In all the busyness of the last few weeks, I’ve not been
very good at keeping my Blog up to date, sorry about that. I’m currently in the
middle of my language training so don’t have time to write a long account
(you’ll be pleased to hear!) but thought I could break down my next few entries
into parts. So here it goes- Part One: Snails, Snakes and Scousers!
Snails
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| Looking very knowledgeable, I know! |
For much of July I was in Liverpool attending a course in
Tropical Nursing, which, should I pass (exam successfully completed, assignment
still being worked on), will give me a Diploma. The course was fantastic and I
spent much of the time squirming in anticipation of Chad: Squirming
with an excitement to get there and start nursing again and squirming at just
some of the horrid, unpleasant and just plain wrong diseases/ conditions/
parasites I can expect to encounter, hopefully not too many of them personally!
Hence, ‘Snails’ who are hosts for parasites causing schistosomiasis/ bilharzia.
Snakes
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| Extracting the venom |
One of the most memorable days was spent with Dr Rob
Harrison, otherwise known as ‘The Snake Man’, who is involved in researching
and creating more effective anti-venoms. He introduced us to 3 rooms full of
snakes and then demonstrated how they extract the venom. He reassured me that
plenty of the snakes in the rooms I will find in Chad, I just laughed that
comment off but was slightly disturbed when he went on to ask me which anti
venom I was planning on taking with me???!!??! Err…
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| Catching the "Merry cross the Fersey" with Lisa and Anya |
Scousers
Ok, so there were not any Scousers on the course, but I did
enjoy spending time translating scouse for some of my American or Scandinavian
course mates! Between all the of studying I managed to see some of the sights
of Liverpool which I thoroughly enjoyed and met some great people who are similarly
nursing, or planning to nurse overseas, and with whom I enjoyed comparing
notes, swapping contact details and generally seeing who has the most hard core
job!
