Things that are in short supply at the moment.

1. Staff. Lots of staff away or on courses, which means the ones left are stretched pretty thin. 2. Crepe bandages. We have a young boy with about 22% burns which need regular dressing. We are running out of bandages. 3. Humour. But, to be fair, I didn't bring much with me. 4. Electricity. The generator has been having issues... That is, the back-up generator. The main one isn't working. So power is being rationed carefully. 5. Emergencies! We haven't had one in 2 days! But I shouldn't speak too soon...

Safe arrival

It's always surprising how familiar and how unfamiliar PNG is when I arrive. Someone was speaking Pidgin to me at the airport in Cairns and I was struggling, but once I landed and was driving towards Rumginae, it clicked into place again.  There are power issues with the generator here, so I am typing this to upload when there is power for the Internet. There are power issues here with current elections, which have been peaceful in this general vicinity so far.  On the way up on the plane I complied a list of things that will be good about having limited Internet access: 1. I will have to lose Words with Friends games more slowly.  2. I have had to cull my twitter list and will therefore save enormous amounts of time. In theory.  3. Diminished temptation to google spoilers for movies or tv shows I am currently watching.  That's all I can think of for now. 

Return to Rumginae

The new technology to hit this part of PNG is the mobile phone. It's just like nostalgia: I carry around a mobile phone that doesn't send emails or have a web browser. It doesn't even have predictive text. It does have a pretty bright torch, which is good for finding your way to the hospital when generator power goes out at 10pm. The people who used to call by radio now call by mobile. And they still often say 'over' when they have finished speaking, or 'roger' when they agree, but the nice thing is that with a mobile phone, I can interrupt a long-winded story to steer someone back on track.

Probably not always a good thing.

And yet, the circle of life, death and resurrection continues. We have seen preventable deaths and difficult births. I see staff finding out new things about medicine, but also about life and about compassion. We laugh together when someone tells a good story, we get angry together when children come in who have been injured deliberately by their parents. We pray together and we celebrated Christmas together and we stitched up people who got injured in drunken New Year's Eve celebrating together.

Yep. Good to be back.

Things I have learned so far in 2010

1. If I walk in uncut grass while wearing a long skirt, I will only have to spend time later picking out the grass seeds from my skirt.
2. Allowing my water tank to run dry is not a good thing.
3. "She'll be right" is not a medical diagnosis. Or prognosis, apparently.
4. Friends and neighbours and wonderful assets.
5. Cockroaches and geckos: not good housemates.

Free upper-body workout...

I did a manual removal of a stuck placenta.
Just like going to the gym, only MUCH messier.

Enough said.

Change is constant

Here's what I have noticed is different since I was last here:
I have become a lot more patient in listening to people.
My feet are not as tough as they used to be - even with shoes on, it is difficult to walk over the stony path that I used to walk barefoot.
I don't cope with the heat as well as I used to.
I need more sleep than I used to.

I guess none of those things is about the hospital per se... so here's what's changed at the hospital:
The office has had a new coat of paint.
There is no reagent to do Widal testing.
The ultrasound machine has moved from one small, hot room to... another small, hot room.
The protocols for treating snakebite are changing due to either the death adders mutating or a large number of snakes identified as death adders being actually something else.

Having a lovely time so far - busy enough to stay out of trouble, but not so busy that I am likely to go (more) insane.

For the chefs - I have tuna, tomatoes, zucchini, cabbage, carrots, bananas, eggs, powdered mlk, rice and peanut butter. Any suggestions?

PNG again... and an Iron Stomach Chef Challenge

I am starting to feel a bit like Rumginae is my second home, but I have realised (again!) that I shouldn't try to second-guess what returning here will be like.
I had forgotten it was so HOT! In spite of 6 years medical training, I had no personal experience of the number of sweat glands in the human body. I can now confidently say, as we used to as kids, that it is infinity plus one.

So, for the culinary-minded, I have in my house the following ingredients: tinned tuna, rice, broccoli, spring onions, zucchini, a small amount of cheese, tomato, peanut butter, milk (UHT) and some frozen lamb chops. Any ideas?