Part 1: Snails, Snakes and Scousers

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

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

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…

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!