I've been in Malawi for over two months now. As I have previously mentioned, I've been settling right into the lazy way of life, and as a result, it's been hard to get things organised. Supervisors, case discussions, my planned two week mini-elective at the psychiatric hospital in Zomba, even holidays. Well last week, we finally got round to ( Read more... )

This is my fifth blog from Malawi. The first four, while I tried to spice them up with thoughtful reflections and first person present tense dramatic descriptions, have covered events no more exciting or interesting than work in the hospital, drunken conversations, an argument with a racist and falling off my shoddy bicycle. While I have enjoyed ( Read more... )

We've now been in Malawi for over five weeks. If I'm being honest, in those five weeks, outside of the hospital I really haven't done a whole lot of exploring. Or even socialising. Or anything! On Wednesdays I play volleyball with the ex-pat club, every other Friday I drag myself out to a nightclub, and one weekend we went to Blantyre. I've not ( Read more... )

Manic episodes are like parties. Some are great, but slowly quieten after midnight, until its just you and some strangers chatting in a room full of empty cans, delaying as long as possible tidying up a bland normality with a sore head. Some are just terrible, but you're powerless to stop them so you lock yourself in the bathroom with your hands ( Read more... )

I am sitting with Amy and Jennie at the bar of Doogle's Lodge in Blantyre. We're having a few drinks, and discussing random topics. Right now, it's the differences between football and rugby players - Amy thinks football players tend to be nicer and rugby players too arrogant, whereas Jennie prefers rugby players - when a thick necked broad ( Read more... )

On ward 2A, the female medical ward, of Kamuzu Central Hospital, there are very few doctors. Each morning, the bulk of the ward round is completed by Antje, a hyper efficient German infectious diseases trainee. Lunch break officially starts at 12, but even with Antje's overwhelmingly stereotypical traits (Rich asked her how far away she stays from ( Read more... )

Fourth year of medicine just wasn't fun. Between turning up for daily teaching and ward work, planning and completing a research project, trudging your way through a spirit crushing box ticking exercise that requires you to write about every patient and procedure you see as if they were steps in a spiritual journey, preparing numerous written and ( Read more... )

Does anyone else see how predictable this chain of events really is ( Read more... )

4 and a half years ago, my self divided. Since then, I’ve bounced in megabuses between my two beloved worlds of Bearsden and Dundee, and with every single bounce I’ve been amazed at how easily I fall/jump between my two beloved ways of life. Every time, I’m struck with the same sensation, that each city must have freeze framed on my departure, ( Read more... )

The office door slams shut with a quiet zoom and a silent boom, and my psychiatrist looks up at me from his iDesk. Apple's monopolisation of the dictionary was nearing extinction in my home universe, but since that fateful day I left it I've had to watch that most sickeningly simple of technological prefixes re-attach itself to what will ultimately ( Read more... )