. We had huge fun packaging and loading one chap and rushing him off to casualty :-D