I was ridiculously excited to go to the Sarcobamba health clinic. I'd been looking forward to it since coming and thought I was finally going to learn some new stuff and be able to help out doing alot. I first went to the clinic on Monday (after I'd bought the biggest pair of scrubs I've ever seen in my life... it took us ages to find some and they only had a giant size so we got thoses and I look like a giant snowman with a stethescope - no joke, but I could be 9 months pregnant and they'd still be too big for me) for my orientation and to meet who I'd be working with. It's quite a small place but it looked quite busy so I thought I'd be a big help. How wrong I was...
Tuesday morning I set my alarm for the delightful time of 6.30 so I could get to work for 8 and have time for getting lost. I left the house at 7.30 and managed to get there for 7.45 (without getting lost). There were queues of people waiting outside, but no one inside. I was the first there. Eventually people starting rolling in after 8 and went straight into a meeting (supposedly, but there was alot of laughing and shouting coming from in there and none of these patients are that funny!) until about 9. Then I started to get to see patients. There were about 20 that day. All with coughs. Exciting times!
Throughout the week it didn't really get any better. I have sat in on the gynacologists consultations (many many many pap smears... nice) and have been taught how to feel where a baby is inside the uterus and to find its heartbeat (and the difference between that and the placenta's) but apart from that I've not really learnt anything, been allowed to do anything or been interested in what goes on there.
Another thing we did at the health centre was have a meal with all the staff there. Celeste (another med volunteer) says they do this quite often and she was really glad that I was there. I was soon about to find out why. The food was great, the conversation not so. I have no idea what is wrong with the three main doctors - middle aged, supposedly intelligent men but they were like 5 year olds. Viagra was hilarious (apparently they need it... I didn't really want to know to be honest!) but my personal favourite was when I mentioned that I was going away at the weekend they said that there was this banana flower that only comes out once every 10 years and that now was the time to go see it. I was like great! But apparently it wasn't that... note to self - if any middle aged, sexually minded man says anything about a banana in a foreign language DO NOT say ok. El Tío (the uncle - no idea why they call him that) had actually asked if I wanted to see a florescent banana and that he could show me it. Aka his florescent banana. How they laughed. I also managed to get ustedes (the polite form of you) and ellos (them) mixed up so ended up inviting the three guys out. Trust me to try and be polite!
Anyway, good thing is I change tomorrow to a new place with more OBGYN stuff so I'll be able to get more involved in baby stuff. Good times. Hopefully :S
This week I've also been preparing for a presentation about breastfeeding that Celeste, Alice and I all need to do at another health centre. I have learnt quite alot from doing that. Did you know that there are four different types of breast milk? Fact for you there! All the medical volunteers had a suturing workshop too so hopefully I'll be able to try that in my next placement.
After such a crappy week, I needed a good weekend. And it definitely made up for it! Friday night was Katherines 19th and Alex's leaving do, so we all went out. Firstly we went to this posh italian (expensive by Bolivian standards but 4 pounds for a lasagne and 2 for a daiquiri seems ok to me!) so we all dressed up, before moving onto Cafe Fusion for more cocktails and then to Pimienta for dancing. The whole night was great, and I eventually got home at about 4.30ish.
This would have been ok had we not been going to Chapare the next day. We were planning on meeting at the bus station at 9 the next morning so we could get to Villa Tunari for lunchtime. However, at 5 in the morning, I still wasn't packed. It was a manic packing effort (and why I put in 4 pairs of trousers for 2 days) before what I'd call a quick nap and then I left the house at 8.30. A few had had a bit too much the night before and so didn't arrive at the bus terminal until past 10. I so could have done with that extra hour of sleep!
We got on the bus at 10.15 and were told it would leave in about half an hour. At 11.45 we were still there! His timings were a bit optomistic as the buses won't leave until they're full so we were sat there while random people came on trying to sell us stuff. My personal favourite was the woman who came on saying 'no hay manzanas en Chapare' and trying to get us to buy her apples. It was a complete lie though as there were many apples there!
We eventually set off but the supposedly 3 or 4 hour journey ride was typically bolivian and we didn't arrive there until 5.30. It would have been ok, had I not sat in possibly the worst seat ever. Right at the back by the window that wouldn't open. I was hot. Very hot. We also drove right through Villa Tunari where we were meant to be staying becuase apparently the bus doesn't actually make a stop there. Everyone on the bus was saying 'Villa Tunari' to us and we were like 'yeh how did you guess' little knowing that we'd passed right through.
