Update from Christie

Well, we have been at Mbingo Baptist Hospital for almost 3 days and I have procrastinated writing a blog entry. I feel like I have a lot of things to share but don't want to ramble, so I will block my thoughts into categories.

FOOD: First, and most importantly, the food has been pretty good. We have a cook, Margaret, that provides our breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I could get used to that. I think she tries to Americanize the Cameroonian food as much as possible, providing ketchup with meat-containing meals and adding cheese to various other concoctions. We did try some authentic food this evening complete with jama jama and fufu - it was good!

PEOPLE: Cameroonians are very welcoming and kind people. We have been getting along nicely with them. We spend quite a bit of time with the other health professionals and their spouses that are visiting Cameroon. There is a neurologist and his wife from Kalamazoo, MI here for a few weeks, a physical therapist from Sioux Falls, SD here for 12 weeks, and a family practice physician and her husband from Switzerland here for 1 year.

LOCATION: The Northwest part of Cameroon (specifically Bamenda) is very beautiful. The hospital is nestled in between green mountains complete with waterfalls and lush plants. Pictures are soon to follow.... The weather has been great! Mid-60's in the morning and reaching mid to upper 70's in the afternoon. The rainy season is supposed to be over as of late October, but it continues to rain about 1/2 hour every day.

HOSPITAL: So far, my experience in the hospital has been great. Since David is taking charge of attending on the men and women wards, I decided to tag along for the week. Believe it or not, there is actually a Cameroonian "pharmacy technician" that also rounds with the team on a daily basis. I do not know the extent of his pharmacy education, but I have been very impressed with his drug knowledge base and how he is trying to make pharmacy a more clinical practice in the hospital. I have a meeting with him and a few others tomorrow morning to discuss clinical pharmacy advances that they can make.

The patient cases that we see are very interesting. I definitely need to brush up on ID as most of the cases revolve around complications with HIV/AIDS. I am still getting familiar with the limited selection of medications they have available at the hospital.

CONCLUSION: So far, so good. Will update again soon!