Thursday, August 26, 2010

A Return to Normalcy…

August 25, 2010 6:06 PM (WHOOP!)

Sitting poolside catching up on the blog again…but it's far too cold for swimming. I guess we'll just have to proceed with…


 

August 23, 2010

So Monday Morning brought a familiar bed, a familiar time, and a familiar routine getting ready for work. Though I loved my trip and know this will sound almost contradictory, anyone that knows me probably realizes I do better with constancy (is that a word? Word doesn't underline it in a red squiggly, so I am going with yes). I finished up getting ready, grabbed a couple apples for breakfast (I was both out of milk and out of time anyway), and ate them on the way to work, allowing their cores to biodegrade in the alleyways.


 

After a brief but wonderful call back home, which I hadn't been able to do since Friday night, I realized I didn't have a schedule for the week as usual. I brought this to the attention of Dr. Patel, who basically just found a place for me with Dr. Bri and told me we'd figure the rest out in the afternoon. I'd worked with her the previous Thursday and so was happy to do so again. Clinic that day was great, as it is most of the time. The kids were fun and energetic, and the glory of the day was brought to a pinnacle when we finished with our last patient at 11:30 AM. Most days finish about one or two, which doesn't sound long, and it isn't, but somehow working through lunch just makes that last hour or so take FOREVER.

As per usual, which will likely make for a short blog post, I ran home for some lunch, finishing off the last of the Pasta a la Gaborone. I will digress for a moment to comment on something I discovered while living here with limited kitchen resources. In a pinch, you can make a perfectly decent "Italian Bread a la Gaborone" by toasting normal white bread, spraying it with aerosolized vegetable oil, and sprinkling on salt and dried Italian herbs. Don't laugh…it's not a Fazoli's breadstick, but it's Botswana people.

Digression over. I pretty much just headed back to the clinic to use the free Wifi yet again, and sent some very important emails in between checking Facebook and Gmail. Running out of things to do, I began looking over various pediatric residency program online as well. I killed about two hours or so before I got bored and started blogging again, then left about five.

That evening I broke down and started reading again. This time it was "The Magician's Nephew," which somehow happened to be the only other book of the Narnia series in the house, even though the box they all came in is still present. I read until it was dinner time, which meant a perusal of the contents of the fridge/freezer since my milk was old and my bread was molding (it was not molding during lunch, btw). There I found some frozen vegetables and imitation chicken/vegetarian patties. A little impatient at the time, I exercised the options given on the respective boxes to microwave the vegetables and to TOAST (yes toast) the patties. Add a little ketchup mixed with Indian hot sauce and it was actually really good for what it was.

Then came perhaps the most surprising moment of the trip thus far: I read for a while, decided I'd be more comfortable in my room, went and started reading on my bed, and eventually decided I was done for the night. It was 8:30, and I put the book down and instantly fell asleep…


 

SHOCK!

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