Once we'd got a taxi back to the town, we tried to check into the hostel from the guide book. Unfortunately it was fully booked, but the woman there directed us to the hotel version of the hostel for only 50Bs a night. If we were impressed that we were going to be in a hotel, we were corrected when Lauren and I entered our room. We were greeted by two dead cockroaches, there were no sheets and the best bot was the random animal poo on the floor which Will kindly cleared up for us (but only after he's stepped in it). Bonus was that we had a fan so we weren't hot during the night... and it was definitely needed. It was crazily hot, and as you can probably tell from my hair, quite humid too!
The next morning we headed straight for the monkey park opposite the hotel. It's a centre to look after abused monkeys and was 6Bs to get in plus an extra 15 to take your camera. I made use of that extra 1.50 I had to pay and took millions of photos! We went to the monkeys first but were a bit disappointed by them, as there only seemed to be four and they were all tied up! So we decided to go for a walk up in the jungle to the river viewpoint and some waterfalls (where I got
bitten to pieces - my legs look as if I have chicken pox). This is me on the pretty scary bridge over to the waterfalls. Anyone else thinking of 'Charlie the Unicorn'?
On our way back down we decided o go back to the monkeys again and I'm so glad we did. There were so many more all jumping about and swinging from trees. Some were super curious, coming up and jumping on us (or down Jessica's top) and trying to steal cameras and bracelets. Well worth going back for!
As we left the park, we saw a big poster for white water rafting so Annie called the number and we booked in for 3 (later changed to 3.30 when lunch took ages to come) and it was amazing. We drove about 30 minutes out of Villa Tunari, upriver to where we'd get to raft. After a quick lesson of forward, back, stop and GET DOWN we set off. The river was only a grade two as it isn't the rainy season but we were all pretty crap so it was a good job it wasn't any harder. We'd all be paddling and then the guy would tell us to stop, while he righted our course.
Halfway along the river, we got out of the boat to jump off the rocks at the edge of the river. It was really good.. a bit scary at the top but fun when you jump in. The harder bit was getting back into the boat. We had to hold onto the side of the boat and be dragged up by our lifejackets, but I had a crap landing and fell into the mans crotch. Needless to say, we had a special relationship :L
When we'd eventually dried off back at the hotel, we went off to the bus terminal to get a trufi back. We knew buses stopped at 6 and thought that trufis stopped at 8 so 7ish was a good time to get there. But when we got there and asked, there were no buses or trufis going at all. Lauren and I were all for getting a fruit truck back but luckily a driver had heard us and offered to give us a lift for a little extra money. Thank god otherwise we'd have been stuck there! Most of the drive was spent on the left of the road (here we drive on the right) and he must have been knackered but we got home safe.
Chapare was amazing and we have a long weekend next week so I'm hoping to go to either La Paz or the Salar de Uyuni to make the most of the extra day. Will update again soon
A x
Another thing we did at the health centre was have a meal with all the staff there. Celeste (another med volunteer) says they do this quite often and she was really glad that I was there. I was soon about to find out why. The food was great, the conversation not so. I have no idea what is wrong with the three main doctors - middle aged, supposedly intelligent men but they were like 5 year olds. Viagra was hilarious (apparently they need it... I didn't really want to know to be honest!) but my personal favourite was when I mentioned that I was going away at the weekend they said that there was this banana flower that only comes out once every 10 years and that now was the time to go see it. I was like great! But apparently it wasn't that... note to self - if any middle aged, sexually minded man says anything about a banana in a foreign language DO NOT say ok. El Tío (the uncle - no idea why they call him that) had actually asked if I wanted to see a florescent banana and that he could show me it. Aka his florescent banana. How they laughed. I also managed to get ustedes (the polite form of you) and ellos (them) mixed up so ended up inviting the three guys out. Trust me to try and be polite!
Anyway, good thing is I change tomorrow to a new place with more OBGYN stuff so I'll be able to get more involved in baby stuff. Good times. Hopefully :S
This week I've also been preparing for a presentation about breastfeeding that Celeste, Alice and I all need to do at another health centre. I have learnt quite alot from doing that. Did you know that there are four different types of breast milk? Fact for you there! All the medical volunteers had a suturing workshop too so hopefully I'll be able to try that in my next placement.
