Things to share

I have realized that i have a thing for sunsets. i like sunrises too but the early getting up just doesn't agree with me. if i'm up any way then i'll enjoy it but for sunsets, i'm already awake. so most of my pics are of sunsets. i just thought i would share with you another set of beautiful sunsets, this time from Mobay. the first 2 are when i was heading down to lucea and the last 2 are from the trip up this weekend.


so while i was down there, apart from watching DVDs and doing some reading, i took the time to do some paintings which, thank goodness i was being paid for. i'm only gonna show you one, cause i'm not done with the other one yet







one more thing to share. our first morning in Sandy Bay it rained. rained the whole night into the morning. but when we got up there was this beautiful rainbow extending from the ocean in front of the house back to the hills. by the time i ran for the camera, it was fading from the sea, but i caught the tail end of it. so here it is..... lovely isn't it. here endeth the random things to share from this week... lata

Week in Lucea/ Sandy Bay

Hey Peeps, so i've been away for a week in Lucea, Hanover. i know i know, never heard of it right? well it is..... on the the north coast of jamaica to the west. near negril and montego bay. about 4-5 hrs away from kingston depending on traffic and how fast you drive. i have provided a map......

so here are pics are of the Noel holmes hospital in lucea. it used to be a 150 bed hospital, now sadly it is only 35 or so. i mean the conditions are crazy, the lack of facilities ect. pretty much they don't have many inpatients. the only wards are the maternity wards and not extremely sick old people. they do have an accident and emergency, where they deal with the minor things and then with the more urgent they stabilize and send on to cornwall regional hospital in Mobay (which is a totally different story which i will tell in my next installment)

so some of our time is spent in the hospital at various clinics eg, the high risk antenatal clinic or the pediatric clinic. we are sometimes in A/E. the rest of the time is spent in the health clinic. when i say we i mean me and the other UWI med students. with me is Temi-tayo (Temi for short) and Sheree. we share the two bedroom house we live in in Sandy Bay. its been good so far and pretty easy going. we finish between 12:30 and 2 every day. then we go home and watch DVDs, eat and study. we haven't done much exploring cause when we did, Sheree and myself, guys would bother us, so we just gave up on that for a bit. we're gonna take Temi along with us next time.

but we do have the best view from our house and from the hospital...... just the ocean, all shades of blue and oh so beautiful..... so that is the deal with lucea. i'm there for 2 more weeks. i'll communicate more when i can...... which will prob be in 2 weeks.
for there is absolutely no internet there. none. i was going through withdrawal, i had to come home to get my fix. luckily one of my friends had it in their heart to come for me, so that's how come im up here this weekend. so THANKS SALFRICO, (Sal for short....hehe) we took Kay and an Temi up too. Neways enough rambling, later

Sexual health

I went to the sexual health clinic yesterday and we got to clerk some patients. its amazes me how easy it is to ask the sensitive questions to people in the sexual health clinic, cause guess what, that's the reason they are coming. they just answer. it's so much harder in another clinical setting if that is something you have to do. there, people get offended and such with those kinds of questions. neways...... so that's setting the stage..... when we got out and were just milling around in the corridor waiting to go back to the bus, we saw one of the security guys chatting up a woman....... now i would think that obviously this woman is a patient in a sexual health clinic, and so she is there for some sexually transmitted disease.....well this man didn't care... he told the woman..."when you sort your stuff out, come check mi".....lol.... i was like oh no he didn't. i couldn't believe it. he was so unconcerned about what ever it is that she had or could have. it's crazy man. what are some people thinking.....??????? but i guess a sexual health clinic is as good a place as any to pic someone up.............

NOT!!!!

AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH

This was one of those days, it started out ok, but by the middle i felt inadequate in all things medicine, and then by mid afternoon i was cranky, hot and frustrated, i literally wanted to tear my hair out, (i couldn't find a pic of a black woman with twists or a fro tearing her hair out, or else that would be in here too). just things are taking longer than i expected to be sorted out with a passport and visa, and i like to do things in advance. what do you do when advance isn't working for you and things just seem to be conspiring against you. its just crazy man. at the moment, i'm praying, and taking deep breaths and doing what i can. what i can't do i leave to God. i just simply don't have enough time in my days to handle everything.....where is my to do list? can i cross anything off? aaarrrggghhh... no i can't! i need, this that and the other........*eyes bulge out of head*.....lol... i think you get the drift.

