Big red bus tour

I have spent the last few days on the big red bus tour of london. I loved it primarily for all the history they explained while showing us the sights.
Now I have a long list of bars and places I want to visit that were frequented by people like tom yeats, voltaire, tolkien, winston churchill, shakespeare. Problem will be convincing everyone to come with me. I don't know why they don't understand the allure of drinking at the same bar lewiss caroll did or standing in the tower henry VIII hung two of his wives at.
I have already proven myself to be such a nerd to all who I have met here.

An afternoon stroll in London

I had no idea what a good location I had picked to stay until I went for a walk the other afternoon. So although my room is the size of a cuboard (literally), the location makes up for it. The last picture is of the Australian high comission which is a nicer building than many in Australia. It aslo made an appearance in the harry potter films as the bank.

My london workstation

SWB

Hi everyone! Yes I am alive. Sorry about the lack of blog posts. It was a combination of being busy and lazy and also fb, hotmail and gamil all made it very difficult to log into my accounts because they were suspicious I was logging in from Rwanda.

I arrived in London this morning, but will make a few blog posts about Rwanda to catch up and reflect.

Firstly, To explain the project I was on: SWB (I won't give its full name because I don't want my silly blog posts coming up everytime someone googles the organistation).
Its essentially a bunch of doctors who come across to Malai and Rwanda and teach the surgical and medical registars for a week. There are very few specialists in Rwanda to train the junior doctors, so they really appreciate this teaching and the project is being expanded to include Burma as well next year.

There are a lot of arguments people make agaist foreign aid and the way it is delivered but this is a very clear cut method of giving aid. The doctors provide an education for students who would not otherwise recieve it and are then able to utilize what they learn to benefit their patients and the country's healthcare at large.

There was two days of intensive conference like teaching with lectures in the first half of the day and tutorials in the afternoon. With 20 specialist consultants on the trip- topics were covered in a very short time frame.

There was a lot of conditions that you do not see in Australia like TB complications (but you see in our exams of course), Ebola virus etc. Also management that the doctors were teaching was vastly different with 3 CTs to service the 8 million people of Rwanda and only one of those in  a public hospital.

The doctors who came on the trip were remarkable having had vast experience in devloping world medicine particularly in the Asia Pacific Area but also many holidng professorial and high positions within their hospitals in Australia.

I think the kind of teaching that was delivered couln't be done by any doctor. The teaching was useful to the doctors of Rwanda because it was concious of the resources that are available to them and given by doctors experienced with working in such resource limited areas.

I don't think I'll ever forget the ENT surgeon explaining how you would open up a paper clip to remove insects from someone's ear and how to determine how far you can go before harming the ear drum. Or the Rwandan doctor who said he usually pours petrol in to kill the insect first before bringing it out.
A few photos from seminars

Photos

Currently at the doc's hotel for surgical seminars so actually have access to wifi. Uploading a few photos from my iPhone to complement my recent posts.

Photo 1: Bangkok airport and love of their crown prince
Photo 2: tiny Rwanda airport
Photo 3: the 5 star hotel doctors are staying in
Photo 4: when we decided to walk to a hotel for dinner. Equally as many stares and men following as india.
Photo 5: in our swb role

Rwanda land of suprises

I am now safely in Rwanda.
The flight from Ethiopia to Rwanda was first class compared to the one from bangkok to ethiopia. It was comparable to a tiger aways domestic flight in Australia.
We were so happy to be on a flight that we were confident would land us.
We landed in Rawanda which was the smallest airport I have ever been at (smaller than even Mildura airport) and was essentially one large room. I had issues with customs which I will write about when I am safely out of the country.
We caught a taxi from airport to our accomodation (the taxi drivers had adequate understanding of English for communication) but the prices was equal to if not more than a western country, costing us 20 American dollers to get us a short distance. Although in Rwanda it is not so much that you are being ripped off, just that there arent as many taxis as in India and Thailand so they can charge as much as they want.
We are staying at Gorillas Hotel which is lonely planet recommended but not at Lonely planet prices Liz for $120 a night.
The doctors are staying at the only 5 star hotel in Kigali. They say they have to stay there so they don't get sick.
Rwanda is so surpising. It does not have the dirtiness or messiness of China or India. The roads are all sealed, even on the outskirts of town. There is no rubbish on the rds- one of the doctors calls it Singapore clean. There are no beggars or ppl trying to convince you to buy their products.

What there is though is army personnel with rifels at every corner. They also drive around in open trucks sitting with their rifles being generally intimidating. I did not expect that. Mum and Dad won't let me go to Sri Lanka so I came to Rwanda with its political turbulence.

Given Rwanda's terrible history, I guess this army presence should not be so suprising. But it also means that poverty is not tolerated within the city and the poor are driven out to rural areas where they live in mud huts and survive with the crops they grow. I have not seen this aspect of Rwanda but we will be going out to rural hospitals in the next few days.
On the first night, we had dinner with the doctors at their hotel. Ms Rwanda was happening at the hotel as well but we didn't manage to make it to that.
After 37hrs of travelling, it is crash time (help of meds not required).

A lesson in the importance of preparation

I waltzed onto my ethiopian flight from HK airport and soon as I reached the door of the plane I wanted to leave. Really really leave.
And I think if I was on my own I would have just turned around right there and then and gone home. But I was with the other two girls so we got on.
The plane was nothing like I've ever seen before. Al said it must of been one of the first commerical models created- prob very true. It was one of those moments where you are like...if mum and dad could see me now they would kill me!
It had an overpowering smell that was nothing like the sterility of most international flights and if India hits you as soon as you get off the flight, Ethiopia hits you as soon as you get on a flight for the destination.
As we were getting ready to fly off, the air hostesses (who all looked like they should still be in school) were bustling around with oxygen and I felt I had to ask what it was for, because urely my imagination is more wild than reality. She said it was for thier patient.
It turned out that at the back of the plane they had a very sick ICU pt in a cubicle on a stretcher. The pt had fluids running, catheter, was on O2, monitoring...
I guess as ethiopian airlines is the only airline that flies into Rwanda there is not much choice.
There were two men wearing shirts that said Bangkok hospital, so I assume they were paramedics/docotrs thransferring the pt. So if the pt suddenly went downhill, what happens? Do we land in Sundan?
All 3 of us promptly knocked ourselves out on temazepam and woke to a thundering crash as the plane landed roughly in Ehtiopia.
Now I am at Ethiopia airport which is definately not a 24hr airport and al looks forward to a 18hr stopover here on her own on her return flight. Great planning. On all of our parts.
Also I didn't know how to use the toilets in Ethiopia.