All about Angola!

There is so much to tell you! I have been working at the hospital from Monday to Friday. We start about 8:30 am (or so). First we do rounds around the 40 bed hospital. We visit patients to see how they are fairing, check on patients who were just operated on, make sure that no one has a fever, vomiting and that they're eating, drinking and having bowel movements. The patients I enjoy visiting the most are those who have had vaginal fistula repairs and the pediatric patients.
After rounds we either do consultas or surgery. On Monday and Thursday we do consultations we see patients who haven't seen a doctor, some have problems seeing, some have large abdominal masses, and some have broken bones that haven't healed over that past years or maybe several months. I have been learning a lot and working at the hospital has been very interesting. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday I assistant with operations that means- I hold gauze or forceps that help stop bleeding or allow Dr. Foster to see what needs to be done. Sometimes I'm on light duty- making sure those who need to see during operations (like the surgeon) can see. We've done lots of laparotomies (abdominal), hernia repairs and orthopedic surgeries (bone), some fistula repairs as well as a smattering of other types of surgeries.
Last week- Thurs-Sat.- Dr. Foster, Stacy (my housemate), Hamilton (a university student from Southern Ontario), Tchicuma (an anesthetist from Lubango) and I went to Kalekembe. Kalekembe is a small town with a 200 bed mission hospital, which does not have a doctor but it does have a three year nursing program. We did 44 surgeries in the three days we were there. I saw my first Caesarian section, which was done by the nurses at the hospital; the baby was alive! The mission station at Kalekembe is beautiful, lots of trees-banana, eukalyptus and pine- red roads, and happy people. The running water was only running in the buckets from the well to the house but we did have electricity on occasion. We flew to Kalekembe in an MAF plane, which seats up to 10 people. It was very exciting- I sat directly behind the cockpit!
Thank-you so much for your prayers. I have been healthy for most of my time here. I was not feeling well for a few days this week but I seem to be better. I don't know what was wrong with me. I hope to start teaching English at the hospital soon. Please pray that I would continue to learn to communicate in Portugeuse and that I would be able to build relationships with people at the hospital both staff and patients. Please pray that the fistula patients at the hospital would heal quickly. I have gotten to know some of the women who are in the process of healing from vaginal fistulas. They are so excited at the possibility of being healed and having a life again! It's wonderful to get to know them.
Thank-you to all of you who prayed for me as I wrote the MCAT last month. I have recieved my marks and I did not pass. Please pray for wisdom as I consider the future.
A few things I have learned: Sozinha means alone- I thought perhaps it worked as the word only to. However, I ended up indicating to a patient that I was single instead of asking him if it was only his left leg that hurt.
Sozinho is a nurse at the hospital but he's not alone- he's married.
People laughing in Portugeuse sound like they're laughing in English.