Week 2 (5/8/2010: Sulayman Junkung General Hospital, Bwiam

Teaching Saiko and Alieu the newest version of Microsoft Powerpoint, Word, and Excel

Saiko and Alieu studying for a quiz on Cellular Biology that I gave them.

Saiko and I fixing the autoclaves.

Hello everyone! I was unable to post my blog entries when I was in the Gambia (due to no solid internet connection), but here are some of the entries I composed:

Over the past week I've become more accumulated to the environment and the lifestyle in Gambia. Chirag returned to America unfortunately, but I met a German missionary worker who is 22 and speaks English. His name is David, and we've become pretty good friends over the past week. He introduced me to all of his friends and coworkers on at the church. I’ve had the pleasure to play some futbol (soccer) with the locals, watch some of their matches with other schools, have a goat wake me up at 5 am, assist in building a local house, taste local food, visit the Gambian river, go to church, and help plant some banana trees around the missionary. I’ve also been picking up some Mandinka language (one of the six tribal languages spoken) and it makes the locals so happy to see you attempting to learn the language. 

I've made some coworker friends at the hospital: Alieu and Saiko. Since most of the equipment was repaired by Chirag, during the week I've completed a proposed curriculum for Alieu and Saiko to study biology, biochemistry, and radiology with the textbooks the hospital contains. The Chief Executive of the hospital, Mr. Badgie, has approved the curriculum and is incorporating their learning with the nurses training. I believe this will assist them in expanding their knowledge from just being a technician.

Three autoclaves came in today and one was fixed with a quick cleaning of some of the machines components. The other two both had their power chords cut off and there was no replacement parts available. All of the machines are functional with the exception of an oxygen concentrator that needs a replacement valve.

Next week I travel inland to a town called, Bansang.