AFRICA!

I'm in Africa!!

My friend and I (well mostly my friend) have been organising a medical elective term in Zambia since early last year. She's been emailing, we've been researching and shopping, and on Saturday I even started packing - with the help of my boyfriend and his amazing tetris skills.

There wasn't much time to really prepare - we finished our Term 3 rotations on Friday and left the country on Monday, so it was a little bit hard to get excited as we frantically packed our bags.

Even on the plane, it was hard for reality to sink in. 6,000km trip to Kuala Lumpur followed by a 6-hour stopover (our plane was delayed by an extra hour). We slept on our backpacks in the airport and waited for our flight to Johannesburg, which was delayed by an hour, and then I slept for the 10-hour flight, only waking for meals and falling asleep by the time the tray was taken again. On the plus side, we arrived in the morning and I wasn't too jetlagged.

But now we're here in Katete, Zambia, staying at the St Francis Hospital and helping out as much as we can there. My friend and I are both on the female medical ward, "St Monica" for the time being because that's where the fewest medical students are. There are about 15 students at the hospital at the moment, mostly from England and the Netherlands, although most are leaving in a few weeks so we will probably move around the hospital to wherever we are needed most.

I'll try and share some of the stories here.