Marmite, elephants and a sex change.

Following on from my last post, thankfully my weekend wasn't totally scuppered by ditch gate. Our original plan had been to get ourselves up the 3001m of Mount Mulanje (aka known as Mulanje Massif....aptly named). However, after my incident I thought it wise to avoid any sort of walking/climbing considering I am clearly unable to walk along a flat road without injuring myself.

As usual, we held our HIV/AIDs education workshop on Saturday and fortunately for us, people actually decided to come back and they were only half an hour late this week, in fact, we had more people than the first week. We split the larger group up and asked each group to design a poster that could raise awareness about HIV/AIDs or STIs transmission and prevention for their peers. As you can imagine we had some very interesting pictures by the end! Each group presented their poster to the rest of the group and the group as a whole decided who had designed the best poster. Fortunately (for everyone!) I didn't have to dance this week.

Action shot

We had an early start on Sunday as instead of scrambling up a mountain we had managed to cadge a lift with one of the doctors and medical students down to Majete National Park. After a fairly bumpy 2 hour drive we arrived. Having been in Africa for several weeks now, it was my first chance to see some animals other than chickens and monkeys. Before we knew it we had spotted some Pumbas (no Timones though. Although, what kind of animal is Timone anyway? answers on the back of a postcard please). Speaking of which, I have written postcards but getting stamps round here is no mean feat!.....Anyway, I digress.....After a wee drive through the game park we parked up at a small hide thingybobby to have breakfast. Breakfast is always a highlight for me, no matter where I am, but sitting eating breakfast on a Sunday morning, looking out at the hippos wallowing in the Shire river definitely took the biscuit, especially as someone had the foresight to pack marmite into the picnic. So happy...as you can see below.

Happy face!

Slow day on safari!

As our food went down, we headed out for some more early morning animal spotting and pretty quickly found ourselves being charged at by a particularly angry looking elephant. Fortunately, I wasn't driving (otherwise I would have stalled at least 3 times, had a melt down and got out the car) and we made a swift get away.


After that little adrenaline boost, things took a slightly more calmer turn as we settled down at another of the look out points. However, it was a slow day down at the watering hole and after the early start, a nap was much more appealing to the others.

Some slightly calmer elephants than the one we encountered after breakfast.

Pool overlooking the Shire river.

We finished our day trip with a wee dip in the most incredible swimming pool, in a lodge just near the park. As with our breakfast spot, the pool looked out over the Shire river and it was the perfect way to end a day of safari.

Back to the wards on Tuesday and I had a slight change of scenery (or more precisely, a change of sex - not me of course) when I was allocated to the female ward. I had been hearing over the past few weeks that female ward had been pretty quiet so I was looking forward to a restful week. I couldn't have been more wrong as they were one nurse down so it was only me and one other nurse for the ward. It was great to a chance to put all the new stuff I have learnt into practice on a different ward though. It feels great now I am past that awkward settling in phase and I can just get stuck in, work independently and actually be useful.
I think I have said this before, but I can't express how amazing the other staff, especially the nurses, have been here. They have taught me so much and although I miss home, I will be sad to say goodbye to them when the time comes.