the glory and the horror

Looking over the rolling green hills of Swaziland from the clinic windows, I have to say that I have been amazed by the experience so far.

After a late arrival last night, a couple of the other expat PAC (Pediatric AIDS Corps) docs – Fiona and Michelle – took us out for some really good food at a local eatery called Nando’s. The grilled chicken and potato wedges (peri-peri wedges) were just right after a long day and a half of so-so airport food and less than so-so airplane food. I have also rekindled my love with the more unique fruit Fanta flavors – yesterday, I had a pineapple Fanta. I don’t know if I’ve ever had pineapple before.

The first part of the first day today was spent meeting lots of important people around the clinic that I can’t remember even now, less than 6 hours after meeting them. However, I’m sure that I will learn their names, because they’re the lab folks, pharmacy folks, social workers, nurses, and other very helpful and indispensable folk around the clinic.

It’s been a bit weird to relearn to see children, although I think it’s not as much of an adjustment as I thought. I do have to remember to ask a few more questions, especially about their feeding habits, and how caretakers are making formula, and things like that. Some of the stuff is the same old basic stuff – URIs, gastro, and the like. The added twist is that some of these folks are on 3 antiretrovirals, and can have some low CD4 counts.

We also went grocery shopping and stocked up pretty well, we thought. We spent just over USD$50 and we’re probably good for most things for the next few weeks. Might need some more fruit and meat, but that we can get along the way. Plus, another resident is coming next week to join us for a bit, so we’ll probably make another run for them to pick up stuff as well.

As mentioned in an email, our checked bags are still not with us yet, but will hopefully be with us by tomorrow afternoon. At least one bag made it to the international airport this afternoon, but we didn’t have time to find a ride down there and pick it up. Tomorrow, though, hopefully, we can have someone help us out with that, and hopefully, all 3 of the bags will have arrived by then.

For future BIPAI’ers to Swaziland, remember to bring SEVERAL changes of clothing.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS