February 9th and 10th: These last few days have been wonderful! One of my favorite parts was going out for dinner at Oasis Restaurant with my friend Esther. We both had a huge chick slovaki dinner, presented the old way with the chicken on a huge fork thing hanging above the rest of the meal. It was delicious and looked amazing. On the way home in the taxi we met some nice new people who drove us by the Mongu Airport which is currently not operating unfortunetly. Work wise, I spent Thursday on children's ward and spent the day in the malnutrition room. I ensured that the patients were eating what they were supposed to and took care of them in general. The patients were adorable and it was wonderful to see the parents so devoted to their children's well-being. There was one sad incidence of a patient passing away in very sad and unfortunate circumstances.  I discovered that the respect for people who have passed away here is very different than at home.

Today, I spent the day at Lewanika Nursing/Midwifery School. It was a blast! I didn't get to teach unfortunetly as we ran out of time, but the Canadian students taught the Zambian students about baby resusitation, cancer and cardiac complications. Then, the Zambian students taught us about malaria! They laughed at me because I took so many notes. It was so interesting, especially to hear how they care for these patients without all the resources we have at home. Their knowledge is so vast. They listened much more than I expected them to, the student beside me had his entire question worksheet filled out before the Canadian students even started the worksheet. It was awesome to be able to interact with all the students that I have met throughout my time at the hospital. After the lecture we did a simulation of a patient with severe malaria. It was very challenging. There were a lot of people and the Zambian students have never done anything like this before so we all were trying to do the same task. It was really interesting though! :)

There is a concert tonight and I am very excited to go because many of the students that have become my friends are coming! It will be sad leaving them. They say that they will miss us when we leave as well. The nurses that I worked with at the Female Ward found me on Children's and were sad to hear that I was not coming back to the Female Ward. One of my favorite parts of this trip has been meeting people. Especially the Zambian nurses and nursing students. This entire experience has been a huge eye opener for me. As I stay here longer, I can see that the traditional culture is engrained in this country everywhere you go. It is wonderful. I try to think of Canadian cultures to share with the people here but I find it hard to find really interesting ones to compare them to the customs here. More than anything, the people here have such big hearts. They will drop everything to help you, even the Makuwas! Many people I have met have voiced their concerns about Zambia. They are fighting for more education and more services, like a working airport. They all have such high hopes for their country and I really hope that this new government listens to them this time around as the last government was tragically corrupt. Looking at Zambia from a distance, it may seem as though the issues that they have are too rooted to some day be fixed. But as I talk to the people here I see first hand that they will some day be fixed because of the determination of the people living in this country.

I can't believe I only have a week (roughly) left in Mongu. I leave for Metoya camp on Sunday with 2 colleagues after the football match. We will be running the rural health clinic while the supervisor is out with other nursing students for the week. Apparently we will be diagnosing patients, running the feeding clinic as well as teaching community health workers with the help of the nurses at the clinic of course. A little nerve racking as diagnosing and prescribing are definitively not in our scope of practice at home. Wish me luck! I will blog if the internet is working.