twenty one

Oh my gosh, i feel like I have so much I want to write on here, I don't know where to start! The past week has flown by so fast, it was a pretty busy week!
Placement at the hospital is going OK, I'm finding it slightly harder to get into than placements in England but I was expecting that! The staff are all really welcoming which helps, and most speak a little English (some more than others!!). They love it when you try to speak Swahili to them though so I try my best! So I come in in the mornings are say 'shikamo! habari za asubuhi? Nzuri sana asante' and that's it...that's most of my Swahili vocab used! But after coming out with a Swahili greeting they then think you know more, and so start talking away to you in Swahili...I think when they see my blank/confused face they realise I haven't a clue what they said, and then laugh!
I'm finding the language barrier while on hospital abit of a challenge. I don't really know what is going on most of the time, and have to keep asking 'what did the patient say to me?', 'what did the doctor just say?'. It's slightly frustrating, but you just have to keep going with it.
The hospital is TOTALLY different from home. There is hardly any infection control, a serious lack of resources, and sometimes 2 people to a bed! The doctors know what they would do for a patient in an ideal world, but have to do the best job they can with the supplies that they have! Last week I spent 2 days in theater...I don't really ever get that squeamish, I can handle blood and guts pretty well, but there were a few times in theater when I got close to having to leave the operating room ...this is seriously saying something about how gruesome some of the operations have been. The other days I have just been on the ward. I'm on a surgical ward at the moment. I'm not getting to do as much hands on stuff as some of their other people in the house who are on different wards, apparent they found the same when they were on sugary! I'm hoping to move onto ob/gyn next week and that's meant to be really good. My room mate Emily is on there at the moment and she has delivered like 10 babies in 5 days!! I'm looking forward to going there!
Outside of the hospital I have been pretty busy too! The weather has been AWESOME! It's rained less than I was expecting. All the websites I checked out before I came said May was in the rainy season ...it has rained abit, but not half as much as I thought it would ...I'm not complaining, my tan is coming along nicely!
Five of us went to the local orphanage on Friday. Oh my word, I don't know where to start with this. So this orphanage was set up by an Evangelist pastor when he retired. There are 22 children I think, ranging from 6 months to 13 years. They are all so beautiful, and always smiling. They just LOVE to play with you, hold your hand ...and take your camera!! They re pretty practiced on the camera front, as soon as you get it out they ask you for it, they go around taking photo after photo, and video after video. Its slightly annoying because as they do this they also mess with the settings of your camera and delete all the photos already on there! But it great just seeing them play together, they are such a big family! All the older ones look out for the younger ones. This one little boy dropped his lolly so this older girl picked it up, went inside and washed it, and gave it back to him! It just makes you smile ...but its also really sad, because you know that none of these little kids have any family of their own. Most parents have died from HIV. It didn't hit me until we were leaving.
While you are at the orphanage playing with the kids, BaBa (their like 'grandma') makes chipati's for you to eat! This has to be the worst part of visiting there bay far ...not because they are bad, just because of the quantity of them! They are so thick and filling! You get given 7 of then, and are kinda expected to eat them all ...I'll tell you now this is IMPOSSIBLE!!! I felt so sick. The eldest girl, Naiomee, sits with you and keeps saying to you 'eat, eat!' ... We managed to eat 4 of them, sneak one and a half into our bags, and leave the rest!
Saturday was my birthday, and so I'm now officially 21 ...mann, I'm getting old haha! 5 of us went on a walk around Mt Meru which was really good! We saw a beautiful waterfall, some traditional huts ...it was nice to get out and do some exercise after all the food I've eaten (Tanzania is NOT good for getting a flat tummy at all!). When I got home I walked into a chorus of 'happy birthday' and a huge huge cake that Witness made. A few of the girls had got me a little prezzie too which was really sweet of them.
Oh pants, I only have 6 mins left of Internet! Gona have to go now! I'll try and blog again soon ish!