After such a crappy week, I needed a good weekend. And it definitely made up for it! Friday night was Katherines 19th and Alex's leaving do, so we all went out. Firstly we went to this posh italian (expensive by Bolivian standards but 4 pounds for a lasagne and 2 for a daiquiri seems ok to me!) so we all dressed up, before moving onto Cafe Fusion for more cocktails and then to Pimienta for dancing. The whole night was great, and I eventually got home at about 4.30ish.This would have been ok had we not been going to Chapare the next day. We were planning on meeting at the bus station at 9 the next morning so we could get to Villa Tunari for lunchtime. However, at 5 in the morning, I still wasn't packed. It was a manic packing effort (and why I put in 4 pairs of trousers for 2 days) before what I'd call a quick nap and then I left the house at 8.30. A few had had a bit too much the night before and so didn't arrive at the bus terminal until past 10. I so could have done with that extra hour of sleep!
We got on the bus at 10.15 and were told it would leave in about half an hour. At 11.45 we were still there! His timings were a bit optomistic as the buses won't leave until they're full so we were sat there while random people came on trying to sell us stuff. My personal favourite was the woman who came on saying 'no hay manzanas en Chapare' and trying to get us to buy her apples. It was a complete lie though as there were many apples there!
We eventually set off but the supposedly 3 or 4 hour journey ride was typically bolivian and we didn't arrive there until 5.30. It would have been ok, had I not sat in possibly the worst seat ever. Right at the back by the window that wouldn't open. I was hot. Very hot. We also drove right through Villa Tunari where we were meant to be staying becuase apparently the bus doesn't actually make a stop there. Everyone on the bus was saying 'Villa Tunari' to us and we were like 'yeh how did you guess' little knowing that we'd passed right through.
Once we'd got a taxi back to the town, we tried to check into the hostel from the guide book. Unfortunately it was fully booked, but the woman there directed us to the hotel version of the hostel for only 50Bs a night. If we were impressed that we were going to be in a hotel, we were corrected when Lauren and I entered our room. We were greeted by two dead cockroaches, there were no sheets and the best bot was the random animal poo on the floor which Will kindly cleared up for us (but only after he's stepped in it). Bonus was that we had a fan so we weren't hot during the night... and it was definitely needed. It was crazily hot, and as you can probably tell from my hair, quite humid too!
The next morning we headed straight for the monkey park opposite the hotel. It's a centre to look after abused monkeys and was 6Bs to get in plus an extra 15 to take your camera. I made use of that extra 1.50 I had to pay and took millions of photos! We went to the monkeys first but were a bit disappointed by them, as there only seemed to be four and they were all tied up! So we decided to go for a walk up in the jungle to the river viewpoint and some waterfalls (where I got
bitten to pieces - my legs look as if I have chicken pox). This is me on the pretty scary bridge over to the waterfalls. Anyone else thinking of 'Charlie the Unicorn'?On our way back down we decided o go back to the monkeys again and I'm so glad we did. There were so many more all jumping about and swinging from trees. Some were super curious, coming up and jumping on us (or down Jessica's top) and trying to steal cameras and bracelets. Well worth going back for!
Halfway along the river, we got out of the boat to jump off the rocks at the edge of the river. It was really good.. a bit scary at the top but fun when you jump in. The harder bit was getting back into the boat. We had to hold onto the side of the boat and be dragged up by our lifejackets, but I had a crap landing and fell into the mans crotch. Needless to say, we had a special relationship :L
When we'd eventually dried off back at the hotel, we went off to the bus terminal to get a trufi back. We knew buses stopped at 6 and thought that trufis stopped at 8 so 7ish was a good time to get there. But when we got there and asked, there were no buses or trufis going at all. Lauren and I were all for getting a fruit truck back but luckily a driver had heard us and offered to give us a lift for a little extra money. Thank god otherwise we'd have been stuck there! Most of the drive was spent on the left of the road (here we drive on the right) and he must have been knackered but we got home safe.
Chapare was amazing and we have a long weekend next week so I'm hoping to go to either La Paz or the Salar de Uyuni to make the most of the extra day. Will update again soon
A x
I'm so glad you are having a lovely time and making so many friends. jumping into Crotches and asking to see fluorescent bananas might be sen as fsomewhat forward in polite first world sociey, but hey, when in Rome.
ReplyDeleteNB. We cheer for Cameroon and Ghana because their world cup colours are red yellow and Green
I didn't ask to see it! I just said ok. Worst ok I've ever said in my life!
ReplyDelete