however the evening started to pick up when i got home and started chatting with people. found out a friend is here who i thought wasn't and made plans to see a few people. it was cool how one of my high school friends called me out of the blue, i haven't seen him in like forever. so that was great. made plans to see him too. so it was going well till now... the end of the day when i just found out that my aunt is very sick. i'll keep the details under wraps for now, till she says i can disclose, but it's hit my mom pretty hard so, we now have that to deal with. ...... so prayers people, lots of prayers.......we are ok though

so now i shall leave on a lighter note. yesterday i spent some time with a pharmacist. two funny things she said that she has heard people do, as we were discussing the types of crazy, foolish and typical questions she gets people asking her......the instructions of the medication say "FOR EXTERNAL USE ONLY" ... this one girl went OUTSIDE every time she has to apply the cream to her skin..........lol.....lmao.... and then when the instructions said "SHAKE WELL BEFORE USE" she has heard of people jumping up and down, doing the 'cool down, relax shake'... u know the one... before they take it......lol... now u know that if they had the medication in their hands while shaking, that could work.. to each his own, but if not......lol... lawd i was killin myself.

so laugh my friends, laughter is medicine and there is always someone worse than you ( though wouldn't it suck if you were the worst, worst, worst.. the last in line for worst and u looked around and there was no one behind u to be worst.....lol).... ahhh bway

God is Good.. later

Sunset today, in New Kingston Jamaica

hey, since i didn't have a pic of the sunset from the other day, here are a few that i caught this evening as i visited a friend at work. i still didn't have my camera, but luckily for me, she had hers. Man it was a beautiful sight, but you don't have to take it from me..... see for yourself....(its in sequential order)

The Fear

just a short one...... the fear has started to creep in. there is much i know and much i do not know. as of monday i will the the Doctor in this rural town, yes supervised, but i am expected to know. we had kind of a revision lecture on common conditions and prescribing the medications for them. if there is one downfall about my course is that we don't get enough practical knowledge on drugs and prescribing them. i know i know, something we learn on the job, being around it, but i could have used that knowledge. i guess its a good thing that i am doing this Rotation home, cause even simple, yet complex things like writing a prescription correctly, wasn't taught to us (the UWI students didn't know either). granted i never needed it before now, but still. the issue is that we in med school get so used to a hospital setting that these things don't even occur to us, till we have to do the community rotation. crazy i know.

so now i am here, creating for myself a nice folder for me to take of all the common diseases, their management and details of the drugs. this too is a bit difficult for me since some of the trade names of the drugs are different here. not to mention what is the cost for the drugs here. very important, due to the fact that it makes no sense prescribing something if your patient can't afford to buy it. all these little things are now bombarding my mind, i have so much to do.... and here i am posting this..... i'm gonna get out of here... time to prepare. i'll keep you posted....

A Jamaican bus ride

It always amazes me the contradictions of Jamaica. today on the way home i was in the packest ( yes its a Jamaican word) bus ever. i mean people hanging out the door. i wish i had a picture to show you, but it was ram, me hitch up between two people. i felt like my knees were gonna explode cause of the pain from being in one position too long. and then as we drive along the 'ducta (conductor for the English speakers) kept stopping the bus, trying to pick up more people. i was sayin in my mind, where the hell you gonna put them. yuh fret, dem find place fi put dem......

and yet today i saw the most beautiful sunset through the bus window, and i was just itching for my camera. (saw a great sunrise too this morning) but those things you don't carry around with you, much less to take it out and take a picture with it. that's just inviting theft. i even hide my cell phone in my bag cause there have been reports of not only people stealing the motorola's like mine, or similar to mine, but of people being killed for them. i mean, over a friggin phone!!!!!!! but neways, the sunset.... i thought this is amazing. and even in this packed bus, i was like Jamaica is soooooo beautiful.

then in the taxi on the way to my house... there are 4 of us in the car and the driver was trying to pick up another person. this lady beside me says to him, 'driva what yuh waitin on?' and den him and har in one quarrel, not too serious, bout him and people in the car, and whether shi can seh nothing to him, all kinda sinting...... so then Beyonce's song, irreplaceable comes on, and the woman started to sing to the man, pinched him on his cheek telling him that he's not irreplaceable.....lol.... the driva then turns to the woman beside him (i should say now that there are 4 females in the car) and asked her 'what that means?'....lol.... pertaining to what the other woman was trying to say to him... we all started to crack up at that point... it was crazy....and just what i needed... just to laugh

i finally got to my road, and would you know as soon as i got out of the car, some man try call to mi!!!!... in my frame of mind, mi just wave and seh in my mind, noh bodda, for i was seriously at a psychological disadvantage after leaving the lectures after 4:30 pm. the moment you leave that late, you're tired, mentally and physically. not to mention having to take the bus home. it saps the energy right out of you.... so that was my little trip home today. sorry no pics, for the reasons previously stated.....lol

