Exams

Some of our hospital drivers at last completed their exam on accident scene management... A bright bunch of fellows, and enormous fun to work with ...

Sabbath Stroll

This past Sabbath was my husband's birthday, and as a treat, we took an afternoon hike down across the valley and up to mole Hill on the other side with a real mottly crew... There were 3 youngsters from the US working as student missionaries for Hope Channel TV, a young doctor from Australia, another from Sweden, and more from the UK, together with some of the local youth who acted as guides. They introduced us to some simple games played here by children here in Lesotho

This is the department of health in Lesotho, and looking down on some of the other goverment buildings in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. it was here that the Lesotho Nursing Council launched it's manual on nursing procedures for all hospitals in lesotho, to standardise the level of nursing care in the country. This is possibly a first in Africa if not in the world - well done Lesotho! There is actully a drive to improve on quality assurance in medical care in the country. This is being driven by the Lesotho-Boston Health Alliance, where Boston University is liasing with and guiding local health workers in quality assurance programmes, problem solving, and leadership development. Medical students from Boston University get to do their electives here at various hospitals in Lesotho, including Maluti. There is also a continuous nursing education programme, and monitoring of nursing records. Every Monday here at Maluti we have a 'nursing round' where nurses on duty gather in a selected unit in the hospital to study and discuss a particular case of interest. Then on Tuesdays, we have a class covering a particular nursing procedure from the nursing manual. The same topic is covered for a month, to enable as many nurses possible to attend. Some may be of duty on that day or on night shift, so the following week they may have the opportunity to attend. We have a little incentive for attendance... each nurse that arrives in class gets a treat; this month we're doing CPR, and the nurses get a chocolate at the end of the lecture/practical... after they've written their post test:-)

Spring at last

We've been blessed with refreshing rains here in lesotho - actually a bit on the early side - but it's got all the poppies and roses out. We've begun planting veges at a feverish pace, the orphan kids too - they all received a set of gardening tools and their gardens are sprouting all sorts of luscious veges (Pics to follow). There are a number of saints in the surrounding villages who have taken these kids under their wing, supported by a group here at the hospital which provides clothing, seeds, they organised the tools, and they just keep an eye on the little ones together with the 'village mothers' who are cooking meals for them. We also employ them after school in our own gardens so they can get a little cash and extra food for their labour, as well some 'parental guidance' - my hubby loves to share life skills with them...

en route to camp meeting

On our way to drakensville Camp meeting last weekend, our hopes of being on time for the morning meetings were dashed when we met with an 18 wheeler lying on its back across the road. It had been hit really hard by a run away truck from behind. The runaway's cab wasn't recognisable... two people were dead, and the police were every where. photo's were forbidden until he forensic dept had done their thing..(hours later...) the runway truck landed half way down the mountain side.

Well at least we made it for the afternoon meetings and lunch with some friends. may be this was a divine appointment, as we had a nice visit with some other folks also on their way to camp meeting while waiting at the accident site. on our way back that evening, we road past the two tow trucks which had finally managed to disentangle the wreckages and get them off to the police depots.

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'...