Ruth Chen’s Blog

The rain came! (20/2/2009 1130 GMT +10)

I had a slow start to the week as I nursed my
problematic nose and sore throat. Thankfully, I
got better after some self medication and
intranasal steroid spray from Valerie. Hospital
wise, things have been going fine and I have
started seeing my own patients during the ward
rounds. Some interesting cases this week – a
woman with a 5 year history of growing mass in
her pelvic cavity spiking temperature, a GORD
patient with ?haemoptysis/epistaxis,
oligoarthritis in a 21 year-old female with no
genitourinary symptoms and an ulcerating
offensive smelling lesion in the vulva, spreading
inferiorly to her medial thigh. Many of these
patients presented quite late, which is very
unfortunate and saddening because more often than
not, nothing curative can be done at that stage.
If only they sought treatment earlier – and this
seems to be the main problem here. Villagers tend
to put things off, until it interferes with
activities of daily living when it is often too
late. Apart from ward rounds, we have been
attending the outpatient clinics, where we deal
with minor injuries, mostly cuts and wounds. I’ve
also got the chance once again to feel pregnant
tummies and go through the whole antenatal checks.

We started teaching the school kids intensive
keyboard lessons this week as well, everyday at
1pm. I think we’re overloading them with the
lessons, but because we’re only here for 2 more
weeks, we thought we would just make the most out
of it. Now, I think I might have been abit too
optimistic about the scope I had in mind to
cover. I actually had to go back to lesson 1 to
revise/teach again. Perhaps I’m talking too
quickly. Or maybe the kids do not understand me
very well. Hrms. It’s slightly discouraging, but we’ll see.

The graduation for the CHWs is this weekend, so
all around Kapuna, people are preparing for the
big event. Workers have been collecting tree
trunks and bamboo poles, and coconut leaves to
build shelter, and the first year students have
been putting Hillsongs ‘At The Cross’ on repeat
as they practise for their dance item. That kind
of got me started on listening to all my favourite Hillsongs songs on my iPod.

It was so good to hear Mummy’s voice when it was
by coincidence that I was sitting at the computer
sending out my emails when the phone rang. And to
all those who have been sending emails my way,
thank you so very much. It’s always comforting to
hear from you. I wonder how people did it in the
old days, without telephones and internet!
Imagine having to do snail mailing all over again!

It rained really heavily beginning of this week.
I think I would actually call it a rainstorm. The
whole house actually shook at one point, but it
was perfect weather to sleep in. Perhaps because
of so much rain, I’m noticing more insects and
flies around. Yesterday was probably my most
miserable day in PNG so far. I was victim to
mudflies/sandflies so they bit both my legs and
arms like there was no tomorrow. For those out
there who has ever been bitten before, I now
truly understand what it feels like. They’re
painfully itchy, and the itch lasts for at least
one whole day. They’re small bites, but way more
potent than mosquito bites. I probably have
gotten at least 10 bites in each limb. Pity I
don’t have any mopiko with me. Preventing bites
is one matter, relieving the bites is another
matter altogether.. My advice? Bring mopiko
(anti-itch cream) and chermos (?spelling) towel
(for afternoon wipedowns). We were told to try
aloe vera, so I picked some out of the bush, and
applied them on. So far, so good. It’s providing
some relief (colgate somehow didn’t work this
time), or maybe it’s the zyrtec that I took
that’s working. Either way, if anyone out there
has got any homemade remedy for mudfly/sandfly
bites, I would love to hear from you Email me
at <mailto:kapunarh@online.net.pg>kapunarh@online.net.pg Heh. Thanks.

The weekend is near once again, and its going to
be all joy and merry this weekend as the CHWs
graduate! We’re going to be teaching the first
year students some basic anatomy next week –
hopefully I won’t bore them with all the new
terms! I definitely know how it feels like to be
on the other end, having fallen asleep in most of
my anatomy classes anyway (oops)!

Not much fruit picking lately – probably cos
we’ve picked almost all that can be picked. We’ll
just have to wait. Not much fire starting as well
cos its takes up too much effort and time. We
just eat over at Valerie’s and bath with cold
water, which is fine for the hot days here.

Alrighty, that’s all for now. Till next time.