New years

so this is gonna be a short one, i'm feeling sick today. new years was great, but busy. my dad awoke on new years eve and decided we were gonna clean before the big party on new years day. now when i say clean i mean, clean like in spring clean... polish the brass, brush down the fans, clean all the paintings, put up more paintings.... we dealt with the living room and my brother did outside. so by night fall i was buggared. dad went to work earlier in the day and so come night time i was like im not going to church. so my mom and sister went, the rest of us stayed home. i fell asleep, till 11:30, 11:45, 11:50, 11:55 and i woke for the countdown... by that time my dad had come home too, finally at around 11:30, can u believe it? he almost missed the countdown.....lol. after that i was up, wide awake. i called my hun in atlanta and then ended up watching stuff with mom and dad, till they were falling asleep. that's round 1:30/2 am. i was then left by myself to watch the Entourage marathon on HBO till 4/4:30 am.

we then had to wake up at 8 am to make preparations for the party, which was brilliant by the way. the best food, great friends and lots of laughter. that game of UNO was brilliant, not to mention the jokes. i know me and my friends were the loudest table, but oh well that's the sign of a good party. it was a late night cleaning up etc, but great....

then it was all spoiled by the fact that i had to go to work the next day....lol.. friends featured in these pics are: Dougie. Dayna, Kellie, Keva, Jason, Christine and of course Jhanae

Christmas

i know that this is late, behind the times i know, but i've been busy, so alas it will just have to be late. so this christmas was weird because my dad wasn't home, he was in Grenada, doing his construction. his company is building the new airport there. it was also like me and my brothers and sisters weren't feeling the christmas spirit. it was quite ordinary. so i said to my mom, are we getting a christmas tree? she was like it's up to us, and when i asked my siblings, everyone was like eeehh...*shrug shoulders*....lol... so i was like, ok...... then i told my mom and she said, in this little girl voice, but i want a christmas tree....lol. so on the 23rd she bought one and decorated it. i was too tired from the beach trip to help, but when i went to bed it was looking great and when i got up, it was looking amazing....... as u can see. so christmas eve, mom hadn't finished shopping i had but i was lazy and hadn't wrapped a thing. so at 6 am Christmas morning, i got up and wrapped presents. i know, i know, terrible right? i then went back to sleep and we all slept late.

now i must take the opportunity to digress here and give you our christmas routine usually. normally all the presents are wrapped by christmas eve night into christmas morning. we usually sleep till round 8 am, then we all gather around the tree, sing 2 carols, dad says something, and then if he is in the mood he plays santa (complete with elf hat) and passes out the presents one by one and we all watch everyone open their gifts. as u can imagine that takes a while with 7 people in the fam. so around 10/11am we clean up the paper, cook breakfast and eat together. then we start in on dinner, for the family and friend get together.

so back to this year........when i got up that first time, my mom was on her way out to go down to the fish farm to sell fish... i was like ooooook. when i woke up again, she wasn't home yet.....so i was like what is this? then we had issues getting my brother to come over from his house cause he felt bad about not getting anyone any gifts. we were like, WHATEVER... come over. so this year we did everything backwards, we ate first....lol.... then at around 11 we did the gather around the tree thing. though dad wasn't there, daniel played santa (cause mom couldn't find her glasses, so she couldn't read the names on the presents...lol) and it was great. dad's gift to us was really cool, he's given us each a trip to america to be taken at any point in the year as long as finances allows at the time we want to go... how cool is that.

neways christmas dinner was at my aunts house this year, so we prepared food, and went there. it was great, and the spread was toooooo much to tell. lets just say we had everything, chicken, sea food, beef, pork, rice, macaroni and cheese, salad, desert, etc. we were there till round 1 am. so that was our christmas...... it was great. the pics are that of my christmas tree, the view from my aunt's house in the day and night as well as a pic of me and my siblings and of my aunts(mom, Aunty Marsha and Auntie Christine)

Something medical

I guess i should write something about the reason i'm here....... Medicine.... well i got in on a Friday and started at the health clinic on the monday. i spent the first couple of days with the maternal and child health team, then with the GP and we have been switching back and forth between the two ever since. so far it has been very good. lots of varied experiences including having to inform someone that they were HIV positive and handling a case of PID, and that was my long case. i thought i was picking a routine hypertension case, Ha... not so. its amazing the list of problems that people come in with and the fact that they use the doctors to vent every problem. and then there are some that you have to pry every little detail out of, tedious work i tell you. but dealing with Jamaicans has been very interesting.... many of them heard that i was from Australia and expected some one white, then i stepped in the room and they were like, you are from Australia?.....lol.... it was so funny, cause then they found out that i was Jamaican but they thought that my parents were in Australia... it took a while to get the story straight......my accent gets stronger everyday, though the american, british and yes some Aussie still gets in there sometimes.

