Birthday Blog!

Ok, I'm keeping this one short and sweet because it's my birthday tomorrow and I'm not keen on spending today on computering!
Working in Cebu has been great. Janice, my contact here is an absolute dote as well as super organised and we've had a great week of visiting city based and district hospitals.
We visited Oslob District hospital on my first day with Janice. It's about a 4 hour bus journey away but the scenery was stunning and the bus had excellent air conditioning so who's complaining!? When we got off the bus we discovered that the hospital was still a fair bit away so we asked what the best way to get there was. Cue this guy offering to bring us - we assumed in one of the little trikes (like a tuk tuk or side car) but the first surprise of the day came when he arrived on a scooter. And nothing else. With no time for worrying about whether my insurance covered extremely irresponsible transport methods while working, up myself and Janice hopped and we were off. Considering I've not been a fan of bike riding since I knocked half my teeth out when I was 9 I was suitably petrified!🙈 There was also the worry about where the hell you hang on to a man you never met on the back of a bike weaving in and out between lorries and buses on a narrow road - I settled for shoulders, it seemed the least familiar.😓
Anyways, we survived! The hospital staff in Oslob were great, happy to show us around and let us observe what they were doing. I think my favourite thing was the specific clinic they have set up to deal with animal bites. There are a lot of stray animals, particularly dogs, in the Philippines and bites are a regular reason people attend the hospital. It was putting pressure on the small A&E in Oslob so they set up a dedicated clinic to deal with wounds, dressings and administering rabies shots. This leaves the emergency department free to deal with actual emergencies, such a great innovation by the staff to solve a problem which was clogging up their A&E with non urgent attenders.

After our visit we got a chance to take in the view and go for a walk along the water which was a nice change after being stuck in my hotel in Manila for days on end due to the bad weather!

The view on our walk in Oslob 

The next day we visited Primcare, a large clinic in the city centre. It was a lot like our general Outpatient centres in the UK and Ireland. Different sections for different specialities which have their own weekly schedule with nurses working between them all. The 2 things that surprised me were that there was a specific area for drug testing and that the most common minor op performed in OPD is circumcision on young boys. The former is standard procedure, drug tests are demanded by many employers before they will hire someone new. The latter is also normal practice. I guess maybe I should have realised but it's just so off my radar having grown up in Ireland and living in the UK where it isn't common practice but here most boys are circumcised before they reach 5 years of age according to the nurses I spoke to. Another of the cultural differences that I seem to be accidentally stumbling on wherever I go!

With the nurse in charge, marketing manager, building manager & Janice in Primcare 

We also visited Medisense Laboratory Centre this week which is a centre specifically for people who need to have tests done for employment. For example a medical, blood tests and xrays to be granted a Visa to work abroad. Or the standard drug test before getting employment at home. They also work directly with the agencies who are recruiting staff to send overseas.

The nurse in charge also insisted on feeding us before we left which didn't help when one of the other nurses showed me how to use their new fangled DIY obs machine by making me hop up and get my weight, height, blood pressure etc. checked. Just when you're trying to forget what it's telling you it prints out a nice copy of all your results and dietary and exercise suggestions based on crunching the numbers. Mine recommended I do at least 20 minutes of jogging a day😭 A wonderful souvenir when you've been eating your weight in delicious local food for the last 2 weeks.

Pork Sisig, the most delicious thing I've ever eaten in my life. Also the reason for my dietary recs from above mentioned fancy machine😒 Oh, they weren't both mine by the way. More's the pity!

Next plan is to visit the language centres down here over the coming week with a couple of well timed public holidays (my birthday is a bank holiday here, did I tell you I'm moving...?) to chill a bit and hang with Gareth who is currently bussing it to Heathrow with a bag full of Barry's teabags - don't tell me I don't know how to celebrate!

Hoping to have time to do a little bit of exploring over the weekend before G heads home and I head Stateside for the next phase of my journey. 

I left Nottingham 8 weeks ago today and am almost at the half way point of my journey. I'm keeping track with my methotrexate injections (taken weekly on a Wednesday), every time I do it I automatically think about how long I've been gone and count how many weeks I have left! Bit like my own DMARD version of an abacus😂 

Oh and I know you are all DYING to know how the Céilí Band did! Third place in the All Ireland Fleadh, not too shabby. Hup Cnoc!

So that's it from me and my twenties, 30's not looking too bad from this side of the world though😁

Slán fo foill

Kate 😊