while dealing with the patients, its increasingly obvious that patois is a totally different language. though for me it was refreshing and funny to hear it so much again, i kept thinking, my Aussie friends would have such a difficult time. like when a patient says 'mi belly bottom hurtin mi' what does that mean? any guesses?.....lol...... it could mean that their stomach is hurting them, any part of their abdomen, or that their pelvis is hurting or that their chest is hurting......lol... here is another... when they say 'doc ah yuh a go jook mi?' what does that mean..... basically they are asking if they are gonna get an injection... i heard this one most when it was immunization time, like this little 3 yr old that said to me, 'mi noh like jook yuh nuh'... i tell u i felt like bursting out laughing. i was like, man the language. i really have to rephrase things when interviewing and have started to think of my questions in ways and forms that they would understand and be able to answer. its a totally different way of thinking and i'm trying not to make it permanent, cause that would be hard to get out of my system when i get back to Aussieland.

i have also come to really appreciate the Jamaican health system. i must say that everyone can get quality health care and highly subsidized as well. not as much as it is in Australia but definitely better than in America. no one is turned away from getting seen or medication, even if they have no money to pay for it. everyone that is HIV positive that need anti retrovirals have access to them, and if they can pay they do, but if not, they still get them. meds cheap, doc visits cheap, the only thing is the amount of time it takes to see someone in the health clinic. which is why alot of Jamaicans that can afford it go to private docs cause the wait is not long. its more expensive though but at a clinic is is cheaper, same quality, but u pay for it by spending most ur day there, so with ur time. but all in all it has opened my eyes to the good stuff of this country considered by many to be inferior because it is third world. compared to somethings i have seen in the states.... we going good.

neways enough of a rant.. i go rural in 2 weeks, now im sure THAT will afford me some interesting stories.

Wedding Crashees

so we rented out the beach Frenchman's cove. this beach is so cool, just a small cove with a river meeting the sea. it was a beautiful day, at least to start out. we were told that we would have the beach all to ourselves. Ha....... we go there only to find out that they double booked the beach with both us and a wedding....lol... so we became the first ever wedding crashees. it was the most ridiculous thing. they had on stiletto shoes on in the sand. of course they sank....lol...... not to mention the long dresses. quite impractical for a beach wedding. and then when the wedding started, it started to rain. the bride refused to move, so they put up an umbrella but all the bridesmaids were getting wet. all the guest had gotten up and moved to shelter.....lol... then it started to rain harder, and she finally moved. as soon as they relocated, the rain stopped. we just stood there watching this and thinking, man this is crazy. here is the video of the wedding made by my friend Dougie.... nothing special, just the folk that crashed our party.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5oEKfHtDG8.
so the pic of me and the hottie is my brother Daniel, and the other one with folk is me and my friend Jason and Keva. Despite the mix up, it was still an amazing time catching up with friends i hadn't seen in years, so all in all it was great...... I love home.

Meet my niece-Jhanae Veronica Sterling

so i came home to meet my beautiful niece, and she is beautiful. at the time she was 3 months and man was she doing stuff reserved for older kids. holding her head up, teething. she is a chatter box though, especially when she wants to sleep..... she can talk ur head off. she thinks every one is talking to her, and she smiles all the time. she is such a pleasure as u can tell im the doting aunt. and why not, i only have her for 2 months then i'm gone....*tear, tear,sniff* but neways i'll let the pics do the talking.......the girls with her are of course me, my sister's bestfriend, Kadi and my friend, Dayna.

I hate American Airlines

so I'm home, have been home for the past 3 weeks and it has been good. i came in on a Friday and was at work on the Monday. it was one of the longest flights home since i was at the airport at the allotted 3/2.5 hrs before hand. checking in was a breeze, however would u know that the flight was delayed for like 2 hours. so not only was i early but it seemed like i was there forever, before i even got on a plane. not to mention that AA doesn't serve food anymore on any one of their flights. I was like what the hell!!!!! where as before i could look forward to dinner or a snack or something, nnnnnoooooooooooooo, this time there was nothing. ok, ok, we did get a drink. literally if you wanted something to eat, you have to buy it. it was the same on the flight from San Fran to Miami, except that that flight was 5 hrs and this one was only 1 hr and 45 min. the San Fran flight was worse cause i had just gotten off a 14 hr flight. i think it is absolutely ridiculous but i'm stuck flying with them cause they are Qantas partners and my frequent flyer points depends on that. *deeeeeeep sigh*..... what can i do.... neways for a more pleasurable sight, here is a pic of the sunrise as we approached San Fran........